There are currently more than 644 million websites on the internet. But not all of these websites are doing well. Many of them are aging, full of outdated information, or just plain irrelevant.
Unfortunately, despite that fact that many of these websites are low-quality, they can often rank higher than your website due to their link building efforts, time as an authority, and high click-through rates from previous years.
In order to compete, your business has to create a successful website that knocks out the competition so that your company wins the sale every time. Check out this article to learn what you can do to shape the optimum website strategy.
1. Cut Down on the Noise
While your customers need to know what your product or business is about when they visit your website, they don’t need to learn it all on your first page.
Too many companies make the mistake of loading down their home page with contact information, an introduction to the company, as well as links to everything from blog posts to newsletter sign-ups, to social media contests.
Your website should be a place for you to showcase your business and what it offers. You should never make your potential customers feel overwhelmed.
Decide what the purpose for your website will be and cut down all the other noise. Are you trying to educate people about your brand? Sell them a new product? Or build a brand following? Defining your goals before you design your website will help you make a clear path for your customers to follow along the sales funnel.
2. Use Imagery to Convey Emotion
If the images you use on your website are just pictures of your products or stock images that bear little relevance to your business, then you are wasting a fantastic opportunity to make a meaningful impression on potential customers.
The images on your website should effectively guide your viewers through the web page and act as a way to direct them towards other parts of your webpage such as sign-ups, prices, and contact forms.
Make sure all of the images you use are high-quality and that they fit in a cohesive style with the rest of your website. They should also make sense for your products. If you are a dentist and display a photo of a woman smiling, but not with her teeth, then you could accidentally send the wrong message to potential customers.
3. Use Consistent Design Elements
The aesthetics of your website are key to creating conversions and making sales. If you want to gain and keep a potential customer’s interest, then you need to use a consistent color palette as well as typography scheme.
Websites that use too many different fonts or colors distract the viewer from what is on the page and can make a company look disorganized. But a great color scheme and consistent typefaces will show that your business cares about the details and is thorough in its efforts.
4. Always Keep Your Audience in Mind
While it might seem obvious to some, the entire purpose of your website is to communicate with your target audience. Your goal is to share your goods and services with them and trigger some sort of action.
If you want the right response, you need to use images of models that resemble your target customer and show them using your product.
Along this line of thinking, it might be a good idea to use conventional web design templates for your website. While you may want to create something spectacular and interesting, a conventional page will make it easy for potential customers to navigate and purchase your product.
5. Choose a Great Domain Name
A great domain name is simple and conveys what your business is clearly. Try to avoid anything with a dash in it or something other than a .com domain name.
While they might be more available and cheaper, it is more likely that your customer will assume that you use a .com address and not be able to find your website.
6. Create Compelling Content
Compelling content is the best way to drive traffic to your website, whether it be through social media or search engine optimization.
Take the time to learn what your customers are concerned about and address their concerns in relevant blog posts. That way you can educate potential purchasers about how your brand or product can help them.
7. Use Customer Testimonials
Customer testimonials are the most valuable form of review you can feature on your website. By showing how happy your existing customers are, potential customers will better be able to see themselves using your products or services.
Just make sure you don’t feature too many over-the-top glowing reviews. People will not find them sincere and it can have a detrimental effect on your business.
8. Pay Attention to Load Time
With technology getting faster all of the time, many people have very little patience for page load time. If it takes more than twenty seconds for your page to load, then you can forget about that customer.
Don’t lose visitors over something you can easily fix. Take the steps to optimize your load time.
How to Design a Successful Website
Designing a successful website is about more than putting the right elements in place. It also requires a sophisticated marketing strategy, search engine optimization techniques, and social media marketing efforts.
Trying to become an expert in all of these different fields can take a lot of time away from your budding small business. Make the right decision, and hire the experts to handle your website design and development.
Contact us today for a consultation.