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Optimize the Effectiveness Of Your Website With Graphic Design

STRATEGY #7 : Design Stuff to Consider

Generally speaking, when it comes to design, the simpler the better. We want our visitors to follow our calls-to-action and when we add a bunch of bells and whistles, options, etc. – we make it harder for our visitors to do what we want.

Limit The Distractions on Your Page. If your site is full of links, banners and flashy things, you can bet it’s less likely that visitors will respond to your call-to-action. Limit distractions by:

• Limiting advertising banners on the page. If you sell advertising, offer fewer spaces at a more premium price. That way, your advertisers are more likely to get good results and your visitors are more likely to respond to your personal call-to-action themselves. If you don’t sell advertising, but post affiliate and other banners – test their effectiveness. In many cases, graphical advertisements cause more distraction than they’re worth.

• Limit navigation. Keep your navigation as simple as possible. You don’t need to link to every product in your main navigation if you have 50 products. Make use of categories and sub-categories and guide your visitors through your website so they can find what they want. If you are using navigation for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes, put some of the links at the bottom of the page to keep the top and sides of your pages uncluttered.

• Keep your main navigation in one place. Generally speaking, keep your main navigation in one place. Either put it on top (which is my least recommended positioning, unless you only have a very, very small handful of links) or on either side – the left hand side is where people generally look first. Avoid three column websites that have navigation on both side columns. If you have a third column, place your sign up box there or even a simple graphical advertisement, but avoid making your visitor look all over your page to try to find what she wants.

The only exception is the bottom of your page. It’s okay to put additional links or repeat your navigation at the bottom. Because the bottom of the page is where someone look last, they aren’t as likely to become distracted as when they see a bunch of links at the top and both sides of your page.

• Specify the width of your page Avoid a website that is set to 100% width of the screen. It might look okay on smaller resolutions, but makes your site virtually unreadable on a wider screen as your reader has to move to far left and right to read each line.

Not only that, when you allow your site to be resized in different resolutions, you lose control over the way your site appears and how the elements are laid out on the page. You always want complete control of your marketing messages.

How wide your page is, depends on your site design and any columns you may have for navigation or newsletter sign ups. As a guideline, I’d recommend the actual main body text area of your site to be no wider than 650 pixels.

• Avoid making them click for additional product info. If you’re selling a product on a particular page, try to have all the information they need to make an informed decision on that single page. You may have little windows that pop-up when they click for more info, but you don’t want to have visitors clicking around trying to find what they want. They’re more likely to get lost and give up their quest if they can’t readily find the information they want.

• Fix Hyperlinks That Don’t Look Like Hyperlinks: Don’t get cute with links. People are accustomed to blue underlined links, use them. If you insist on using a different color, at the very least, make sure they are underlined all the time (and not just on a mouseover). If your links don’t look like links, people just aren’t going to click them as readily.

Of course, how simple you make your page will depend on the page’s purpose. If you are trying to sell a product, the simpler your design, the better. If it’s a content site, you’re more likely to have more distractions like your navigation and advertisements. Blogs, by their nature, also have more links and a few more distractions. That’s okay, but make sure the links are purposeful.

STRATEGY #6 : Use Split-Testing: Introducing A/B Split Testing

The basics of A/B Split Testing

Simply put, A/B Split Testing helps business owners determine which website element is more likely to produce a desired response from your prospects.

For example, you can test two headlines to see which performs better. You simply make two versions of the same page, with the only difference being the headline, so you are more likely to pinpoint EXACTLY what is causing the change in response. The key is to only change one thing at a time.

You can conduct split-testing through a wide variety of software programs and you may already have some available to you through your shopping cart and other services. If not, you can look at a script like DynaTracker to help you split test.

Some of The Items You Can Test on Your Website:

• Headlines: Try different versions of your headline, but usually only with small changes each time.

• Subheadlines: Do the same with your subheadlines as you do with your headline.

• Product Offer: Try different ways to present your product for ordering.

• Colors: Test background colors, headline colors, etc. but test one color element at a time.

• Fonts: Test different fonts in headlines and in sales copy text, but again, test them one at a time.

• Graphics: Test different product images, guarantee graphics, website images, etc.

• Price: Test different price points for your product.

Of course, what you test will depend on your unique website, but the point is you can discover a great many things by performing simple split test.

