Whenever Christina is asked about the difference between creative focus and conversion focus in web development, she always says it’s, “the colour and location of the button.” In both approaches to web design, you are concerned with the location of various elements on the page, the difference comes down to where you put these elements and the thinking behind that decision. For a conversion-focused website, you place a button where it is best located to help visitors move through to the next level of the buyer’s journey. When you look at your website with a creative focus, your decisions about where to put that button and what colour it should be, would be based on considerations about the look and feel of the site.

Of course, these two approaches are not mutually exclusive, and the best websites are designed with a good balance between the two.

The button question is a great way to boil down the difference between aesthetic and sales-oriented web design, but obviously, there are several more factors at play. When it comes to optimizing a site for conversions, there are three main things to consider:

The user’s intent, i.e. it’s about your customers, not about you! Before you design your site, you need to understand what your customers want from it.
The user experience. With user intention in mind, consider whether your website allows them to achieve that intent, and how easily it does so.
Your company’s goals. The user’s intent and experience, as facilitated by your website, must obviously align with your business goals, or else your web design won’t be of much use.

Find out more about CIPR Communications’ web design services by listening to the seventh series of our podcast. For more information about web development, content marketing, SEO and our other services, read our blog, listen to other podcast episodes, or contact us.