Every now and then I like to see different themes for future websites that I might create; I find this activity very entertaining because it is like designing a house or selecting the furniture that you want for the living room next year. Often when I do these searches I find a lot of people saying that the theme selection is not important for sales and conversion because ultimately the visitor will decide to buy something or not based on the information that is provided on the website instead on how stylish the theme is.
Here is when I start thinking a little deeper and realize that a theme is more than the colors and overall look of a website; the theme determines the structure and with this the functionality of the website and that plays a crucial role in terms of marketing and sales, and if you want to know why I invite you to grab a cup of coffee and discover why selecting the right theme for a website is key for conversions.
It is true that the colors, background, and style are not important to make sales, these are just there to give an overall impression to the visitor, and the true role of the appearance of the theme is to make the website look legit and professional. This certainly will be part of the overall decision making process of the visitor but the sale will not occur just because the site looks decent. In any case it is always a good idea to choose a theme that will give the website a professional image so that people can trust it.
Start with purpose – Choose the theme with the sales in mind
The real intention of most websites is conversion, and this may be getting likes for your Facebook page, gaining subscribers, raising funds for a cause, or making sales with your own or other people’s products. The fact is that this purpose must never be forgotten and in fact when choosing the theme it is very important to be fully aware of it, because the theme will determine how much are we going to be able to manage, tweak, and customize each element of the site to show the right information at the right time on the right place. If the theme does not allow us to do this the site will be predetermined to convert poorly.
Here are some aspects that I consider very important when selecting a theme, in the end it all comes down to what is the intention of the website, and this will require you to look for:
- A Professional look: This will help you to convey a specific message to the visitors. If the person behind the website is investing time and money to put together a beautiful and nice website with a professional look you will convey trust since the beginning.
- Different post layouts: Having the ability to use different post layouts is very important; most websites use always the same post layout but the reality is that each layout should be used depending on the type of content shared. A page with affiliate links should only have those links as an alternative to leave the page, yet many websites fill these pages with ads, pop ups, unrelated offers, and distractive banners that impact conversion.
- Customization: It is critical to be able to customize the website using existing features on the theme. This means that if you want to add widgets, change colors, add sliders, insert video, or display audio messages the theme must have a friendly way to help you to do this.
- Compatibility: One of the main issues that I hear about all the time is that some themes look great, are fully customizable, the options for post layouts are many, but when people update something on their website everything crashes because there is an incompatibility issue, this of course is a big problem because now the whole site must be designed again and lots of time, effort, and dedication are trashed instantly. It is important to make sure that the theme is compatible with most applications and plugins to avoid these issues. This can be quickly checked over the internet or making a simple phone call to technical support.
- Technical Support: The last item that I always look for is that there is actually a technical support team ready to answer my questions; if I realize that the technical support is poor or not there I know that this means problems, so I skip over that theme and supplier to go and check other ones with better intentions for the end users.
The true role of a website’s theme in terms of conversion
The most important factor in order to convert is the intention to do it, an in terms of a website that means that there must be an exclusive section of the site dedicated to transform visitors into customers, fans, subscribers, and followers. These sections must be designed with a strategy in mind and having a theme that allows you to manage things as required is critical for this. Of course that is important to show ads and banners to your visitors, but please do so in an intelligent way so that I can see that you are interested in something else than just my money.
To your online success!