Persuasive Design: How Visual Hierarchy Converts Browsers Into Guests
Want to increase direct bookings for your vacation rental with pool?
Most vacation rental owners spend thousands on professional photography and USD485 listing fees, but guess what…
If your website has bad visual hierarchy – it doesn’t matter.
Website visitors will leave before they ever see those nice pictures of your pool.
But here’s some good news…
There are some easy fixes to your visual hierarchy that are…
- Cost-effective
- Straightforward
…and can dramatically increase your bookings overnight.
In this guide you’ll learn:
- What Is Visual Hierarchy (And Why Should You Care)?
- Why Visual Hierarchy Matters For Vacation Rentals
- The 4 Principles That Drive Conversions
- How To Properly Structure Your Listing Pages
Let’s dive into it.
What Is Visual Hierarchy?
Visual hierarchy is how you organise your content elements on a page so visitors naturally see the most important things first.
Visual hierarchy leads the eye from element to element in a predetermined order. When done correctly every headline, photo and button plays a role in pushing visitors closer to one goal…
Booking your property.
Without visual hierarchy your website becomes cluttered and confusing. Visitors don’t know what to read, what to click on, or where to look first. This matters because in the vacation rental industry milliseconds matter. Whether someone is searching for luxury villa rentals in Miami or budget cabins near Yellowstone, if your listing page isn’t designed correctly, they’ll leave.
Simple as that.
Why Visual Hierarchy Matters For Vacation Rentals
Here’s another fun fact…
Website visitors make split-second judgements about your site. Studies show it takes someone less than 50 milliseconds to form an opinion. Let that sink in…
You have half a second to make a good impression.
Within those milliseconds, your visual hierarchy will make or break trust with your visitor. And when it comes to vacation rental websites, trust is king. Someone wants to know you’re legitimate, your property is kept clean and it’s worth the money they’re about to spend. Building this trust starts with great visual hierarchy.
Let’s say you have a vacation rental with pool that offers world-class amenities but your pages look like a yard sale. Chances are that visitor will bounce to the next property. Now let’s say your property didn’t have a pool but your website was immaculate. Which property would they book?
Keeping up with industry trends like this is why bookings through direct websites are predicted to make up 34% of all reservations. Renters want to book directly but you have to make it easy for them.
And that starts with great visual hierarchy.
The Core Principles That Drive Conversions
Alright. You got the “why” so let’s talk about some actual tactics you can use to fix your visual hierarchy. Each principle is broken down below with an explanation of why it works.
Size And Scale
This goes without saying but it’s worth repeating. Larger items on the page are more important than smaller ones. Simple as that.
Your large, eye-catching photo of the rental with pool should be at the top of your page. Next to grabbing attention, it sets the tone for your entire page.
Directly below the photo should be your headline. Keep it bold, large and benefit-driven. “Wake Up To Ocean Views And Your Private Pool” will outperform “Sunset Island Villa” every single time.
Subheadings, descriptions, amenities lists, pricing… All of these items should decrease in size as the visitor scrolls down your page.
Contrast And Colour
Want to know what scares visitors more than cluttered websites? Hard to read text.
That means you should make your primary call-to-action button stand out as much as possible. Bold color against a muted background and whitespace around it.
White space is your friend. This cannot be stressed enough. Too many vacation rental websites try and fit too much information on one page. When you have too many items fighting for attention, nothing stands out.
Simple fixes like ensuring plenty of contrast between your CTA and background goes a long way.
Strategic Placement
You know how when you open up a magazine and the first thing you see is a huge bold headline?
That’s because the magazine company knows where people will look first.
Everything on your listing page isn’t created equal. The most important place on your page is above the fold. Above the fold is the section of the page a visitor sees without scrolling.
Always place your best photo, main headline, unique selling proposition (pool!), and booking button above the fold. Don’t force them to scroll down to find out more. Stats show above-the-fold CTAs receive 304% more clicks.
Better booking rates don’t get much more cut and dry than that.
The F-Pattern Layout
In a study by Nielsen Norman Group, participants were asked to look at a web page while their eye movements were recorded. The results showed users read the screen in an F-pattern.
Users read across the top, then down the left side before heading back to the right. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.
Use this to your advantage by placing your rental name and key benefit on top. Then create a column down the left side with your key features and benefits. (Pool again!) Lastly, place your booking widget where their eyes naturally land.
It may sound too good to be true, but you’re aligning your layout with the exact way people process information. When you do that, magic happens.
How To Structure Your Listing Pages
Okay, now there’s a basic understanding of what visual hierarchy is and some of the principles that set high-converting pages apart.
But what do high converting pages even look like?
If you structure your pages like this, you’re utilizing great visual hierarchy:
Above The Fold
- Large eye-catching photo with your USP showing
- Clear concise headline
- Booking button
Below The Fold
- Chunky paragraphs of testimonials
- Star ratings / Google badge
- Info on your amenities (Don’t forget to mention your pool)
- Neighborhood highlights
- Additional photos
- STRONG CTA Button
Does your website currently follow this format? More than likely it doesn’t, and that’s okay.
Start by making small changes and testing different scenarios. Try placing your call-to-action below the fold and measuring how many people scroll. You’ll be surprised how many don’t!
Try moving your booking widget to the left side of your page. Something as simple as this has been shown to increase conversions by 25%.
There’s no secret sauce here. Just lots of experimentation and lots of testing. And that’s how you’ll find your sweet spot.
Wrapping It All Up
Great visual hierarchy is invisible to the naked eye. When done correctly, visitors take in everything you want them to while getting ushered towards booking your property.
Let’s recap:
- Size and scale — bigger items are viewed before smaller ones
- Contrast — Ensure your buttons are obvious
- Placement — Above the fold is king
- Layout — Align your page with natural eye movement patterns
These are just some basic principles that you can implement on your vacation rental website right now. Implementing better visual hierarchy can mean the difference between a fully booked year and thousands of dollars lost.
Visual hierarchy is simple when you understand how the human eye works. Once you grasp that, it becomes easy to build websites that consistently convert.