If you want your website to succeed, you need to think strategically about your customer and what action you want them to take. Most other companies don’t do this. This is what sets apart a great website from the rest of the pack.

1. Customer: Focus first on your customer. When a visitor arrives to your website, they are looking for something to help solve a need. This could be to buy or it could be to solve a particular problem. You need to understand what your best buyer is looking for and then make sure you address that clearly on the page they arrive on.
2. Image: Design your website around your customer. If you sell to Baby Boomers, design your website with a high contrast design with a larger font. If you are selling to Gen Y, then a trendier look is in order that integrates social media elements. Your design needs to be consistent with your branding and your industry. If you are selling to corporate customers, then you need a professional and polished look.
3. Action: What do you want your visitor to do? Buy? Sign-up? Call? If your page has no clear path to action or even worse, too many possible actions your visitor will leave. Make decisions easy. Make it clear and easily visible for the arriving visitor. Design a single primary action into your web page.
4. Trust: People are cautious buying online with good reason. Write your website text to address the needs of your visitor in their language (not industry jargon). Make it easy to contact you with a phone number and an actual street address (not a PO Box). Post your privacy policy, shipping procedure and your refund policy. Include a trust building About Us page.

A website that gets results focuses on the needs of your visitor. Remember, it is not about “you”… it is about “them”.

Your home page is the single most important landing page on your site. If it has a weak message, loads too slowly or is poorly organized, your visitors will just leave. You have less than 3 seconds to engage a prospect. Your home page is where you convince arriving visitors that you have what they are seeking.

Broadband connections may be getting faster but visitor attention spans are getting shorter.

1. Load time: A 2009 study by Forrester shows 47% of consumers expect a Web page to load in 2 seconds or less. 40% of consumers would leave if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Slow load times can be caused by invalid code, media heavy pages, improper use of widgets/scripts or slow hosting.
2. Simplicity: An ornate design will hide your message and it slows your web page load time. A talented designer may want to show off their skill, but message clarity is more important in making the sale. You do need a professional look and feel with clear navigation.
3. First Impression: Place your important information and your call to action clearly “above the fold.” This is what your visitors see without scrolling. Start with a clear page headline because everyone reads them. Entice the visitor to read further into the body text. Your layout should take advantage of eye scanning patterns.
4. Message: Your headline should grab your reader’s attention and the body text should stimulate interest and assure your reader they are in the right place. Are you clearly addressing the “burning question” that your ideal buyer will have? Write in a customer focused style.
5. Navigation: Is your navigation clear and easy to understand? This is not a place to use creative wording. You want instant understanding to encourage visitors to move around your site. Arrange your navigation to form your ideal selling sequence.

Your home page is by far the most important page on your entire website. Plan your message and test to make sure it gets arriving visitors to take action and that it is interesting enough to draw people deeper into your website.

Successful websites do two things. First, they attract a regular flow of visitors who are interested in what you offer. Second they are designed to get these visitors to take action. To convert your flow of traffic from interested lookers to buyers or at least get them started into your conversion process. This could be building your email list, quote requests or signing up for a webinar.

There is a science to building a website that gets your visitors to take action. These are some of the smart design techniques that convert visitors into customers.

1. Memorable: Create a design that is memorable and that will stand out from your competition. This does not mean highly graphical or artsy. It means having a style or attitude that people will like and remember. It is a design appropriate for your industry.
2. Information: Internet buyers and searchers are in a hurry. They are looking for companies that can quickly deliver what they are after. Make it quick and easy for them to find the information they are seeking. This is done on your website through formatting, clear navigation, and a clear writing style.
3. Sales funnel: Guide your prospects through a well thought out selling sequence. Grab their attention, build their interest and then get them to take action. Your best selling sequence should be built into your website. More on sales funnels.
4. Prevent surprises: Give your customer all the information they need to make their buying decision before they start to pay. A common mistake in ecommerce is not revealing shipping costs until the payment step.
5. Communicate progress: If you anything in your site that can some time to complete, let your visitor know how far they have gone with a progress bar. This includes ecommerce checkout, a survey they are completing or even downloading a file.
6. Build trust: People are cautious buying online with good reason. Make it easy to contact you with a phone number and an actual street address (not a PO Box). Post your privacy policy, shipping procedure and your refund policy.
7. Keep improving: Be prepared to make changes to your site based on actual experience. Measure your website’s bounce rate. Bounce rate is the number of visitors who visit a particular page and then leave your site, without going on to other pages, divided by the total number of visitors to the page. Other key measurements include visitor counts, traffic sources and conversion rates.

