32 Web Design Hacks To Dramatically Boost Your Sales And Conversions

Designing a brand new website for your business is an exciting venture. It can also be quite daunting as well if you’re completely new to it. Especially when it comes to conversion rate optimization.

So, you have a brand new, beautifully crafted website for your business.

You’ve started blogging because you heard that blogs attract a ton of traffic and potential customers.

Lots of people are flocking to your site to check out your awesome content and services and you begin to notice your traffic growing each month.

You check to make sure the traffic is targeted and from reputable sources, and most of it is. Things are going well.

But after some time, you notice there’s something not quite right.

Your conversions, somehow, suck!

People are visiting your site, they’re consuming your content, yet you’re getting low engagement. On top of this, hardly anyone is subscribing to your email list or inquiring about your services.

You check your Google Analytics and all you see is a bunch of weird-looking data that makes absolutely no sense.

What could possibly be wrong?

Let’s assume you’re getting mostly targeted traffic and from good sources. So why aren’t people taking action?

Well, there could be a gazillion reasons why your website isn’t converting that well. Your job is to figure out why.

Let’s also assume that your traffic is focused, your incentives are good, your content doesn’t suck, and your services are well-priced.

Here’s what you can do:

Below, I’ve compiled a list of 32 web design hacks and tips to help you get more people to stay glued to your pages and content for longer.

You don’t need to implement everything in the list below, but give some a try and review your ROI after a month or so.

Let’s dive in!

32 ways to turn your website into a conversion machine

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Website Navigation

1. Make your main website navigation typography large enough to read. 12px is far too small for a desktop. I recommend using 16px and above.
2. Keep the number of navigational links to a minimum. I recommend using between 4 and 6 links in your main nav.
3. Ensure responsive nav links are not too small and have adequate spacing for a better user experience.
4. Make your primary conversion goal (link) stand out. For example, if you look at the main navigational menu on this website, you’ll notice that ‘Hire Me’ is defined as a button. It stands out above the rest.

Links and Buttons

1. Place links to your social media profiles at the bottom of the page, in the footer section, and nowhere near above the fold. If your primary conversion goal is to keep people engaged on your website, you don’t really want them to leave just so that they can go and visit your Facebook page.
2. If you have a blog or content-rich pages with lots of native links pointing to various other internal pages and resources on your website, make sure they’re not invisible. Check out this post for CSS tricks on creating beautiful hyperlinks for your website.
3. Make your main conversion CTA link or button identifiable and different from the rest of the CTA buttons on your conversion pages.

Page structure

1. Create a purposeful homepage, even if you are just running a simple blog. Simply displaying a list of your recent blog posts on your homepage is a waste of a conversion opportunity.
2. Make the most of the ‘above the fold’ area of your website’s homepage and other conversion landing pages. If you want people to subscribe, add your signup button or form. If you want people to check out your services, add your ‘hire me’ button, and so on.
3. Ensure that your marketing message is clear and concise. Make it crystal clear what it is you’re offering and why.
4. Test page loading speed score for your homepage and other conversion pages. Make improvements if needed.

Website Components & Elements

1. Add or use colors to highlight specific conversion elements for your website’s components. Pricing tables are a great example of this. Usually, the plan that’s most popular will be different from the rest, i.e. different background color, border, color button, etc. to make it stand out.
2. Use testimonials on your home and landing pages to establish trust and increase validation.
3. If you are building a personal brand business, ensure to include a quality photo of yourself. Show your audience that you are indeed a human being, and don’t forget to smile.
4. Remove all unnecessary ‘conversion killing’ elements and features from your conversion pages. I.e. sales pages, signup pages, etc.

Blog posts and blog page

1. Add your call-to-action and conversion element at the end of your blog posts.
2. If you have a lot of long-form content, you can add in-content conversion elements.
3. Add native links to your offers, sales pages, or lead generation pages.
4. If your blog has a sidebar, make sure your conversion goal CTA is placed at the very top.
5. Consider making your conversion offer sticky in your sidebar. If you are using WordPress, there are plugins you can use to achieve this, like the WP Stick Sidebar.
6. Avoid offering too many options in your blog archives and blog sidebar.

Additional website hacks and tips for boosting conversions

1. If you are using WordPress, make sure you’re using a well-coded and regularly updated theme like Genesis or Oxygen Builder. A glitchy website is a conversion-killing website.
2. Choose your branding colors wisely. Avoid using anything annoying or too vibrant, such as neon colors over high-contrasted backgrounds both in your design and your content.
3. Make sure your entire website is optimized for mobile.
4. Use a reliable hosting provider, like Kinsta.
5. Ensure your site is using a Google-friendly web font.
6. Make sure your body text is large enough to be read by a wide audience. 17px or larger is ideal.
7. Make sure your site links are clearly visible.
8. Avoid busy headers. Your logo and main navigation are the only things that should be present in your header.
9. Avoid displaying too many banner ads.
10. Avoid unnecessary and annoying pop-ups, unless your conversion goal is to boost email subscribers using these specific tactics.
11. If your website has sales landing pages or email landing pages, do simple A/B split testing to see which design and marketing strategies work best.

Follow these 30+ simple website hacks and you’ll no doubt see a dramatic change in website visitor retention, engagement, and conversions.

If you need help with creating a conversion-optimized website for your business, I’m available to hire. Otherwise, I recommend checking out my Website Design Video Course using the power of WordPress and Oxygen Builder.