Just a few quick web development thoughts I'd like to share with you while wondering... what ever happened to Buster Douglas?
Hey ya’ll, I have a question for you. Can visitors of your website quickly determine what your company does? If your answer is ‘no’, then it is time to take a serious look at the design and optimization your website.
Your website needs to communicate with your audience what you do, why you do it, and who you do it for. They showed up for a reason and should clearly understand that you have the solution to their problem.
So now you’re asking… what do I need to do to improve my website’s functionality?
Here are 7 tips for improving your website:
1. Develop a clear plan of action
You can almost navigate a nicely designed home blindfolded. Develop a design plan that ensures you’re meeting the desires of your visitors from the first visit to the moment you close the deal. Understanding your target audience will help you design a site that helps build brand awareness and nurture leads. Understanding current customers is also key. What keeps them coming back? Take what you already know about them and use the data to support your development strategy.
2. Evaluate the content and essential elements of your website
The content on your website can detract from or add to the value and message you're trying to communicate. With decreasing attention spans, you need to create a first impression that easily gets the main points across. Short, straight-to-the-point sections of content with appropriate images/icons that are accompanied by clear and concise headers.
Be sure to include social sharing and follow buttons that help to increase social media traffic generated by the audience you currently have. These tools encourage social sharing from the viewpoint and social platforms of your audience.
Guide your visitors through your website. Use call-to-action buttons as a way to provide your visitors with some sort of direction. These buttons help indicate the next step a visitor should take on a particular page. Also provide call-to-actions that offer education materials to help solve their problems. Again, they showed up for a reason.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then please choose your imagery wisely. A chosen image may not be a proper fit with the type of message you're trying to convey to your audience. If possible, use photography of real staff members and the office itself. Otherwise, search for stock photos that closely represent your business culture. This approach helps to bring more authenticity to your brand.
3. Navigation is key
There is nothing worse than a website with disorganized or confusing navigation. It is vital to ensure that your audience can quickly find what they're looking for. Again, attention spans are decreasing. If visitors cannot find what they're looking for, they have no reason to stay and learn about your product or service. A clear and direct navigation bar will insure your audience knows exactly where to go and for what reason.
4. Whitespace is your friend
Whitespace (negative space or empty space) helps to break up the page and increase readability. This refers to areas around page elements that are empty and lacking content or visuals. While whitespace may seem like wasted space, it’s actually necessary for readability. A text-heavy website is often a nonstarter when it comes to site visits.
Don’t run off visitors due to a lack of white space. Review your pages and eliminate unnecessary elements or content that do not serve the purpose or message of the page. If you need some help in this area, take a serious look at websites you visit that are doing this well.
5. Be a good friend to the smartphone crowd
Optimizing your site for mobile users is essential. As you should know, the vast majority of internet users own a smartphone, this includes your audience as well. I’m not sure how you feel but, if the mobile site isn’t functioning properly, I’M OUT. It is very necessary to tailor your website to fit the needs of mobile users. In these busy times, your audience is most definitely “on the go”. Be sure your website can go with them.
6. Be sure your target audience can find you
This process begins with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Develop an SEO plan that considers the common search terms of your audience. Your plan should include creating content that's relevant to your visitor’s needs (see tip #2). Blog posts, videos and testimonials are content elements that can help with this. First, identify popular keyword searches your audience uses that closely match your service offerings. While attracting many visitors can be a good thing, you want them to be the right ones.
7. Broken links lead to broken opportunities
Do a functionality site check. You may have a few pages or links that are obsolete or not working. You may discover previously high performing landing pages that are no longer visible or website pages that are simply unlinked. Unfortunately your visitors, which you’ve worked so hard to attract, are busy. Broken links or dead pages will send them elsewhere.
If you would like some professional help concerning these tips, reach out to us here. We would love to be of service to you.
Be blessed!
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