Yet to invest in a dedicated website for your business or company? Then there’s a whole lot you’re missing in terms of new business.
Your Facebook page is important, but that doesn’t make it a replacement for a nicely designed website that snugly matches your brand.
Think of your website as your digital home. That’s where every single one of the online visitors you attract converge to transact with you or learn more about your business.
This post covers some of the best web design practises to observe and make sure you’re heading in the right direction. If you happen to already own a website, then use the points highlighted as a checklist of the things to improve on.
Here goes the list:
Simple and User-friendly Navigation
Online branding is all about telling your story in the simplest way possible. Users who visit your site have limited time on their hand and in the event that your site ends up loading like terrapin or is too complicated to navigate to a section they’re interested in, then you shouldn’t be expecting them to try that hard. Instead, they’ll simply hit the exit button or try replacing it with something else.
Reachable and Easy-to-spot Contact Information
It’s simple logic – your online visitors will one day want to contact you. And if this is the case, then they shouldn’t have a hard time locating your contact information. Even more importantly, when they do, they should be sure of at least getting a response from you.
But how can they get a response from you if you’re unreachable via the contact information you’ve provided? Mind you, any time you fail to respond to an inquiry, you risk losing new businesses. Worse is the effect a poor response rate has on your credibility and trust.
Good Design for a Better Impression
While your site’s aesthetics aren’t as important as its overall functionality and simplicity of use, it does play a big role in determining how users view your business. You certainly want your site to have a good impression on the people who visit it for the first time, so why NOT work on the graphic and overall site structure to strike that appeal?
Establish Yourself as a Real Pro or Expert in Your Area of Specialization
Share what you know with your online visitors and they’ll learn to trust you. The point is to position yourself as someone who understands what you do. Speaking of which the easiest way you can do this is by including a blog section to your site, where you’ll be supplying your visitors with original and informative content for them to read through and learn something entirely new. It’s also important that you respond to their questions so they can learn to trust you and view you as the authority voice you are.
Install Google Analytics
Google Analytics allow you to keep track of your site’s performance so you can come up with sound ways to improve it. With the tool installed on your site, you can know the number of people that visit your site, which page do they frequent the most, and from which corner of the world.
Invest in SEO
SEO is all about positioning yourself favourably in the search engines so you can start attracting an insane amount of organic traffic via search engines.
When people visit search engines to search for your products or services, how easy is it for them to find you?
As per the latest research findings, by dropping down to the second search engine result page, then you’re likely to experience a 25% drop in the number of people who click through the results shown to visit your site.
You have the option to learn about SEO and bootstrap or consider hiring a real professional to analyze your site and help you figure out the best way forward.
Incorporate Videos
Search engines also rank videos. Users are presented with YouTube videos every time they hit search engines with their search queries. YouTube thumbnails will be among the results presented in the SERPs.
Among the content you provide, consider creating video to appeal further to search engines and in extension your online visitors. The video don’t have to be that complicated. They can be simple how-to videos or vlog of what your business is all about.
What is important is for you to optimize the video titles for Search Engine Optimization by capitalizing on a list of keywords you wish to rank higher on. Keep in mind that users tend to warm up more to video content compared to text. So you can expect them to share your content around even more for a more widespread reach.
Consistent Branding
The style and colour palette you choose for your website should be consistent across all online platforms and promotional materials. Those visiting your site should be able to tell from first glance that they’re dealing with the right business or company. In addition to that, a consistent branding also helps to show that your business is well organized and professional enough to be trusted.
It’s NOT a must that you Sign Up with Every Social Media Channel Out there
Social media marketing is NOT easy. It’s NOT just about making regular posts on the various social media platforms and expecting everything to magically fall in place. There’s a lot to work on, which takes a great deal of determination and hard work on your part.
So instead of targeting every social media network out there, then why NOT pick on a few to dedicate a good chunk of your online time and effort on? This will ensure that you get to reap the most from the little effort you apply instead of directing a long list of random channels on a humble.
Make a Point to Reach Out To Prospects
While it’s advisable to work on attracting prospects to you, there’s no harm in reaching out to them via email or ad spaces. The links you post on these channels of communication will direct your prospect to your homepage or landing page, which is a good starting point to direct someone on what you wish to see them do.
It’s a Wrap
The ideas listed are meant to help you make the most out of your business website. Just in case your site fails to measure up to the above standards, then simple logic demands that you consider refreshing it or giving it a complete overhaul. Go into the list one by one and make necessary changes to your website and marketing strategy where possible.
For suggestions on how best you can improve your site or position yourself favourably for more business and traffic, you’re invited to contact MediaOne today with your query or free website design and development consultation.
