Posted by Ashley
Let’s be honest with each other; if you’re not making the most of your website, your business is going to suffer. That might sound rather dramatic, but in an online, digital world, it’s becoming even more true with every passing day. In fact, you only have between 3-5 seconds to capture a potential client’s attention before they decide whether your website is worth them browsing. They’re not even looking at your products or services yet, just the home page!
A great way to think about your website is as your business’s online home. Just like you wouldn’t want your office or home to be cluttered, messy, or hard to navigate, you don’t want the same for your website.
Make it Mobile Friendly
Mobile optimization is vital! If you’re unfamiliar with what this means, basically, webpages on a computer are designed to specific sizes that don’t translate well to viewing that same site on your phone. If you’ve ever been on a site on your phone and had to scroll over, or the words were all jumbled together, that’s because that site isn’t mobile-friendly.
Aside from making life so much easier, the biggest thing about having a mobile-friendly site is that 9 times out of 10, the first time someone visits your site will be on their phone. If your site works great on a desktop, your potential customer might never make it that far if your mobile site is a mess! Luckily, mobile optimization is usually fairly simple with the right know-how, no matter your hosting site. We promise mobile optimization will be a game changer for you!
Make it Easy to Find
Have you ever gone to look up a website someone told you about, typed in the business’s name, and then had to run three or four different searches trying to find the site before you finally gave up, or when you did find it, the web address made no sense? Yeah, it’s not so great!
Making your business easy to find online is going to make all the difference to how many potential clients actually get to view your site. This is why we always recommend using clean domain names when you can. We know that sometimes the simplest option isn’t available, but coming up with a unique domain that still makes it easy to find your business is key. Luckily there are a ton of hosting platforms that will let you try out different names before purchasing to see if they’re available, and if they aren’t will suggest alternatives that are.
Make It Easy to Navigate
A website that is hard to navigate is pretty useless. In fact, I remember in the early days of websites, visiting a major US retailer’s website and it being so hard to find anything on that I flat out refused to utilize any of their online features. If I’m honest, I still refuse to use their website unless I absolutely have to, and it’s not even that hard to use anymore! And come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I wrote a whole essay on how much I hated using that website when I was in college. My point is if your site is hard to navigate, people aren’t going to visit it (and may write a very rant-y essay about their experience).
The key to an easy-to-use website is keeping it simple. Most websites don’t need more than 4-5 pages. Your site should only contain the necessary elements to keep your business running. So for some, like those that sell products via their website, need a slightly more complicated infrastructure. But for most of us, we don’t, so don’t over complicate it! Part of navigation is also making sure that your links actually work and actually take you to where they need to go.
Make it Easy to Contact You
If your potential client can’t get in touch with you, they’re never going to become a client. This is why it’s important to ensure your site includes clear, obvious ways to contact you. Make sure the contact info you need people to know is correct, current, and visible.
Another key element is making multiple Call To Actions throughout your website. Every page on your site should have at least two CTA’s pointing visitors to a way to contact you. These can link to a Contact Form, an email pop-up, or a section on your site with your contact info, but whichever one is right for you and your business gives your future clients lots of opportunities to get into business with you.
Make it Consistent
Nothing is more confusing than going to a website and finding that each page has vastly different styles. Or read a home page with cheeky jokes and exclamation points only to switch to an About page with no humor and a down tone. In other words, your site needs to be consistent throughout!
We always recommend deciding on the tone of your business and writing all your copy in that voice. If you run a clown agency, you’re going to write in a different voice than, say, a mortuary. Very different vibes! The same goes for design and layout. Not only should it make sense for who you are as a business, but it should make sense for every page on your site. For instance, stock photos are a great tool for building a website, but if those photos don’t compliment your business, they’re going to look out of place.
And remember that consistency also means keeping your site updated to be consistent with the business you’re running right now. Get rid of outdated information, and routinely update your site to keep up with your business.
Make it Personal
Most consumers aren’t interested in patronizing a cold, lifeless corporation. In fact, most big corporations utilize tone to try and avoid sounding cold and lifeless because they know this. When designing your website, it’s important to be human. Your clients and customers want to know they’re doing business with a regular human with dreams, values, and challenges just like them.
The easiest place to do this is on your About page, but you can also incorporate your humanness in other ways too. A header talking about your ethos when it comes to customer service communicates your values in a big way. Having a mission statement or list of core values, or even including any Philanthropic passions you have as a company, all help to remind people that you’re a human being living your life and doing your best too.
We hope this helps get you thinking about how you can make the most of your website and use it to take your business to a new level. We get it; websites can be tricky, overwhelming, and confusing, which is why we’re here to help!
So if you’re ready to up your website game and create a beautiful online home for your business, our Award Winning Web Designers team is here to help you create the website of your dreams!