How could someone who created this masterpiece possibly teach us anything about conversion rate optimization? Especially, because it was painted before the internet or computers were even thought about.
Well, take a look at the picture. What catches your eye? Where you naturally drawn to placing your focus?
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Here’s the thing, da Vinci cleverly positioned Jesus so that he was framed in front of the window. Using the ‘natural light’ to make him appear brighter than everyone else in the picture.
Now let me tell you the whole story, making one element of a web page stand out is a technique that is often used to draw the visitor’s attention to something we want them to notice and take an action on. You wouldn’t blend your add to cart button into the background of your webpage, would you?
What’s also clever about the way da Vinci has painted The Last Supper is that he has created some space between Jesus and the people either side of him. On a web page, leaving some ‘white space’ around an object is a proven technique to draw attention to it. The reason you would do this because you want your visitors to notice it. For example, the price of a product or a button that you want them to click.
And another thing, nearly everyone in the painting is subtly pointing towards Jesus. If you are choosing images for your Shopify store, have ones with people looking at or subtly pointing at your product or the button you want them to click. Doing this is a proven way of increasing your conversion rate.
Now, this is how it works, people look at people so having images of them using or at least holding your product will improve your conversion. Doing this is far more interesting than a boring image of your product.
The Magic Square
But there is something else, great photographers and graphic designers have long known of a particular spot on the canvas to which your eye is irresistibly drawn.
This square is nicknamed the “Magic Square” and is centered at the intersection of the upper-right matrix lines when a picture is divided into 9 rectangles.
Take a look at this other piece of da Vinci’s work. Knowing that your eye will go to the magic square. Great artists like da Vinci will put something there for your eye to find.
The painting of The Last Supper proves this is not an unbreakable rule. But it’s an interesting tip for the next time you’re trawling through stock photography. Trying to find a suitable image to use on your website.
On the other hand, visual clutter is nobody’s friend so above all, keep your web pages clean and simple. This is because every new element you add to the layout of your web page reduces the importance of the others.
The Golden Rule for Conversion Rate Optimization
There’s a golden rule to direct-response web page design and that’s “one page, one action.”
What this means is that you shouldn’t try to get your web visitors to take too many actions on a single page. They will just get confused about what they’re supposed to do and then leave. So, if you’re trying to get them to add an item to the cart and opt-in to your newsletter all on the same page. Your conversion rate may suffer. Less is definitely more.
I’m sure you have wondered where started with conversion rate optimization. It’s probably something you’ve had on your to-do list for a long time but haven’t had 5-minutes to give it any real attention.
Here’s the thing, it’s the difference that makes the difference to an e-commerce store. The most successful Shopify store owners all do one thing, they test. They test every element of every page of their websites. The return on investment is huge. And the best part is that your competition won’t have a clue how you’re so much more profitable than them.
If you want to improve your conversions, check out my conversion rate optimization course. But if you’d rather shortcut the learning curve, we created the highest converting Shopify theme too.
