Benefits of an Effective WordPress Website Design
1st on the List knows what’s effective with regards to WordPress website design, and how the effectiveness leads to an increase in Conversion Rates.
At the end of the day, Conversion Rates is what drives an organization to profit maximization therefore efficiency is key.
The following blog sets 1st on the List apart from other SEO and Digital Marketing companies because of our comprehensive guide to providing you with a sustainable growth strategy that continues to evolve over time. The importance of using WordPress cannot be stressed enough, mainly because of its ability to help improve User Experience, SEO, and Conversion Rates.
What is WordPress?
Cited as “the best way to build a website,” (Kinsta, 2020) WordPress represents 37.% of the Internet’s ranking websites. That works out to be one in four websites being powered by the same source.
The website builder is not only responsible for the advancement of blogs, but also the development of business websites, portfolios, resumes, forums, social networks, and membership sites.
How? You ask.
WordPress website design is an open-source software program that allows for the customization of themes and plug-ins.
Themes: changes how the website looks
Plug-ins: changes how the website functions; two examples are i) contact forms ii) eCommerce store.
Benefits of WordPress
WordPress website design is easy, flexible, and cost-effective. The system offers user-friendly tools from which to install the program, efficiently. Furthermore, it allows the user to be diverse in what website to create. Finally, it’s FREE. Aside from the hosting fees, the software itself doesn’t cost a thing.
Why is WordPress website design important?
According to Bennet in her article “Is WordPress a Good Choice for SEO?�? (2018) the author notes the speedy optimization, search-engine friendly URLs, powerful SEO plug-ins, and faster loading times are key elements of WordPress website design.
Speedy Optimization: With its quick set-up time, and easy-to-use categories (Meta Description, Tags, Meta Data, Keywords, Excerpt, and so on), greater content can be created at a quicker rate.
Search Engine friendly URL: With WordPress, you can choose your own URL which improves the chances of search engine optimization for users. This is because search engines are able to understand what to expect before looking at the content of the post/page.
SEO Plug-Ins: A plug-in is a software tool that extends the functionality to WordPress websites. They vary in their uses, ranging from creating job boards and starting online stores, to boosting SEO performance.
Faster Loading Times: WordPress speed optimization plug-ins help websites take between 2-3 seconds to load, thus maintaining its efficiency, and keeping users trusting in said website and organization.
How does WordPress Plug-Ins Work?
WordPress functions so to allow its users (developers) to code the page they’re designing. It also allows for developers to store content and data to help shape the page they’re creating.
How does WordPress help User Experience?
User Experience (UX) is the viewpoint of a particular user – fueled by emotion, when using a website, program, system, or application. The experience of the user is paramount to the continued development of said functions as they generate the revenue that determine whether the company grows, or fails to meet its objectives.
Morville’s User Experience Honeycomb outlines the seven determining factors of successful user experience design, but what about WordPress.
Because of its efficient customization, it’s recommended that the navigation menus are the main focus over content as the objective is to create a relationship with prospective users. WordPress website design offers endless options for customization and therefore prospective designers would do well to adhere to Morville’s useable theory and build efficiency for prospective users.
Virtual Reality Technology is also particularly prominent within WordPress, and can be enticed using the system’s ability to a) engage the users with unique features and b) provides a simple, flexible platform from which to limit the amount of tabs open at once.
Blogs: While Blogs were made famous by WordPress, the notion that designers can integrate a blog within a blog is certainly appealing to users who require more information regarding a product or service, or simply want a greater opinion – sort of like this blog right here.
The Importance of Having a User Interface
In order to cater to the User Experience, web designers must first focus on creating a full-proof User Interface. What is a User Interface? Defined as “the means in which a person controls a software application or hardware device,�? User Interface provides prospective users with a natural experience, and with a bit of luck, enough reason for them to return and help increase the company conversion rates. Benefits of User Interface include; a drop-down menu bar, toolbar, and windows.
The user is the target audience therefore converting them from users to consumers must be carried out quickly and effectively. Attract, Engage, and Convert is the motto to live by when it comes to WordPress website design. By actively seeking to convert as many users as possible, the prospective organization is not giving the prospective user a chance to second-guess their decision. In order to achieve this, the user must be provided clarity, avoid confusion, and limiting content posts on the main page. This only serves as a distraction from the main purpose – to consume.
WordPress is blessed with a plethora of navigation menus that do appeal to users. Here are the top three:
Fixed Position Menu
Also known as “the Sticky menu,�? the Fixed Position Menu stays ‘fixed’ to the top of the page, even when users scroll down. For eCommerce companies, the benefit here is that important links and CTA’s remain in view.
- CTA – Call-to-Action: The part of a webpage or advertisement that encourages the audience to take action (i.e. consume, subscribe).
Sliding Hamburger Menu
One of the most commonly used navigation pages, it is hugely popular with apps. It’s called ‘sliding hamburger’ because the hidden navigation menu appears when users click the hambuger icon.
