If you’ve read Part I of our web design principles for better conversion, you already know how important proper navigation, placement and use of colour is. Before we get to some common mistakes there are a few more principles we need to talk about.

Consistency: Stay consistent – colours, fonts, style – it should all come together in one cohesive image that perfectly represents your brand. Two different styles on two pages may confuse your visitors and make them leave the page.

Call to action (CTA): Every page on a website should have a clear goal, whether it’s to fill out a form, call a number or buy a product, make sure your CTAs are not only clear, but also properly positioned. “Call Now for a Free Quote” is pretty simple, yet it gets the message across. Focus on the wording: use trigger words that get people clicking, but keep them simple (read more, find out more, next, etc.). Again be clear about the CTA. Don’t just say “submit” – submit what exactly? Or continue – continue where, I’ve just got here. The words you use can grab attention, but they can also be a huge put-off.

Don’t rush the commitment with CTA: Especially if you can delay it. Most people will resist when they have the feeling you are trying to force a service or an action upon them. The bigger the commitment that is asked, the less likely they are to go for it. One of the best examples is the BUY NOW call to action. It is sounds final, whereas ADD TO CART is better – it gives a feeling of freedom, allowing the visitor to change their mind.

Social media = +1: That’s right – today social media is a signal to search engines that your website is important and well managed. Social media links are essential, as well as giving visitors the opportunity to follow, share or +1 content on your page.

Directional cues: Be careful not to allow your directional cues to exclude the rest of the page as the focus is on the CTA – try to be subtle. Thinking to use a great big arrow on your page? It’s not very subtle, is it? A huge arrow says one thing: “ignore the rest and go here”. An unusual (and perhaps better) tip for your landing page is using oddly-angled arrows here and there, thus calling attention to the most important elements of the page.

Blank space: Often referred to as whitespace (although it could be any colour), a blank space has an important role – it’s more or less an area on the page with nothing in it that surrounds the important elements. This way you can draw attention to your CTA – just give it space to breathe, especially on the landing page.

After mentioning some of the best tips for using web design to generate leads, it’s only fair to shed some light on the most common mistakes that businesses make, especially when it comes to landing pages. Say “goodbye” to the guesswork and correct these mistakes now.

Where’s your headline?

No, really. Where is it? Because everything begins with the right headline. It’s what your visitors are looking for, it’s one of the most important copies on your website, it’s the text to lure customers with. If the headline is not there or it takes a while to find it, you are doing it wrong. When you are creating your headline, imagine if that was the only text on your website along with the CTA. Would it be enough for people to take action?

What’s your website about?

As we’ve already mentioned, visitors will spend between 8 – 20 seconds on your homepage. So make sure your homepage says enough about what you do. If you can’t explain what your business is about in 7 – 10 words or less, you have some serious thinking to do. Remember that people want plain communication and simple descriptions. Before you create a website, work out the sitemap on a piece of paper and think about how you want it to look like and which content will be dynamic and static. It’ll help you with the navigation.

What are you offering?

True, not everyone is good with words. However you can’t expect miracles if the only copy on the landing page is a 5-word sentence that is jargon and impersonal. Determine who is it you are talking to, then make the text readable and avoid the business jargon that makes no sense to visitors. Remember that people need to understand what you are offering immediately. If a page is too hard to figure out, you’ll be the one losing out. Nobody buys what they don’t understand. Most people want to take a look at your copy and grasp the idea instantly. So clarity and simplicity above all!

Do you really need to use 1350 words?

People have a common misconception that well-written words will get people to read their content. Even a great page isn’t read all the way through, as visitors simply don’t spend that long on a single page. You roughly have a few seconds to tell them what you do, a few seconds to make it relevant to them and a few more to keep them interested. Most peoiple who want to read more indepth articles when browsing, they will come back when they have the time, make sure you grabbed their attention so thet want to some back.

The Internet is so noisy and busy nowadays, full of competition that you cannot afford to have a website that is not easy, fast and intuitive.

What web design ways for generating more leads do you follow? Share with us some ideas that work for you.