Written by Lilly Steel, Managing Director
In the fast paced and ever-changing world of web design, it’s important to recognise whether your website is on trend or if it’s lacking in style both aesthetically, and in user experience.
With experience in website design and development, we understand just how important securing the right presence online is for organisations big and small. Our expertise enables us to help start-ups and small to medium sized businesses identify whether their current website is working hard behind the scenes to meet goals and objective through design and functionality.
When questioning if your website is dated and in need of a refresh, ask yourself the following questions:
Is what you’re offering/the services you’re providing clear on the homepage?
Can your visitors easily navigate your website to find what they want?
Is your website easily accessible via search engines?
If the answer to any of these questions have made you question the effectiveness of your website, then LS Media and Marketing can definitely help. Stick around as we take you through our top 4 website tips that’ll help improve your website’s performance, make it easier for users to engage and improve your conversion rates.
1. Navigation
We find that website owners rarely consider their end user journey when signing off final designs, missing vital links and pathways. We’ve come across websites plastered with irrelevant homepage content and images that simply don’t serve any purpose and merely confuse the reader. That’s why it’s essential to get your website right, or risk losing potential customers.
If it helps, think of your website as your online map, in which your homepage navigation displays the core places your visitor can explore. It’s important to ensure your visitors can easily find what they’re looking for by adopting the 2 click method. By having all landing pages and important information 2 clicks away, you’re keeping your website simple and appealing to the masses with easy navigation. If you’ve got a large site, and fear that 2-click navigation is out of reach, ensuring your important content can be found by your user with ease holds the same importance.
However, if your site is somewhat of a jungle and you fear users may still get lost, try implementing a chatbot so people can ask questions as soon as they visit your site – giving you a much higher chance of conversion.
Remember, if users can’t find what they’re looking for, they have no reason to stay on your website and will look elsewhere.
2. Make it easy to find
Even the best website is deemed useless if it can’t be found. That’s where SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) comes in.
Effective SEO can seem daunting as it requires a detailed strategy, constant analysis, and time. But, that’s why we’ve narrowed down the basic SEO elements needed to help you tackle your website’s visibility:
Add a XML sitemap. This is a file for search engines (not humans) that helps them easily understand the structure of your website.
Optimise images. How quickly a website loads plays a part in your search engine rankings. Large images can slow down your site and affect your online visibility.
Remove broken links. Sites and pages with broken links don’t make for quality content or a good user experience, which is what search engines want to see.
Add a SSL certificate. An important security protocol that creates an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser. In short, an SSL certificate will not only secure your site but let your visitors know their information is safe.
Add meta titles and meta descriptions. This information, added to the back-end of your website pages, is what appears on search engine results pages.
3. Call to action
Whilst getting people to your website is step 1, without any direction they won’t know what to do next. That’s why including a call to action button is important when it comes to outlining the next step you want your visitor to take, whether it’s subscribing to a newsletter, filling out a contact form, looking at your social channels or downloading a document.
Call to actions not only allow you to engage further with your visitors by converting them to a lead rather than just a prospect, but by being creative and following compliancy regulations, you’re able to extract their information to contact them further about your offering. Just because they haven’t converted instantaneously, doesn’t mean they won’t after receiving a call or newsletter.
4. Responsiveness
Mobile optimisation… just because it’s last doesn’t mean it’s any less important!
Many businesses fail before they’ve barely begun by not considering their mobile experience as a priority. It’s best to remember that while your website may look great on a desktop, if it’s not optimised for smaller screens you’re likely to lose navigation, making your website a lot harder to access and read on a mobile.
Over 90% of internet users own a smartphone, and Google says that 61% of users are unlikely to return to a site they had trouble accessing from their phone, resulting in 40% of these users visiting a competitor’s website instead.
So, don’t miss out on website visitors because your website isn’t optimised for smaller screens. Speak with website designers, such as ourselves, if you feel like you’re missing a trick when it comes to mobile optimisation. And, if you’re site isn’t optimised for mobile at all, we strongly advise you get this sorted!
Consider these 4 tips to help you evaluate your existing website and improve your business’s image and reach, with attractive visuals, excellent user experience and effective visibility.
If you’re looking to audit your current website or want to launch something new, our team are on hand to help develop website designs to suit your business’s image, goals and objectives.
LS Media and Marketing can take care of everything, from planning, mock designs and website development through to copywriting and SEO. Contact us today if you think your website is in need of a refresh and we can get the ball rolling!
