WordPress Tips

Last week, we began a two-part series detailing ways to decrease decision fatigue when your customers visit your website. We started with clean web design, cleaning up navigation, and highlighting only one promotion at a time. This week we continue with several other quick, easy methods to make it easier for your customers to decide to patronize your website business and not another.

1. Display only the most recent content. Content marketing is an essential element of any marketing plan. While you may be tempted to display all of your high-quality content at once, offering your visitors too many choices can trigger decision fatigue.
   Visit a few of your competitors’ websites. If you see six items of lookalike content, with additional content in the footer, then you want to avoid looking like this. You have offered your visitors at least six headlines, and they have to determine which to read, or simply bounce off your site.
   You’d be better off using a recent posts slider where only one post shows at a time. Then, the “Blog” link in the navigation or the search bar at the top of the site can help them find more content if they’re interested in exploring.
2. Include sort functionality and filters for search results. When it comes to online search on your website, you don’t want to use Google’s methodology where the responsibility is on the users to type exactly what they’re looking for. The filtering comes from the user rather than Google’s algorithms.
   Give your visitors an easy way to filter and sort their search results so that the most relevant options present themselves and everything else is weeded out.
3. Limit the variety and number of CTAs
   
   This typically isn’t a problem on internal pages of a website where the structure is simpler:

   This is the topic; This is the call-to-action.

   The home page, however, can be more complex. The home page can be way too long. While it’s important to demonstrate authority and leverage customer testimonials when possible, be careful not to use too much. This is overkill. Then, when visitors get through the bravado, they stumble upon the call-to-action section above where they can:

   • Get a free proposal
   • Call someone
   • Follow them on up to five social media platforms
   • Contact them through the website
   • Learn about how the agency gives back
   • Read more customer reviews

If you’ve already taken up that much time to convince visitors of your trustworthiness, then it’s time to give them one clear call-to-action. It’s up to you to decide what the priority is and then let the navigation provide other options if the primary CTA isn’t a good fit.

Final Thoughts

I know it might seem like a good idea to give your visitors as many options as they want. It almost seems luxurious, right? But when you ask visitors to make too many decisions, you run the risk of creating friction that doesn’t need to be there.

To reduce decision fatigue, take a look at your website and identify those spots where users have to make a choice.

Do I stop and watch this video… or do I request a free consultation?

Do I look at the 24 mattresses available… or do I do a side-by-side comparison of the top 3 top-rated phones to see which ones have the features I need?

Do I buy the item I came here for… or do I spend 20 minutes reviewing the specs of the one that’s 50% off this week?

Your goal is to design a website that turns visitors into customers. But, more than that, your goal is to design a website that turns visitors into satisfied customers. Make the decision-making process simple and easy so that can happen.