Get Inside Your Customer’s Head

STRATEGY #5 : Be Objective

Viewing your business with a fresh mindset is often one of the hardest things for a business owner to do. As mentioned at the beginning of this guide, your perception of every element may be biased. Assessing your business with a neutral eye is necessary when trying to improve its efficiency. Ask yourself how you would respond to every element of your online business if you were part of your target audience.

Discriminating business owners who want to stay on top of their business as much as possible should instead take the stance of a fence-sitting customer, as fence-sitters already have cases for and against a potential buy. Such customers may be difficult to win over at first, but once you determine what their concerns are and address them in a satisfactory manner, you can begin implementing copy that converts potential fence-sitters into automatic customers.

We’ll talk about specifics in testing different elements of your design and copy, but the following will help you view your site with a more critical eye.

Reviewing Your Layout / Design:

Imagine yourself visiting your website for the very first time (you can get others to do this for you as well)

o   What is the first thing you notice?

o   Are there any obvious distractions?

o   Is it easy to find the information and navigate through the website?

o   Is it clear what you should do on each page of the website (ex. what links to follow, which call-to-action to consider)?

Reviewing Your Sales Copy:

If you’ve just finished writing the copy for your website, take a break and review it when you feel refreshed. When you’re refreshed, review it in a few different ways:

o   Review and edit on your computer.

o   Print it out and edit it on paper.

o   Print out again and read it out loud. It’s amazing what things stand out when you hear what you’ve written aloud.

Hire someone else to thoroughly read your copy and ask if they find the offer credible and if they have any unanswered questions. Ask them:

o   Did the offer seem credible to you? (Ex. If you’re teaching something, do they feel you are qualified to teach it? Are the claims made believable?)

o   Were there any unanswered questions about the product or the offer? If so, what were they?

Analyze, Analyze, Analyze

STRATEGY #4 : Analyze What’s Really Going On

Analyze what happens when visitors come to your website. Find out how they get to your website, which pages they are most frequently viewing, which pages they visit, how often they buy and more.

You can do this with a variety of tools including:

• The website statistics provided by your web host.

• Services like Google Analytics that give you detailed data about your visitors behavior.

• Services like Crazy Egg that create a heat map that shows where your visitor are spending more time and clicking.

• Try click tracking services like Your Ad Tracker or your own shopping cart may include some click tracking.

Statistics like this help you understand a whole lot about how your website is performing for example:

• How many visitors you have in a given month, particular day, etc.

• Which days and times are most popular.

• Where your visitors are coming from.

• How long they are staying on your site.

• How many pages they view before leaving.

• Whether or not they’re coming back.

• How many new and repeat visitors you’re receiving.

• Which keyphrases they are entering into search engines to find your site.

• Which pages are most popular.

• Which products they spend the most time on.

• Which pages they enter from most frequently.

• Which pages they exit from your site most frequently.

• Geographic location of your visitors.

• Which operating systems and web browsers they are using to access your website.

• Which links they are clicking.

This information allows you to make many adjustments including:

• Knowing which pages are most popular allows you to maximize your selling opportunities on these pages.

• Knowing where your visitors are leaving your website allows you to plug any possible links (of course, if they’re leaving to click and Adsense ad or visit an affiliate site, that’s a good thing).

• Knowing where on a page the majority of your visitors are drawn to, you can readjust and maximize your results.

• Knowing how long visitors view a page can help you analyze the effectiveness of the page itself.

• Knowing which links are being clicked on can tell you what offers your visitors are interested in and gives you a chance to test different approaches to making offers.

…and the opportunities are endless from what you discover.

Know What Makes You Unique And Take Advantage Of That

STRATEGY #3 : Know What Makes You Unique: Unique Selling Position (USP)

Once you streamline your website, identify your target market and find prices that appeal to them, your next duty is to develop a unique selling position (USP).

A USP sets your product apart from others on the market. It’s what increases conversion rates and turns a potential customer into an actual one.

What Makes Your Product Different & More Desirable Than Others?: Compare yourself to the competition. Why would your customer buy your product instead of your competitors?

Examples (your USP may be completely different):

• Fast, no-hassle service

• Step-by-step help

• “XX” in a box (i.e. all the work is done for you)

• Fresh, not frozen, processed, etc.

• Pay for results only.

• Eco-friendly

• Money-back guarantee

Incorporate Your USP into Your Website Message: Ensure your USP is clear when you put together your website and sales pages. If this is what truly draws your target market to your product, making it known can produce big results.