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Psychological Tricks on How to Make a Site Attractive

Welcome to the digital era where the first place people look for information about their health and wellness is the internet. The web has become a very competitive space with website owners doing all they can to make their sites not only more visible on Google search engines but also more attractive to their visitors. The appearance of your site is what will either encourage users to continue exploring your site or move on to another one.  It is, thus, vital that when designing a website, one first understand how the brain of your target market works and what appeals to them. Below are some psychological tricks on how you can make your web site more attractive to visitors and encourage more exploration.

Use of vibrant designs

According to research, 94% of negative feedback on a site is often design related. Even though yours is a health website, it shouldn’t bring on the mood of being in a hospital. You want to promote the feeling of vibrancy and life in your site, and your design should communicate that.

Colors are what first captures your eye when scrolling down your screen. Different colors influence our moods and emotions in various ways. It is thus vital that you consider your target market when choosing a color for your website or logo. For instance, we prefer blue colors in sites that deal with money such as CapitalOne and Paypal to show trust. Use the psychology of colors for your website to increase conversions. Sonia Bell, content manager and author at a number of health sites, wrote that color influences your purchase of a product 85% of the time.

The human brain always tries to make things simpler to understand. Even before your mind decides whether you want to stay and explore or not, you subconsciously have already formed the opinion if the page is interesting or not based on the colors used, in the font and background. Some of the best colors to use in a health and wellness site are those associated with nature such as trees or flowers in the background to celebrate life. You could also use any of the primary colors like blue or green. These colors produce a feeling of being relaxed and professionalism.

Clarity, readability, and grammar

Poorly designed websites can cause confusion, mistrust and even a lack of interest from visitors. The readability and usability of the site influence the decision of a visitor to want to come back to your page. Choose a neat design with a readable font style, color, and size. Just like colors, people associate certain emotions with various fonts. People don’t want to struggle to read what you’ve written. Arial, Verdana, and Calibri are often used for health websites because they are easy to read even on low screen resolutions. Serif fonts such as Times New Romans and Georgia are also readable and can be used as well.

Font size also affects the traffic to your website. The World Health Organization says that 3-5% of people have a visual impairment, and have difficulty reading texts in small font size. Small fonts will repel readers. In the past, most websites used a size 12 but that is still too small, and most visitors prefer a size 14 or 16.  A study indicated that 85% of adults would like a website that they can read well whether on a desktop or mobile devices.

Personal blogs

Even though most people who visit a health website are looking to gain information, that doesn’t mean you have to use an impersonal tone in the content. Writing from a personal perspective enables your customers to imagine themselves in the same position and relate with your content; thus, you get a loyal following. Visitors spend about 5.59 seconds going over a websites written content. When you keep producing relevant content that is correct and from trusted sources, you will attract your readers to keep coming back for more or spend more time there. Remember that you are talking to a person on the other side of the screen and thus should be relatable.

Overload-free home page

Users form an opinion about your website within the first 0.05 seconds and decide whether to stay or leave. Your homepage provides the first impression for your visitors and thus must be designed well. It should not be overloaded with information or graphics and instead should be simple and give the links to the other subpages. A cluttered, unorganized homepage can turn away clients. Include a navigation menu and search box to assist users to know where to go next. Place it in a familiar place on the website (mostly at the top of the page) for easier navigation. As long as the site visitors know where everything is, there should be no reason for them to leave which makes your website get better in search engine ranks.

Visual factors like images

The time for using stock art is long past. If you want people to remember your website, incorporate some elements like real human images because texts are easy to forget. If you are recommending a particular way of doing something upload a picture with a person doing what you are talking about to make it easier to understand. Using a human face increases the conversion rates of your website in two ways; one is that it captures the attention of the reader and two; it helps to convey certain emotions.

Visitors spend 5.94 seconds looking at a website’s main image. Sometimes a person might not have much time to read an entire article but with the assistance of pictures they can skim and understand the message you are trying to communicate.

Breathing space

Have you ever read a text with too much information and lacked spacing? It is tiring. When designing your website ensure that you do not put too much information as this may become a self-destruction technique. Leave a ‘white space’ to allow the reader to process and understand the information. This space sometimes refers as negative or breathing space. This space also allows the reader to be able to skim through the text and find the essential parts in the large blocks of text.

Visible calls to action

Research indicates that 70% of websites fail to place a call to action button on their pages. You need to establish the purpose of your website. What do you want the user to do once they have gotten the information? Maybe you would like them to subscribe to your newsletter, or you want them to purchase a product or contact you for more details. Make these calls to action visible. For your health website, place the call to action buttons numerous times on the page to create a sense of urgency in the users’ mind that they need to act right now.

Final Word

Website designing is not as difficult as it appears. Nonetheless, you have to keep the target visitor in mind when doing it. You want the information you are trying to communicate to be etched in their minds and keep them coming back to explore more. Use the above psychological tricks to maximize the performance of your website by making it more attractive to the user. Anyone, who already has a site or those who want to establish one can use these tricks.