Let’s face it, in this day and age your website is your front line of defence when it comes to marketing yourself.
It’s the first place people go to find out information about who you are and what it is you do. It’s the first place they go to find out where you’re located or how to get in touch with you, and ultimately, that first opportunity they get to decide on whether they choose you or your competition. After all, first impressions are everything — especially online.
These 5 crucial elements can help you build that stronger online presence and show your potential customers why you’re exactly what it is they’re looking for.
Let’s jump right in, shall we?
1) Clear Navigation
First things first, put yourself in the shoes of who will be coming to your site. What are they trying to get done? What will their intended goals be when browsing through your content?
Maybe it’s to read up on the product or service you offer. Maybe it’s to compare prices with your competition or maybe it’s simply to be able to find your contact information so they can give you a quick call. Whatever the end result might be, a sure fire way to instantly frustrate them is to have a confusing navigation menu.
You’re best solution; Use easy to understand, logical names for the pages on your site. Try not to get too unique or “out there” with the wording for your various page titles. For sites with a large number of pages, consider the use of drop down menus to better organize things and avoid cluttering up and overwhelming your navigation area.
Clear and concise, that’s the name of the game!
2) Being Mobile Friendly
We’ve written a few in depth posts previously about the importance of a mobile responsive website in today’s online culture, so I’ll just graze the surface on this element.
It’s no secret that smartphones and tablets have changed the way people view the web these days. Up until a few years ago, designing for the web meant designing for a desktop computer, now it means designing for anything with an internet connection.
A Responsive Web Design means having a website’s layout, design & coding work to provide the most optimal viewing experience for the user on any device size. With this type of design, as the screen size decreases, the site’s layout, text, and images re-adjust and re-size themselves accordingly. No more zooming in or sideways scrolling needed just to read that content.
3) Contact Information
This element may seem like common sense, and it should be, but you’d be surprised at how uncommon it actually is. How many times have you visited a website and left frustrated because you were unable to find the business’ contact info? Probably far too often. Don’t let your website fall into that category.
At the very least, your email address and/or a contact form should be easily accessible and visible. Opt for text rather than images to display this information so that the user can quickly copy and paste your email or phone number. Pictures make it much more tricky for your visitors to do so on the fly.
Bottom line: Make it as simple as possible for people to find your contact info and be able to get in touch with you.
4) Social Media
It goes without saying that you need to be where your potential customers are – and social media is exactly where they are.
Being active on Facebook and Instagram can help drive more traffic to your site, improve your Google search rankings, and build your brand’s integrity across numerous social platforms. It’s also the perfect way to keep your followers in the know of promotions and events that you may have coming up.
The most important part, however, is making sure you’re actually maintaining and keeping current with your content. Focus on creating engagement with your followers by interacting with them and giving them a reason to want to share what you post with their friends & followers. How does that saying go? They’ll tell 2 friends, and they’ll tell 2 friends…
There’s good reason why viral marketing works.
5) A Clean, Modern Design
Good design is good business.
Keep things simple and easy to read so the visitor comes away with a great understanding of what you’re all about. Don’t try to say everything about yourself on one page by bombarding the user with too much right from the get go.
The design & layout of your website is the most obvious way that your company presents its brand. A clean, friendly look can tell your audience of your company’s professionalism and modernity. Like we mentioned – first impressions are everything.
Is your current site a culprit of any of these 5 elements? If it is get in touch with us and find out how we can help show customers why you’re exactly what they’ve been looking for.
