Your website is the first impression your visitors have of you. Like a book cover, your website has about 20 or so seconds to capture their attention or they’ll click away. Great landing page design with the right eye-catching graphic design elements can pull your visitors into your site.

The elements of graphic design include:

• Shapes
• Lines
• Color
• Type
• Images
• Texture
• Balance

They all need to work together to create an overall appealing page. Balance for example would be offset if you have a
large image or logo in the upper right hand corner of your page and no graphics or design elements on the left hand side
of the page. They don’t have to be symmetrical to be balanced.

1. Each of the elements of graphic design can be integrated into your web design. For example, shapes, color, type or font and texture can all be used in the design of your logo. They can all be integrated into your header.

2. The focus of your website design should be to support your content, not to detract from it. Flash and other graphic images should always support your content.

3. Your Headline and call to action are actually design elements too. They will have color and type that will draw attention to them in a manner that appeals to your audience.

4. Your opt in box is another design element to pay attention to. Make sure your opt in box has a background color that makes the it noticeable. You want to draw your visitor’s eye to it.

5. Images and photos. Images and photos can really bring your website landing page to life. There are two keys to remember, the first is that your website must load quickly which means your image files need to be small around 30KB per image or less, while still retaining medium to high quality.

6. The second key is that the image has to have a purpose. Is it there to evoke emotion? Is it there to demonstrate how to use a product? What is the purpose of the photo or image? For example, you may want to put your own picture on your landing page to help people relate to you and to build your brand.

7. Use design elements to help brand your business and to draw readers into your site like a good book cover will draw a reader to flip the book over and read the back cover. Your website design alone won’t usually sell products or services but it will motivate your visitors to read your content and that’s the first step to lasting success and a powerful landing page design.

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Your business website is essentially your storefront, business card and most significant marketing piece all rolled into one. How it affects your visitors and customers is then essential to your success. Provide a memorable experience and customers are sure to return time and time again. Let’s take a look at five keys to creating a website that sells.

Key #1 Make your website interactive.

As the internet continues to grow and evolve it’s becoming more important to create a community around your business. To accomplish this you want to engage your visitors and customers. This can be accomplished a number of ways. You can:

• Provide a forum
• Post surveys or polls
• Enable visitors and customers to review or rank items. For example a “How valuable was this article?” question and a scale of 1 to 5 stars or a ranking from 1-10.
• Offer a blog and inspire comments and feedback
• Host contests and sweepstakes
• Publish video and audio content as well as written content. This gives users another way to access you and your personality.

Key #2 Make sure your website provides value.

People go online for a number of reasons. They go online to research a potential purchase, to seek solutions for a problem they’re having and to be entertained. If your website provides all three; products, information, and entertainment then you’re in tip top shape. The good news is your content can provide both the information and the entertainment and when written well, can also inspire purchases. Here are a few ideas to provide value for your customers and prospects:

• How to articles, videos, and audio
• Tips articles, videos, and audio
• Case studies
• Workbooks and reports
• Interviews with experts
• Product reviews

Key #3 Make sure your website is easy to navigate.

It takes a visitor about 20 seconds to make a decision about whether they’re going to stay on your website or click away. If your site is laid out nicely, with products and services, information, prices, FAQs, and content easy to find then people are more likely to hang out – the longer they stay on your site the more likely they are to make a purchase or to return again.

To make your site easy to navigate consider:

• Keeping your site simple.
• Keep your pages uniform with the same options and appearance.
• If you have a lot of content, great! Use drop down menus and organize your content by topic for easier access.
• Offer a search function where users can search for products, services, or content topics quickly and easily.
• Provide a way for users to easily go back to previous pages. A back key is an option however if every page has the same options and drop down menus, including the ability to quickly return to the home page, a visitor will always be able to find what they need.
• Test your website’s appearance on different browsers to make sure every visitor has a good experience.

Key #4 Make your website easy on the eyes.

Ever visit a website and the text was so small or the colors so incompatible that you couldn’t read a word? Readability is critical to a selling website. Make sure:

• Your colors are easy on the eyes,
• Your graphics aren’t distracting
• And keep formatting like underlining, bold and italics to a minimum.
• Spacing between sentences and paragraphs is adequate
• Font size is large enough for people to read and font is easy to read

Key #5 Give them a soft sell.

People expect to be sold to and they’re looking for it – they’re wary. Instead of hitting website visitors with a hard sell, provide information, solve their problems and show them the benefits of your products or services. They’ll be much more receptive and appreciative.

Creating a website that sells requires a structured approach and a desire to create the best experience possible for your visitors. Once you’ve created your website, consider testing it and asking associates, friends and family for their opinion.