What is the first thing a someone looks for when they first arrive to your website? Is it the graphics? Photos? Call to action buttons? No… headlines are the first thing a visitor sees when they arrive.

Eye tracking studies done in 2004 (Eyetrack III) show that a visitor will first look at dominant headlines before they begin viewing pictures. This is especially true when the headlines are in the upper left or upper right quadrant of the web page. People first look for headline text and then will move to photos.

A 2009 eye tracking study done by James Breeze showed eyes first went to text and then quickly went images of people’s faces. Faces are a powerful draw for the eyes. People seem to instinctively focus on people’s faces after briefly scanning dominant text. People will spend a greater amount of time looking at the eyes of the person in the photo.

Photos emphasize: Another result of 2009 study was that people tend to follow the gaze of the photo. Increase the visibility of a call to action or key text by having a photo of a person looking toward it. This will cause visitors to take notice of something their eyes may normally gloss over.

Short Headlines: When ready headlines, people tend to read only the first few words. It is better to use short headlines or make the first few words carry the general meaning of the headline. Try to make your headline grab attention in one second or less.

Short paragraphs: Short paragraphs encourage reading while long paragraphs tend to be skipped or just the first few words are read.

Great website design is not only pleasing to the eye; it communicates your message and guides the visitor toward action. I came across a really good article on “Call to Action Buttons” By Jacob Gube and I wanted to share a summary of his key points. Please go to his article to see many great visual examples.

1. Size: Grab your visitor’s attention with a button larger than the surrounding elements. The larger it is, the more visually important it is. If your page has multiple calls to action, then vary the sizes according to their importance.
2. Position: Place the button where it can be seen when a visitor first arrives. Give your button a prominent position such as the top right corner of the page where it will be quickly noticed.
3. Whitespace: Use whitespace or a lack of other graphics (dead space) around a call to action button to make it stand out. If you vary your amount of whitespace, you can make it appear connected to your text. Increase the whitespace to visually separate a button from a block of text.
4. Color: Use highly contrasting colors from your background to make a button stand out and get noticed.
5. Secondary: Add a secondary call to action next to your main action to increase conversion. As an example you may place a “learn more” next to a “buy now” so you better convert someone who is still unsure.
6. Urgency: Add urgency by using bold, confident and commanding words. Create the perception that waiting could create a penalty or missed opportunity. Using “introductory pricing” subtly suggests that waiting may result in a higher price.
7. What to expect: Tell visitors what they should expect. If they sign up for your newsletter, will they receive it weekly or monthly? How many megabytes is your download?

Getting website visitors to want to buy when they arrive does not take knowledge of the ways of the Force. You do not need to be a Jedi master to get people to click further into your website. In “Star Wars,” Jedi Mind tricks use the power of the “Force” powers to influence the thoughts of sentient creatures. In building websites we use website design psychology in much the same way.