Grid Menu
A newer design to WordPress, the Grid Menu is particularly appealing to App users as the visually-appealing grids provide a greater selling point, and saves the user having to read chunks of textual information. With its sidebar and drop-down features, It also prevents the user from reading information on one main page.
How does WordPress Website Design help SEO?
If WordPress is your organization’s go-to for Content Management Systems (CMS), then the unique built-in features make designing a website – for search optimization, significantly easier. For example, WordPress allows for the customization of URL links that can be entered to accurately represent the specific content offered, along with supplying relevant keywords. This results in the URL Structure being more user-friendly.
What is URL Structure?
The URL Structure AKA the Uniform Resource Locator, is the reference to a resource that specifies its location on a computer network and the mechanism that retrieves it. To make it easier, it’s the address of a house, while the website is the house (Chi, 2018).
It consists of five parts; scheme, subdomain, top-level domain, second-level domain, and subdirectory.
In order for Google to share as much information with users as possible, it needs website builders to help them out with searchable features. For example, keeping a simple, searchable URL Structure helps users trust the website more. In his article, “SEO best practice guide for URLs�? (Ratcliff, 2016), the author argues that “using actual words and sentences that anyone can understand,�? are beneficial for humans because they’re logical and readable. Ratcliff also suggests breaking-up words with a hyphen, lowercase, and with the keywords at the beginning of the URL.
Carrying-out the following will lead to greater efficiency, and subsequently better chances of being found on Google.
How does WordPress help Conversion Rates?
We know from prior 1stonthelist blogs that the Conversion Rate is;
- # of ppl a website Converts into consumers
- divided by the total number of visitors
- multiplied by 100.
WordPress website design is unique in that it can help Conversion Rates in a number of innovative ways. In his article, “Guide to Conversion Rate Optimization in WordPress�? (Sourav, 2019) the author claims that Analytics and Split-Testing are two keys to victory as they allow for the “creation of goals and registration of page variants for tracking.�? What this means is Webmasters (person who maintains a website) can identify a popular page with the help of a plug-in; in this case the author suggests using Google Content Experiments.
Furthermore, in his article, “Conversion Rate Optimization for WordPress�? (Caldwell, 2013) the author argues that attraction of the website design, as well as strategic placement of social sharing, are keys to the success of CRO.
Social Sharing
A platform from which users can share content from the website to their social media pages (email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). This is best features in the page header, or sidebar (or drop-down menu bar) and can be utilized using plug-ins such as AddThis or Monarch.
With regards to Conversion Rate Optimization, it is highly recommended that the product checkout page be located near the bottom of the page on the website so as to prevent confusion for users as to their next step after locating a product. Scacca (2019) surmised – in her article, “Conversion Rate Optimization in WordPress: It’s Not That Simple�? that a case study carried out, suggested the checkout page being moved to the top of the page actually led to a decrease in conversion rates by $5,000.
Scacca also suggests using a log-in process – either one already established through a third party, such as Facebook, which will not only result in a smooth transition for the user, but it also retains information of them. This, in-turn allows for more in-depth marketing strategies to be carried out without the need for consumer feedback forms, testimonials, etc.
Finally, the placement of security trustmarks are a necessity for the validation of a specific website, and the retention of its users.
So, What are the Benefits of an Effective WordPress Website?
WordPress represents 37.5% of websites, therefore it makes sense to build a website from the system. This is down to its usability and efficiency, and the fact that it is FREE. It’s especially versatile as it represents the development of business websites from ecommerce website design to portfolios, resumes, forums, social networks, and membership sites.
The benefits of an effective WordPress website design is based around how much relevant information you can enter into the system. Because of WordPress’ endless stream of navigation menus, themes, and plug-ins.
Design is key; with the inclusion of an appropriate User Interface, efficiency, relevance, and ultimately, conversion are the objectives.
Short, snappy URL’s allow for Google to gather as much information as possible before ranking the website. Ranking is based on the website including keywords nearer the beginning of the URL, while proper sentence structure is important for the user as it is logical and readable.
When it comes to utilizing WordPress to improve Conversion Rates, the suggestions are to place the product checkout page in a position that is logical for the users. Logical being an orderly system, which prevents users from thinking too much during their website navigation. Therefore, the checkout page being located near the bottom of the screen eliminates confusion, and has been proven to generate greater conversion rates.
Many of Morville’s User Experience Honeycomb functions are prevalent in WordPress, with arguably the most important aspect being trust. The correct placement of a security trustmark validates a website, leads to a greater showing on Google Analytics, and ultimately leads to better user retention, and conversion rates.
What’s Next?
By now, you should have the tools to carry-out further research into YOUR needs and desires with regards to the look of YOUR website.
1st on the List can help implement those desires into a complete and thorough business plan that will put you one step ahead of the rest.
Let 1st on the List Integrate WordPress Website Design into your Organization TODAY
1st on the List are YOUR go-to SEO company and will put YOU number one. For more information: call 1-877-563-0459 or email us at [email protected].
