Improve your Website Traffic & User Experience

A Webpage needs to communicate the advantages of a business’ products and/or services in the best way possible. These days the first meeting with your company happens online and unsupervised. There is no salesperson or owner to listen to the customer and then qualify them as a prospect and address their specific needs. It is often noted that many Websites become another chore to get done and end up being a jumbled mess of boring content that only the marketing department finds interesting. Then people wonder why they are unable to bring visitors to their site, keep them and convert them into customers. Successful online marketing tries to create ‘experiences’ for the users. They pull people in by playing to emotions that move the readers to action and use real life examples to explain their benefits and to justify their value. In order to be successful websites are becoming a complete experience that for all the different prospect types that come to visit. They use text, videos, images, info-graphics, links so that it becomes difficult for the user to leave that experience behind and move to something better. This is also known as website flow, where a reader simply keeps on flowing from one click to the other. This can only happen when you are keeping the interests of the reader alive. It is also known as ‘interactive storytelling’ a new internet concept that is based on effective click by click unveiling of a different experience to the user which is all controlled or themed on a single thread. The AIDA model can help us in understanding this concept better. It focuses on four basic principles:

These 4 concepts are often sidelined by the online entrepreneurs and they end up messing up their landing pages. However, learning the basic concepts of communication can be a very tricky task and you might want to know about a simpler, easier and more ‘practical’ way to apply these theories in your websites, especially your landing pages. Here is all that you will have to do in order to get the best results and create a great website flow that really matters to your audience. Moreover, these methods will be enough to drive the user from Attention to Action. Have a look at what all you can do. Use Images Don’t be afraid of using large images and banners on your websites. The internet is a very visual place and the more interesting images you will be able to add to your website, the better impression you will be able to create. Almost every website that is able to ‘engage’ their users and grab their attention uses images to attract the users. They might not be as interested to learn what you have to say in black and white print. However, they will definitely have to pause for a moment and look at what the picture is all about. The best way of grabbing user attention is to use images of people who look like your potential customers. The users are able to relate to your business in this way and they definitely stop and wait for something more. As a result, the first concept of the AIDA model i.e. Attention, is fulfilled here. You will likely be using a combination of the right pose, the right direction of gaze, the expression on their face, their body language and the overall composition of the image to get the right results. A warm gaze that comes with a more welcoming body language is always preferred over people sitting idle with plastic smiles. Red Flag- don’t ever use rotating images. They always send users away. Create a path for the eye Now, you need to work upon the ‘Interest and Desire’ part of idea. You need to create a path that can be followed by your users. You can include elements of visual storytelling where each part leads to the other and creates more interest for the users. For doing this, you can use arrows, pointers and even hand drawings. You can compare it with a mind map. It is a flow chart that helps you in going through a series of little steps that will lead towards the big goal. Make sure not to make too much eye movement. If one of the arrows lead to the left on one page and on the right on the very next page, the user will definitely get irritated. Make his eyes move only in one direction and unfold your story step by step. Stopping the eyes Now that the story is over, you need to work on the ‘Action’ concept. Stop the flow, make the eyes to stop and pause on a single call to action. Use the principles of photographic composition used in the first step to catch their attention. Let them fixate on your calls to action. If you have built a strong path, they will likely respond positively to the calls to action. Maintain a balance and also make sure that your calls to action button is big, bold and visible. Follow these concepts and convert more leads into sales.