GIVE YOUR VISITORS AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE WITH SIMPLE ENHANCEMENTS.
Your company’s website is its identity on the internet. First impressions are everything! Building one that attracts users, rather than returning them back to Google’s search results, is the key to driving visitors and sales. A high performing website like this hinges on many factors, including content, design, and structure. Consider these ten website improvements when giving your site its next makeover:
1. MAKE IT RESPONSIVE AND MOBILE-FRIENDLY
About 60% of online searches are now from mobile devices. Since tablets and smartphones are becoming increasingly popular, your website should be optimized for these devices. Ensure that it responds to any screen size by testing it on a variety of devices before launch.
2. USE WHITE SPACE
Sometimes less is more when it comes to design. Crowding your website with imagery and intricate designs can overwhelm visitors and create a negative experience. Consider keeping it clean by incorporating ample white space to balance the use of striking design elements.
3. BREAK UP CHUNKS OF TEXT
Text-heavy pages can cause visitors’ eyes to glaze over as they read. Use bullet points and short paragraphs to make text easier to digest. Keeping your points short and sweet encourages visitors to skim the content and quickly grasp the message you want to relay.
4. FEATURE IMAGES AND VIDEOS
Stimulating visuals in the form of images and videos help keep visitors engaged. Research says that four times as many consumers would prefer to watch a video about a product than to read about it. Use these visuals on your website as alternatives or enhancements to written content for a more enriching user experience.
5. SIMPLIFY NAVIGATION MENUS
Overcrowded and unusually long menus can make your website a nightmare to navigate. Clean them up with short headings and an intuitive structure. If you have multiple items to list in a drop-down, consider using expandable menus to make them more user-friendly.
6. LINK TO SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILES
If you are active on social media, include links to relevant platforms in the header or footer of your website. Brand enthusiasts are extremely likely to follow you across platforms, so make it easy for them to find you.
7. DISTINGUISH HYPERLINKS
When adding a hyperlink to a page on your website, you are telling visitors to click there for more information. Help the links stand out by displaying them in a different font or including an underline to draw the reader’s attention and let them know the text is a link.
8. INCLUDE WELL-WRITTEN CONTENT
Let your ideal user’s online search habits drive the subject of your content. In-depth keyword research can help you accurately identify a direction so you can serve up high-quality content that focuses on these areas of interest. Websites with clunky content deter visitors from sticking around. Also include relevant SEO-friendly keywords to help your website rank higher and stand out in a web search.
9. CATCH YOUR REDIRECTS
Frequently test your website to ensure that you don’t have any broken links or redirects. You may not always find them when launching a site, and others can crop up over time as your site evolves and expands. If you remove or move a page on your website, consider designing a custom 404 error page to alert users that they’ve stumbled upon a bad link or search query.
10. KEEP THE DESIGN CONSISTENT
Like any brand, your website design should be consistent throughout. Ensure that fonts, colors, and the overall look and feel is the same across main, secondary, and commerce-related pages. Switching up the design might lead visitors to believe that they’ve left your site when your ultimate goal is to keep them there.
Enhancing the look and features of your website takes time and effort to create an enjoyable user experience – but it’s worth it. Be sure to continually monitor and fine-tune your website to ensure optimal performance. For more website design inspiration, check out our collection of elements to incorporate and leave out of your next website design.
Need help to improve your website performance? Contact our Madison-area digital marketing professionals to learn more about website improvement techniques that can result in more leads and sales today.
