We’ve all heard the old cliche – less is more. But, is it really true? When it comes to web design, the answer is yes. Simple website design offers benefits that more complex websites can’t match. While you may like the look of elaborate designs, when designing for function simplicity will win out every time. Digital marketing expert Neil Patel points out: Far too often I see websites try to jam too much information into a very small space. The navigation is confusing, and it’s overwhelming for anyone viewing the site. If this is starting to sound like the layout of your website, it could be the reason why your conversion rates are unsatisfactory. Even if you don’t think your design is too cluttered, there’s always room for improvement. Taking the time to streamline your website will create a better user experience and serve your business better. Here are 5 important benefits of simple website designs: Simple websites convert better. Simple web designs load faster. Simple designs are more mobile-friendly. Simple websites cost less. Simple websites reduce user friction. Let’s take a look at each of these benefits to see how you can make it work on your business website. Simple Websites Convert Better. The website landing page is a specific type of webpage whose entire purpose is to convert. The golden rule of designing a landing page that converts well? Keep it simple. Simple design makes it easy to draw the viewer’s eye to the most important area of the page – and, if you’re looking for conversions, that’s your call to action. Navigating a cluttered interface is no fun. It can be confusing, overwhelming and frustrating. And, it makes it harder for users to find and complete a call to action. Here are two easy ways to simplify your web design to improve conversions… Limit Your Menu Options It can be tempting to show your audience everything you have to offer right off the bat. But, that may not be the best choice. You want your website to be informative and user-friendly. But, offering too many navigation options is more likely to overwhelm your viewers than it is to help them. You’ll see conversions increase if you limit your menu options to just the essentials. A menu full of intriguing destinations on your website many entice viewers to click in deeper before they have a chance to act on the call to action right in front of them. Conversely, users may be paralyzed by a wealth of menu options and subsequently click away entirely if they don’t see what they want right away. The more menu options are present (and the more information your viewers have to sift through), the more decisions they have to make. And, decision fatigue is a real threat to your conversions. Psychologist Barry Schwartz, the author of The Paradox of Choice, points out: The more options we have, the less likely we are to make a choice because we’re paralyzed [with indecision]; or, if we overcome paralysis and make a choice, we tend to be less satisfied with our choice later. The bar [for obtaining satisfaction] rises with the more options people have to choose from. Make life easier for your audience by giving them as few navigation decisions to make as possible. And make sure the decisions they do have to make really count. Focus Attention on Your Call to Action The more opportunities you provide on your website to buy something, sign up for emails, or subscribe to your blog, the better… Right? Wrong. Pulling your viewer’s focus in too many directions at once will decrease the likelihood that they will actually act on any of those opportunities. (Decision fatigue – remember?) Simplify your web page and increase your conversions by eliminating anything that may draw focus from your call to action. In fact, go one step further, by using the design elements to guide the eye directly to the CTA. If you’re aiming for strong conversions, make your call to action the primary focus of your webpage. You should, of course, feel free to promote multiple offers on your website. But, limit each offer to its own page so that it can get the attention it truly deserves. Simple Website Designs Load Faster. Website load speeds are vitally important to the user experience; and, as a result, to your business. Did you know that viewers start abandoning your website after mere seconds of load time? Between seconds 4 and 5 of your website’s load time, 20% of viewers have already left your site. The number only increases from there. And, not only that, search engines take your website’s load time into consideration when calculating your ranking. A faster load time means a higher placement in the search engine results. If you want to optimize your website for speed – which you should – complex web designs are the enemy. So, pare back complex graphics. Simplify elaborate layouts. Minimize your photos and graphics to speed up load times. Trim your copy and compress your video files. Faster load times keep viewers around longer, create a better user experience, and increase the likelihood that viewers will even find your website in the first place. Simple Designs Are More Mobile-Friendly. As of 2017, 63% of all web traffic took place on mobile devices. This means that how your website looks on mobile is just as important – if not more so –  than how it looks on a laptop or desktop computer. Simple web design is easier to translate into a small mobile screen than a busy, visually complex design. This may be one of the most compelling benefits of simple design – with so much web traffic via mobile, creating ease-of-use for mobile users is a no-brainer. Sure, you could maintain two websites – one for desktop and one for mobile. But, that requires twice as much work. It’s far better to have one simple responsive design that can easily transition from laptop to phone to tablet while maintaining the design’s integrity. With fewer moving pieces to juggle, simple websites with limited design elements are just naturally more flexible.