Remove Distractions to Increase Conversion

If you’re a website owner, I know just how much you want to maximize engagement and conversion on your site. You may think that adding more elements and widgets is the way to go, but it’s not. Adding widget after widget of elements on a page is the shotgun approach to boosting your site’s engagement. 

If you put too many links, banners and flashy elements on a page, these will distract your audience and decrease the chances of your calls-to-action from getting clicked. 

Here are some effective ways on how you can increase your site's engagement:

• Limit advertising banners on your web page. If you offer your site’s real estate as an advertisement space, offer premium spaces at a much higher price. This way you don’t load your site with too many ads. The click-through rate will also increase if you put ads in premium high-converting places.
• If you don’t sell ad space, but carry affiliate banners, test where on your site to best place them. In most cases, banners that are not positioned in the right places cause more distraction than conversions.

• Limit your navigation. You don’t need to create a menu to every product you have. The purpose of the navigation menu is to make navigating through your site easier for your visitors. If you put everything up on the menu, this will just add too much clutter on your page. Make use of sub-menus, categories and sub-categories. 
• Your main navigation menu should also be located in one place. If you don’t have too many menu/links, then placing them at the top of your webpage would be best. 
• The bottom of the page is where people look at last, so it’s acceptable if you place a bunch of links/menu there – they won’t cause as much damaging distraction as when you place too many menu options on the top of the page. 
• Avoid too much redirection and linking when selling a product. If you’re selling a product on a particular page, make sure that you have everything on that page for visitors to make an informed decision. Avoid links such as “Click here for more info..” or “Click here for product details..”.  They’re more likely to get side-tracked and lose interest if you ask them to do more clicking than is necessary.
• Be careful on setting your site’s width. Different visitors use different computers/gadgets to access your site. Some of them may be viewing your site on a smaller screen, while others on a fairly big screen. Make sure that your site is readable and that each element is in its proper place regardless of the screen size visitors are using when viewing your site. 
• This can be achieved by having a responsive theme – a theme that would resize or adjust your site’s elements to fit different screen resolutions. 

Final Thoughts..
Of course, how simple you should make your web page will depend on its purpose. If your main goal is to sell a product, then it’s best if you streamline the page so that your visitors can focus on the marketing message and the call-to-action. If you have a content site, then having banners, menus and links can’t be helped. Just make sure that everything you put on your site is streamlined.