1. “Stretch out with your feelings”: The best websites tap into human emotion. Most people shop logically, but they buy emotionally. Websites that create surprise, passion, and excitement create emotions that cause people to throw caution to the wind and make a purchase.
2. Color psychology: There is a powerful emotional effect caused by color. Web Design studies show that over 60% of the initial impression is based on color alone. In general, red, orange, and yellow are exciting colors while purple, blue and green are calming ones.
3. Visual layout: Cluttered and disorganized pages drive visitors away. A simple, clean website layout with easy navigation and attractive relevant images encourage people to stay and look around.
4. Customer focused: People come to your site to solve a problem or answer a need. Does your website answer what people are searching for? The best sales people adapt themselves in real time to the personality and needs of a prospect. Do this in your website by creating multiple navigation paths, each based on a specific visitor’s needs.
5. Psychological triggers: People react to questions, phrases and images at an emotional and sub-conscious level. Use questions to engage your visitor. Certain trigger phrases create emotions. If you truly understand your buyer, you can use these to your advantage to grab their attention and create a bias for action.

If you truly understand your best buyers, their motivations, their hot buttons and their core needs, you can use these to attract them and get them to take action. These are not Jedi Mind Tricks but instead use proven website psychology strategies that create business websites that sell.

The key to improving your website conversion rate is to look at your website thru the eyes of your visitor. Page layout and site structure greatly affects conversion rates. Make it easy for first time visitors to instantly understand what it is that you offer and how they can take advantage of your offer.

Home Page Layout: Remove the clutter and organize your home page. Eyes are most often first fixated in the upper left of the page and then they scan to the right. Locate your logo and company name in the upper left.

A prominent benefit laden headline that explains what you offer should draw their eye next. Then you want your call to action to be clearly prominent and above the fold. We like to place this in the upper right quadrant of the page.

Path Analysis: Create an optimal selling sequence that attracts attention and interest and then builds desire in your visitor. If you have several different types of customers with different needs, then design multiple focused navigation paths to address these needs separately. Identify the entry into these navigation paths clearly and visibly on your home page.

Visible Call to Action: Make the call to action button or form clearly visible without the need to scroll. Don’t bury it at the bottom of the page. Don’t be afraid to add your call to action into multiple places. Don’t discourage visitors by requiring registration to your site.

Back up what you say: On line shoppers today are skeptical. Supply proof for anything you say. Give them facts, videos, technical specs, product reviews, endorsements, etc. These can be provided as links that allow visitors to research if they want.

Guarantees: These are designed to reassure shoppers. Restate your offer and your guarantee on the order form. This can reduce shopping cart abandonment.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a Federal law that is meant to eliminate discrimination against individuals with disabilities. It is usually applied to physical facilities. But does it apply to websites? This question is expected to be played out and defined in the courts over the next few years.

There have been a number of lawsuits about website accessibility for the blind and visually impaired.

Target.com: In 2006, the National Federation of the Blind, brought suit against Target. The suit charges that Target failed to make their ecommerce website accessible to the blind. The case focuses on the alleged lack of descriptive “alt” tags in Target’s HTML, making the site difficult to navigate with screen reading software. The use of image maps is also claimed to make the website inaccessible. In August 2008, Target agreed to pay damages of up to $6 million to the NFB as part of a settlement.

A key court decision that came out of the early motions for this case was that the court held that websites such as Target.com are required by California law to be accessible to the handicapped. They therefore allowed the lawsuit to proceed.

AOL.com: Previously, in 1999, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) filed a complaint against America Online (AOL) in federal district court alleging that AOL violated Title III of the ADA. AOL elected to make changes to their website rather than fight a court battle.

Online Tax Filing: In April 2000, the National Federation for the Blind (NFB) filed an ADA lawsuit against the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office, which provided links to four inaccessible online tax filing services on its Internal Revenue Service’s official Web site. They were accused of discrimination because of its use of anti-spammer CAPTCHAs (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart). The four tax filing services (Intuit, HDVest, H&R Block, and CioCia) voluntarily agreed to begin making their Web sites accessible to the sight-impaired in time for the next tax season.

Southwest Airlines: in 2002, a federal court ruled that a website was not a place of “public accommodation” and dismissed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines. The judge’s conclusion was that the Americans for Disabilities Act applied to “physical spaces, such as restaurants and cinemas”.

