As a digital marketer, your efforts are always directed at getting people to convert. To do that, you have a wide range of tools and strategies at your disposal, from powerful copywriting to SEO marketing.

But what if a website isn’t hitting its conversion goals despite your hard work? If this is the case, it may be due to usability problems. Having some working knowledge of UX design can be useful for all digital marketers. In this article, we explain why, and we offer five hacks you can use to improve a website’s conversion rates.

The impact of UX design on conversion rates

Before we get into the actual design hacks, we need to understand how and why good UX design affects conversion rates.

Essentially, UX design is problem-solving, with the peculiarity that it aims to solve problems before they appear. Among other things, UX designers anticipate where a website visitor may experience frustration or confusion. Poor UX equals high frustration and high confusion, which in turn results in high bounce rates and low conversion.

It’s also important to note that even an average experience can keep conversion rates lower than expected, especially if a competitor’s website delivers an experience that delights the user.

Similarly, a website that looks outdated or doesn’t answer important questions can affect trust and credibility among users. Credibility indicators are one of the most important factors linked to improved conversion rates.

On that note, a study found that 75% of credibility judgments were made based on a website’s aesthetic factors. However, good UX isn’t only about delivering a great visual experience. You can design the prettiest website, but if it has functionality issues, conversion rates will be affected.

With this in mind, let’s look at 5 UX design hacks that cover both functionality and aesthetics, and which can help improve conversion rates.

5 UX Design Hacks to Improve Conversions

1. Find and fix errors

The first thing to do is search for errors page by page. Some errors are obvious, but others may not be visible at first sight. You want to be very meticulous here, and look for things like:

• 404 errors (page not found).
• A generic 404 page.
• Images not loading.
• Duplicated content.
• Typos.
• Broken links.
• Unresponsive navigation.

Once you have a list of errors, think about which ones have the highest impact on user experience and give them top priority.

How to fix the errors listed above:

404 errors

Find out if the page doesn’t exist anymore (has been removed from the site’s content) or if it has changed its name or moved to a different part of the site structure. If it’s the latter, use a redirect plugin or set up a 301 redirect, so that visitors are automatically taken to the right page.

You also want to create a custom 404 page, if you haven’t done that already. You can use this page to improve conversions by making sure it directs visitors to relevant products or services.

Content errors

Check and double-check all copies. Use tools like Grammarly or assign the task to a copywriter with proofreading skills.

Broken links

Use a link checker or link validator tool to detect broken links. Then, separate them into two groups:

• Internal links. If these are broken, follow the suggestions in the 404 errors section above.
• External links. If these are broken, remove them and consider replacing them with updated or new links.

Images not loading

This can be due to different things, like the wrong file extension, incorrect file paths, or the images that may have been deleted from the website. Here are some suggestions on how to fix these issues.

Related: Optimising images for search engines.

2. Call-to-action buttons that convert

Go through every CTA button on your site and make sure they meet the following criteria:

• They’re buttons. Not just text, not just links, and not images or GIFs.
• Their colour and shape make them stand out from the background.
• They’re in the right place, meaning the user should see them naturally, instead of having to look for them.
• The actual call to action is simple and clear (one or two high-impact words should be enough).
• They’re not blocked by other page elements, like pop-ups, banners, etc.

3. Remove clutter

When it comes to UX design, more isn’t always better. Remember that people have short attention spans, so there shouldn’t be too many elements competing for the user’s attention.

How do you know what counts as clutter? Anything that doesn’t directly contribute to the page’s goal. For example, if the goal is to get the user to buy a product, don’t bother with a pop-up asking them to sign up for your newsletter. And if the goal is building your email list through newsletter subscriptions, don’t promote a product.

4. Use negative space wisely

Negative or white space is the space between different elements of a website page. You can have negative space between text and images, or between text and background, to mention just a couple of examples. You can see additional examples here.

You can think of negative space as breathing space for website visitors. If every single part of a page called for the user’s attention, how would the user know what’s important and what isn’t? The wise use of negative space helps direct the user’s attention to the right place, to the elements that put them on the path to conversion.

Things you want to pay attention to include:

• Content margins.
• Line spacing.
• Font size, ensuring it corresponds to the page’s visual hierarchy.
• Image size and placement.
• The use of contrasting or complementary colour schemes.
• Text – image ratio.

5. A fully functional search bar

A fully functional search bar can help streamline the user journey and take them directly to the product or service they’re looking for. Here, you may want to:

• Include an auto-complete function.
• Use the language your audience uses.
• Apply negative space to search results.
• Ensure it works on mobile.
• Never take visitors to a dead end. If no results are found, offer alternatives, or invite them to contact you.

Conclusion

Fixing errors, ensuring CTA buttons do their job, removing clutter, making good use of negative space, and adding a fully functional search bar can help improve a website’s conversion rates. These 5 factors are integral parts of UX design, and great UX design is a crucial factor that contributes to conversion success.

Author Bio: Paul Towler is the Technical Operations Director at SmartOffice, an office automation provider who has helped many businesses install e-commerce website solutions.