Your social media campaign is only as good as your landing page or homepage. If you fail to create a user-friendly interface and experience for your viewers and followers, you’re not just wasting your social media efforts but also your time and resources.
What does your website have to do with social media?
Unless you are doing business solely on your social media accounts, your website is the primary access point for any transactions your clients make. Whether it’s to read information, purchase products, or request services, the website will close those deals or — in this case — conversions.
If you want a client to convert your website, you have to turn it into a competitive site that has everything a client needs. A website must excel at three things to be considered effective:
- Design
- Usability
- Speed
How should I design my website?
You must design your website based on how your audience thinks. By now, you already know who you are selling to. You know what your customers want to see, but do you know how they actually process this information?
What do they see?
According to eye tracking studies, people start at the left upper corner of the landing page. This “spot” is where companies usually place their logos. However, if you want to maximize this space, the image below the logo can serve as a point of engagement as well.
And.co utilized eye tracking and also mixed in “visual psychology”:
Notice how their logo stands out while the stock image is looking directly at their call to action text.
What do they like seeing?
This is where the biggest part of design takes place. Based on your audience, they will be reeled in by a particular color. For example, red is for urgent shoppers, (i.e. Target). Pink is for women, generally, because studies show that this color appeals to them the most.
Trimester Fit Body used color to market to their audience, who are mainly women in their post-pregnancy stages:
Do not forget about typography because social media users don’t like it when brands make things difficult for them, especially reading. Designers suggest that Serif fonts should be used for business-like vibes while Serif Sans fonts are ideal for casual websites.
What about usability?
Usability means not having to go through too many areas just to get from point A to point B. When a person visits your website, they want everything they need on the initial screen. However, they don’t want to experience information overload either.
Give them the basics.
That is why you will see most websites having the “Home, About Us, and Contact” links on the first page. Web visitors also want FAQ, Product Pages, Pricing, and a Blog. The key is to know where to place these links and what’s inside them.
Don’t overwhelm them.
As tempting as it is to put everything on the splash page, you must remember that your bounce rate will increase once they feel that the images and texts on your homepage are too much for their eyes.
Make it as easy as possible for them.
All they ask is that you give them the links they need on one page, the information they crave in snippets, and the most important part, a search bar. Without that one, you can be sure that a person will give up if they have to scour through every page on your site just find what they need.
Here is an example that has everything on its splash page – VU:
How can I improve the speed of my website?
It is pretty simple. You have two options:
- Remove the bells and whistles on your website.
- Or get a faster host and server.
This means that when their clients visit their site, it must be fast and accessible — making it extremely important as the attention span of the regular social media user declines over time — from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2017.
So, be mindful of how others see your website and not how you want to see it. Soon enough, you’ll see bounce rates decrease and site visits increase.
