TOP TIPS FOR A WINNING WEBSITE
By Samantha Wardman , CornerPost Consulting
Could your website be in need of a little reworking, maybe just a few nips and tucks? Are you confident that your existing website is doing all it can for your business? We certainly appreciate that the idea of writing and designing a website can be daunting. For some businesses, the right website can make or break them. It’s important to remember that your company exists for your customer so you need a website that keeps them coming back time and again and most importantly, gives them what they want.
By investing in a quality and experienced website designer now you’ll most likely save time in the short-term and money in the long-term. So we’ve got some super tips to help you determine whether it’s time for a refresh or brush up on your website’s appeal.
- Have a clear ‘Call to Action’
The aim of any website is to convert visits to business. Often this fails because there is no clear call to action on the site. Common ‘call to actions’ (CTA’s) include phone numbers, ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Get a Quote’ buttons. CTA’s are designed to engage customers and ideally, lead them to a purchase or enquiry.
It’s recommended that your phone number be on the top right of every page and contact info footers should also appear on every page with quick links to your most valuable content. Customers are often looking for key information about your business and need to find it simply and efficiently i.e. is your phone number, address or operating business hours.
- Have an interesting and engaging ‘About Us’ page
Again, remember that your business exists for your customer so make the ‘About Us’ page interesting and informative. Yes, ‘About Us’ is there to provide background or insight into your organisation and its people but like your entire website, this information needs to be geared toward your customer. Visitors to your site will be taking on board the ‘About Us’ information but only in relation to how it can better improve their experience with your business.
- Ensure your website content is informative and engaging
Quality content is vital to attracting your target market. You need to tell your story with useful, informative and engaging information. Together with the way the website looks, the content needs to reflect your brand. It’s necessary for website content to be current, appealing and accurate. Ensure that the information is easy to follow and reads seamlessly. The right content will represent a business of integrity and intelligence. Plus for SEO (Search engine optimisation) it’s a good move to keep content updated regularly and peppered with relevant keywords that people might be searching with for businesses such as yours.
- Ensure your website is visually appealing
Having a visually appealing site is a wonderful way to keep visitors on it. They’ll also be more likely to return and share your site with others if this is the case. In addition to having just the right content, your website needs to look fantastic too. The style and look of the site needs to be reflective of your business and brand. Your site needs to be aesthetically appealing so elements such as colour, fonts and layout are all key considerations.
- Usability – make it logical
Build your website around a visitor’s objective / point of view. Think about why they are using your site and what information or answers they are seeking in viewing it. You, as the business owner, along with your website designer, need to create the website from a customer or user’s perspective. This is necessary to anticipate their needs and deliver to them the right solutions. Make your site user friendly with the most important content easy to find – be it contact details, product information or pricing. Remember that the ‘usability’ factor is just as important as content and design.
- Mobile Friendly Design
Your website must be optimised for mobile devices. At a time when an estimated 75% of people (perhaps as high as 90%) have a smartphone, you’re missing out on valuable business in not having a mobile friendly site.
Another vital consideration in having a mobile compatible website is that in late April of this year, Google introduced an algorithm whereby mobile-friendliness directly impacts on ranking. So if you’re all about SEO and want to ensure your business ranks well when someone does a search on their mobile or tablet, your site must be responsive to these devices. This means that it auto-resizes the content so that the user experience is not negatively affected.
Need help with web design?
We’re the best ones to ask about writing and designing your website. We’ll implement all of the above elements to ensure your website engages your audience, builds your profile and is mobile friendly too. Your site will be responsive with content that is on point. And of course, it will look great thanks to our clever and creative web designers.
Happy Marketing!