An accessible website has another major benefit. Search engines “read” your site like the blind and visually impaired, looking for text in links, images, and content. Well-designed accessible sites help search engines visit your site and gather the information they need to rank the page in search results.

The question of ADA coverage of Internet sites will undoubtedly continue to be a closely watched issue. Expect more lawsuits, especially for larger, more prominent corporations.

1. 80/20 Rule: (Also known as the Pareto principle). This is the important rule in business where 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. For websites, 80% of your sales dollars will come from 20% of your customers. Make sure your website maximizes conversion on your ideal targeted customer.
2. Baby Duck Syndrome: Much the way baby ducks imprint on the first thing they see, website visitors prefer the first website design they became use to. Website visitors become uncomfortable with unusual website designs or different hierarchies. Baby Duck Syndrome is a basic principle in usability where simplicity, clarity and uniformity work better to get conversions. Web visitors like predictability.
3. Inverted Pyramid Writing: This is a writing style where the summary is presented at the beginning of the article. The conclusion is followed by the supporting key points. Inverted Pyramid style gives the reader an instant idea about what they will be reading. In websites. You only have approximately 3 seconds to connect with your visitor.
4. Engage Reader Emotions: “People shop logically but buy emotionally.” In website content you will want to harness the power of emotional selling. Use emotionally charged headlines; focus on solutions to your visitor’s problems that they need. Push their hot buttons and the sale is yours. People will buy when they are emotionally invested.
5. The Web is not on Paper: Design for the web is very different than design for print. Reading is slower, eye movements are different, writing styles must be done with shorter sentences and bulleted formatting. Print designs can be intricate and complex, web designs focus on simplicity. People good at design for paper documents frequently have difficulty designing for the web.
6. Ninety-Ninety Law: On large website projects, the first 90% of the project accounts for 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% accounts for the other 90% of the development time. The Ninety-ninety rule is paradox is a very true statement. Clear and complete development specs help prevent scope creep that is inevitable on projects that are in development over a long period of time.
7. Brooks’s Law: Brooks Law states adding manpower to a late project makes it go even later. It takes time for new people that are added to a project to become productive. Brooks calls this the “ramp up” time. Large website projects are complex and new people must become oriented and educated before they can start contributing.
8. Your Website Will Never be Done: There will be constant changes and adjustments to your website. Unlike a printed catalog or brochure, website results can be easily measured and changes made on a regular basis to improve conversions. You can adapt to market changes quickly and enter new ones with a minimal expense. Web marketing is a continuous process.

Keeping it simple is the most important rule for usability. Make everything about your website clear and understandable. Allow your visitor to easily access the information that is important to them.

Navigation links need to be easily understood. Page layouts should be simple and able formatted for scanning. The website should be organized in a logical flow. A visitor should be able to quickly find the answers they are seeking.

By following accepted website standards a visitor can immediately find their way. Web users have learned to mistrust online businesses. By following standard conventions in your website, you build trust by appearing serious and credible.

Usability to improve conversion means delivering the right information at the right time. In ecommerce design, give your visitor access to all the elements they need to make a decision to buy. Give your visitor the tools they need to research your product without ever having to leave the product page. Allow your visitor to be in control and access answers to questions they may have.

What you include will vary according to what you are selling and who your customer is. These are typical things your visitor may want to see while on the product page. You need to this information by priority.

1. Details and technical data.
2. Shipping options and charges based on their zip code.
3. Refund, privacy and security policies.
4. Video clip of the product in action.
5. User product reviews and ratings.

Usability goes well beyond the visual elements or site hierarchy. It is about delivering the right information at the right time. Don’t be afraid to tell people what they should do next. You will still need to allow the visitor to be in control. Give them access to the information they are most interested in.

This will go a long way toward reassurance and building trust. The result will be a higher conversion rate.