If your business site isn't converting your casual browsers into actual buyers then it isn't working for you, and might be working against you. To improve conversion rates, as well as increase the inbound links to your site that search engines use in page ranking, every single element of the page must be carefully chosen. Page design is an important and often overlooked element of SEO. One of the most important elements of page design is the proper use of images.

 

Be Original, or Else

 

Stock photos make your business look cheap, small, and unprofessional. Viewers will at best be put off by stock photos and at worst actually find themselves confused about the nature of your business. This means that your business site can't have any pictures of executives in business suits shaking hands in a conference room, no smiling young women holding briefcases, no men standing in front of construction equipment wearing hard hats. Every picture on your site must be original, something your page's viewers won't have seen before. Each picture must be relevant to your business somehow. As a corollary to this rule, don't use any original pictures that look cheap or like stock photos in any way. Hire a professional photographer if you must, but never settle for anything less than the best when it comes to the photos on your business site.

 

Make an Emotional Appeal

 

The vast majority of people make decisions emotionally, not rationally, and the emotion centers of the brain are very responsive to images. Find out which emotions are the ones that will drive your browsers to become buyers, and then find powerful images that call out these emotions. Conducting a little market research here could be a big help, and this kind of market research does not need to be expensive in order to be beneficial. Posting different pictures with survey questions about them to an online task site can be both effective and cheap.

 

Bring Your Visitors into Your Business

 

Take pictures of your business that take your visitors inside your day-to-day operations. Give them a feel for your business, and what it is like to be there personally. Showcase photos of customers using and enjoying your company's goods or services. Even if your business is online with no brick and mortar sales room, take candid behind the scenes photos. Not only will this help encourage browsers to bond with your employees and your company, it will show them that your company really exists, and is not some fly-by-night outfit operating out of someone's garage. Make sure that something identifying your company is present in every shot.

 

Put Faces to Your Customer Testimonials

 

A large part of the decision making process most people use for finding a business is reading customer testimonials. You can greatly increase the effectiveness of your customer testimonials by including pictures of your happy customers wherever possible. Seeing happy faces will do far more than reading happy words. If possible, include video testimonials for a more powerful impression. Customer pictures and videos build confidence in and identification with your business.

 

Use Trusted Symbols While your business might not have a lot of brand recognition yet, you can still improve your conversion rates by using trusted symbols that do have brand recognition. If you sell good or services online, prominently display well known icons that promise secure transactions. If a popular media outlet has covered your business in any way, use their media logo to draw attention to a blurb about their coverage. Also display the logos of any popular businesses that your company has partnered with in the past.

 

Create a Distinctive Logo and Mascot

 

Brand recognition drives conversion rates more than almost any other factor. Building brand recognition takes time, but to start with, your company needs to stand out from its competitors. This means that you need a logo and a company mascot that potential customers haven't seen a thousand times before. Furthermore, both your logo and your mascot must be visually appealing and suggest the kinds of emotions that you want your company's brand to be associated with. Keep in mind, when selecting both a logo and a mascot, that they both need to work on different scales. An image that looks perfect on your computer screen might be too busy and hard to make out when shrunk to fit on a business card. A simple business card image may look too dull and simplistic when enlarged for online use or advertisements. Resize all potential logo and mascot images and see how they look on different scales before making a final decision.

 

These design strategies should help boost conversion rates and improve your company's search engine rankings. In business, image is often everything. Never try to save money by cheaping out on any of these steps. Do not do things yourself that you haven't been trained for. Do not give design tasks to the owner's daughter who has just finished graphic design school. Do not have all your employees submit mascot drawings and choose the best one. These cost saving shortcuts will cost you a lot more money in the long run. Hire professionals when you need to, and pay attention to detail always.

 

In Summary

 

Webfrog can help you. Located in Campbelltown NSW and West Wyalong NSW, Webfrog can provide website development and graphic design services across the state. Just like your business we like to remain unique in what we do so pick up the phone or shoot us an email, we would love to hear from you. 

 

Webfrog has developed hundreds of websites across the Macarthur, Camden, Campbelltown and Sydney regions.

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