When it comes to building a great website, great design isn’t everything. Performance is the only metric that matters.
Several weeks ago on our website www.CollegeCures.com we moved from a free WordPress theme (albeit heavily modified and CSS-ed) to a premium theme, Pagelines Framework. Though we sacrificed some design initially, I couldn’t help but share the incredible transformation that took place in how visitors interact with the site after our WordPress theme upgrade. We saw phenomenal improvement in visit length, page views per visitor, bounce rate and mobile performance.
Simply switching our free WordPress theme to a premium, responsive WordPress theme called Pagelines Framework, gave us the following incredible results:
- Pages Per Visit: +285%
- 7.92 from 2.06
- Average Visit Duration: +179%
- 7:03 from 2:31
- Bounce Rate: -55%
- 26.09% from 58.03%
- Mobile Bounce Rate: -23.7%
- 59.05% from 76.43%
Remember that user experience is what drives a successful website. Remember that creating an environment where your visitors want to stick around is the goal. Remember that each individual effort you make to improve your website experience will benefit countless times in the the long and short term.
In this case, something as simple as upgrading our WordPress theme made an incredible impact. What changes could you make on your website that would please your visitors instantly? Hint: Try different things.
Until next time, keep on that WordPress, and for the millionth time, use Pagelines Framework: it is incredible.