15 Tweaks to Make Your Website More Appealing to Your Visitors

 

Wouldn’t it be awesome if a simple tweak on your website could gain you thousand more fans? Now imagine a few more tweaks and getting a hundred thousand fans! The good thing is, this happens for real and it can be done in a day.

Today, we will be learning some of these tricks to help you draw more traffic to your website.

 

Why Promotion and Visuals Matter

You can create great content, but if your website layout and visuals are not arranged well, you won’t see a large amount of traffic. However, by tweaking the design of your site, you have now started down a strategic path in your content marketing.

Tuning the site, optimizing the content and sharing strategically can do a lot for your conversions. Start with a simple plan and an achievable goal in mind. Once you start creating purposeful content that is featured on a well-thought out site, you will see everything improving.

 

15 Simple Tweaks

#1 Use a Relevant and Clean Header

A relevant and clean header implies professionalism. So skip the cheap freelancers and instead hire professional agencies to design your header and logos. Get rid of any unnecessary lines or visuals in your header. Make sure the font is readable as well.

Remember, the header is the aspect of your site that will establish a first impression. Here’s a simple and decluttered header and logo from laissez-faire. The header is clean and easy to look at and the logo tell the audience what they need to know about the company; you’re dealing with a website wherein food is its business.

Here’s an example from getorganizedwizard. The header itself contains everything one needs to know about the site. It’s clean with some varying styles used for the font. The use of a digitally drawn image of the website’s author also adds a bit of fun and character to the header.

#2 Offer a Live Chat or 24/7 Call Line

Live chat and 24/7 services can be tedious but it’s one way to draw in traffic. (Note: you don’t have to impliment every tweak we mention, just try the ones that are feasible for you).

Here’s an example from WardyIt , who offers a 24/7 global consulting service for immediate needs.

#3 Keep Navigation (Menus) Simple and Clear

Some navigation menus may try to be as creative and unique as possible by changing the usual format into new and different options. However, visitors are more likely to look for something familiar that they always encounter. For example, you may say “Hit Me Up” just to be a little different, but the simple and clear line “Contact Me” will still get the better convert. These are the specific words viewers will actively search for if trying to contact the site.

Also make sure that the menus at the top of your page are minimal and decluttered. Stick with 6-7 navigational pages so as to not to overwhelm visitors.

Our Xen main site has only 5 menus at the top. The text is readable and easy on the eyes. It only includes the essentials which are the Home, Services, Blog, About and Contact pages.

#4 Optimize your Home Page

Your homepage is your battle front. There are many things you can do to optimize it for better converts. Use the right font, and no more than 2 or 3 different types. Use readable text. The homg page should tell your visitors right away what’s in store for them.

#5 Use your Sidebar

Although sidebars aren’t a must for every website, they can be a lot of help in many situations. Sidebars can support your goal and get you a bit more traffic than usual. Include in your sidebar some lead generation tools and your most popular posts or services.

Here’s an ingenious way to use a sidebar from Health365. Here, it is utilized as an interactive chart. The visitors may choose the body part they are having problems with, then the list of conditions will appear. The conditions are linked to further detailed discussion. Under the interactive chart is the Newsletter Subscription call.

#6 Enhance your Other Pages

You can’t just focus on your homepage and expect it to do all of the work. Your succeeding pages should grab attention too. For each page, use headlines that will compel readers. Simple and clear is always the best for this. For your “About” page, add photos if appropriate to your company but make sure they’re professional ones. In the “Contact” page, make sure you exhaust all the possibilities and ways that they can contact you (email, phone, social media).

Laissezfaire has a good way of presenting their “About Us” page with fun yet professional photos, see it here.

#7 Add Video Content

Most audiences are looking for visual content. Encorporating videos on your site is a good way to get out of having too much text. Watch a video and you’ll get the whole point. Whether the videos are promotional or testimonial, it can draw in more traffic.

#8 Go Global

This tweak can get expensive, but what’s a couple of dollars for worldwide audience traffic? The usual websites we access are all in English. However, there’s a bigger potential among non-English speaking countries if you are able to venture into that. There are available translation management system on the web to get multilingual options. You can potentially increase your market by 200% once you cater translation needs.

Here is a sample of a multilingual site offering three languages.

#9 Make Load Time Faster

Load time can make or break your site. Websites that takes more seconds than necessary are often abandoned by visitors. You may test your speed with Google speed insight. It can also offer you ways to make your website “lose some weight” in order to run faster.

#10 Choose a Responsive Design

Responsive design means your viewers can view your website on any device but will still get the same quality. The responsiveness is available in your CMS features. However, some other themes can offer more. But of course you can choose yours to be coded directly.

#11 Post Consumer Reviews

Consumer reviews are a big factor in drawing traffic to your site. In the past, word of mouth was the best advertisement. Now, the word of an influencer and a big client can give your business the boost it needs.

Take a look at these testimonials on the Bulletproof site. The testimonials were from reputable people and organization and even a government department.

#12 Design Everything for Humans

This seems pretty straight-forward, right? Well, a lot of web sites are designed with search engine optimization in mind, rather than a human audience. Remember that your audience is still human. Use color and highlight clickable links. It should be easily navigatable and screen friendly.

#13 Use White Space

Taking up every space on your homepage or any page isn’t advisable. Giving your readers space to rest their eyes should be considered.  Minimize clutter and don’t cram everything into your sidebar. Opt out of tag cloud, other blogs you follow and insignificant ads.

See how Elcom has used white space.

#14 Place Opt-in Forms in the Right Places

Your opt-in forms should be placed at the top part of the site, under the each blog post, in the sidebar. Another options is a pop-up.

#15 Use the Right Colors

Website colors have a psychological effect on your visitors. You can’t just use any color and get away with it. Have you ever wondered why Facebook, PayPal and Twitter (not to mention countless other popular websites) all use blue? It’s because it cultivates trust. Here’s a few other examples of color meanings:

Green- call to action.

Orange- impulse.

Yellow- fun, friendly, playful.

black – luxury, value, power.

Indigo- sincerity, integrity.

So you see, most of these tricks are fairly reasonable and easy to do. Who’d have thought that simple colors can draw in more traffic? Or that simplifying everything can help in your conversion rates?

Human psychology works in complicated ways, and this is especially true on the Internet. Marketing and advertising fully rely on this to draw in consumers. In today’s digital world, human psychology has taken some complicated turns. As a marketer, however, there’s no need to worry if you have all the answers to successful website design at the tips of your fingers, or at the click of your mouse.