Studies have shown that you have less than 3 seconds to impress your potential customers with your website or they will click off your page.
This means that to have a successful website, you have 3 seconds to convey…Who you are, What you do, Who you do it for and Why they should choose you! Continue reading to Understand the Essentials of a Successful Website.
1. CLEAR AND CONCISE TAGLINE
Have a clear and concise tagline. Your tagline and first couple of sentences should clearly tell your target customers what your brand is about and what benefits you offer.
2. CLEAR CALL TO ACTION
Have a clear call to action. Think about what you want your customers to do. Do you want them to call? Buy now? Visit your store? Call to actions (CTA’s) are designed to engage with your customer at the best point on the web page and subtly encourage them to a next step. One very basic CTA is your telephone number in the top righthand corner of every page on the website. We also recommend your contact details in the footer section along with links to your most profitable content. These are particularly important for viewing on a mobile phone, where your customers often just want your phone number, address and hours of office.
3. ENGAGING ‘ABOUT US’ PAGE
Have an engaging ‘About Us’ page. Your ‘About Us’ page tells your target customers why you do, what you do. If your excited to get out of bed in the morning and go to work – let your customers know. Don’t just give them facts – give them the benefits your business provides to them. If you are a lawn mower man, no one wants to read that you use a Honda Lawnmower HRE370 with magnetic brakes, 1.3kw electric engine…Zzzzzzzz! They want to read that you make their life easy by cutting their grass, neatly trimming the edges and cleaning up before you go. All you leave is a backyard that’s fun to use on a sunny day.
4. TRACK AND MEASURE
It’s important you track and measure how many sales and enquiries you are getting on your website. As a good website designer, we are able to assist with tracking your conversions. This ensures you are able to measure your marketing spend, evaluates the success of any improvements and ultimately measures the success of your website.
5. HIGH QUALITY CONTENT
High quality content is a must. You can not portray your story, attract your target customers, explain what you do or why you do it or help customers solve their problems without quality content. Everything written, be it in your website, emails or newsletters, should be engaging, informative and useful. High quality content shows authority and integrity and your customers are more likely to trust and purchase from you. Invest time and effort into your content and your business will reap the rewards.
6. GREAT USER EXPERIENCE
When designing a website, the number one question we ask is “How will your target customer want to use this website?” A website which is built around your customer’s objectives and requirements will be much more engaging and improve your conversions. What problems do you help solve for your customers and why are your customers coming to your website? By knowing these answers we are able to make it easy for your customers to find the content they need, whether it be your contact information, product pricing or general information about your business. Wrapping this information in a visually appealing website will add to their user experience.
7. VISUALLY APPEALING
Your customers will remain on your website longer if it is visually appealing along with user friendly. They will most likely tell their friends about your website too. When thinking about the best way to design your website consider these factors… Are there colours that will create emotion? What fonts would work best expressing my business? BEACH WARE looks better than BEACH WARE
Be creative and set yourself apart from everyone else – make sure your brand is presented in the best possible way. Remember, you have less than 3 seconds to impress your target customers.
8. MOBILE FRIENDLY DESIGN
Your website must be mobile friendly with a responsive web design. More than 50% of all internet viewing is now on a smartphone or tablet. Viewing an old, desk top only website is very clunky on a smartphone, with navigation menus and click links not responding properly. If your website is old and non-responsive, we suggest its time for a renovation and upgrade.
9. MARETING STRATEGY
It is important to have a marketing strategy and even more important to be willing to change what isn’t working. There are many online options to attract traffic and convert visitors into paying customers. For example, search engine optimisation (SEO) packages, pay per click (PPC) advertising, email marketing and social media engagement. All work but all are dependant on your business needs. If one avenue isn’t working, change! And keep changing until you find what does work for your business.
FINALLY…
the essentials of a successful website can be implemented by a great web design company. You are in business to do what you do. Website designers are in business to make what you do look good and encourage your business growth and profit. By partnering with the right website design agency you will get a professional online presence and your return on investment will be an asset rather than an expense.
Contact Strathfield Web Design on (02) 9742 5635 now to get your business online.