Every business owner dreams of having a perfect website with remarkably low bounce rates and exceptionally high conversion rates. This is no small feat so whether you are creating a new website or improving an existing one, work with a professional website design team and follow the guidelines below. Each improvement will help your website inch closer and closer to perfection.
First Impressions: You have only a few seconds to impress a visitor when they land on your home page.
- It should be professionally designed, eye catching, well branded and have a simple, tidy layout.
- Turn off corny music and get rid of any pop-up adverts or flashing gimmicks – they are not as effective as one may think.
- Bring your important messages to the homepage concisely. People tend to skim when reading looking for keywords that are important to them. If these don’t jump right out from the page, they will come to the conclusion that you can’t deliver what they want and will bounce right off.
Navigation: Make it as easy as possible for visitors to navigate around your website. People like to know where they are and where they came from. A navigation maze is a turn off.
- Avoid layers upon layers of pages and don’t duplicate content on separate pages.
- Avoid creating links to static PDFs. People can’t interact with a PDF and the normal ‘back’ button can’t be used so momentum is lost. Don’t be lazy – recreate the information within a proper website page.
Content: Online reading isn’t easy and people don’t automatically read from left to right. They are more likely to scan each page to see what you offer.
- Ensure your content is of the highest quality, uses commonly used words and is concise.
- Focus on the main messages. If you offer too many options the visitor won’t know what to choose and so will choose none.
- Get the content professionally proof read. There is no excuse for errors.
- Break up chunks of text to make those keywords pop out by using:
- Short paragraphs
- Headers and sub headers
- Bullet points
- Varied font – bold, italics
- Write numbers sensibly to improve ease of reading: 100 rather than one hundred; 9 billion rather than 9,000,000,000
- Include ‘Read More’ buttons for those who want to read all the fine details, while keeping the main page short and sweet.
- If you think the font may be a bit on the small side, then it probably is! Enlarge it.
Photos: Images are essential to break up text and to create a website that is visually appealing.
- Always use professional images.
- Use images relevant to the text to reinforce your messages.
Call-to-action: Place your call-to-action buttons above the fold. The less a visitor needs to scroll to find them, the more likely they are to take action.
- Have a Contact Us button on every page.
- Include a Customer Service section so customers can call a real person to discuss their questions.
About Us: Tell people about you, your company, your background and philosophy. New visitors like to know who they will be dealing with.
Social Media: If you have a social media presence (as of course you should) include the relevant buttons on your webpage, above the fold rather than hidden in a footer.
Search Engine Optimization:
If you want to entice new visitors to sign up for more news, contact you or make a purchase you need to stay on top of your game. Use Google Analytics to review your visitor bounce rates and the time they spend on each page so you can tweak your website pages accordingly. Website maintenance is a never ending endeavor, and each time you modify something, check the impact on visitor numbers and conversions. Try these steps out so you can shift closer to a flawless website.