three_design_tips.htm

A great-looking small-business web site isn't necessarily an effective small business web site. That difference is usually conversion rates. How many of your visitors click through to make a purchase or request service information?

If you're not getting the conversion rates you want, a few design tweaks may help. Greg Paone of Solid Cactus, a full-service web design firm that specializes in building Yahoo! merchant sites, offers the following advice to help you increase those numbers:

Keep your site's structure simple. "Too many subsections on your pages could equal too many clicks (which they may not be willing to make) for customers to get to what they want," Paone says. "You have a limited amount of time to hold the customer's interest. Keeping your site's structure simple will get your customers to the checkout page faster, and make it more likely for them to make a purchase.

Also, make sure your navigation is easy to follow. Use consistent naming conventions for each section, avoid complicated menus, and make sure the text is readable.

Specials are important. "Offer specials on the home page and update them daily," he says. "People are always browsing the Web looking for deals. Rotating specials will give these visitors reason to come back."

Be succinct with your product information. "Pick out the important (selling) points of the product or service and put them in a bulleted list," Paone says. "Customers generally don't want to read paragraph after paragraph of information. They want to know how this product can help them and the important specs. The simpler you keep it, the better off you'll be."

If you try these tips and don't see an increase in conversion rates, you may want to consider redesigning your site completely. For more information, check out the article "Is It Time for a Redesign?" from the July issue of Insights.