When it comes to business marketing, an ingenious website can be one of the most effective marketing channels out there. Keep these five tips in mind if you’re planning on designing and developing a new site:
1. Make your website irresistible.
In 2012, Google confirmed that it takes about 50 milliseconds for users to determine whether they like your site or not. It is important that your site is designed with a good use of basic design principles because an irresistible website design will grab and hold your visitor’s attention. For starters, your site should include a consistent header and footer, great contrast between text and background, and a good balance of text, images and white space on each page. Grids, blocks, columns, Flash, CSS designs or CSS+JavaScript can all be used as your website’s foundation. In our opinion, the best layouts use a customized structure that appeals to your target audience. In this day and age, the most appealing websites are fast-loading and responsive.
2. Be visual.
People no longer just want to browse a website, they want to experience it! The key to designing a noteworthy website is the use of a wide range of engaging media. Carefully chosen images, videos and graphics can help your visitors connect with your site, draw attention, and boost your conversions. The media you choose to use should support and balance out the text on your website. It should also carry a necessary message and persuade your visitors to act and shop. If it’s within your budget, invest in an experienced photographer or videographer and stay away from stock pictures and videos that aren’t relevant to your content. It might cost a few bucks, but it will add a lot of value to your website.
3. Guide your users.
Your website’s navigation is basically it’s table of contents. If your navigation is difficult to use, your visitors will leave your site. There is no point in spending your precious time on creating a new website if your users can’t maneuver their way through it! Great navigation should take you one step closer to getting in touch with a prospect or landing a sale. Make sure that your users can locate necessary information as soon as possible, without having to search through a slew of extra information.
A call to action is a line of text that urges your site’s visitors to take immediate action. Some examples include “buy now,” “get a quote,” or “download file.” You can easily guide your users by using call to action buttons throughout your site, as they will directly lead them to your registration, purchase or contact pages.
4. Optimize for SEO.
In order to have great SEO, your website needs a high ranking from the search engines. A higher rank will bring more visitors to your site. Search Engine Optimization is a marketing method that’ll help your prospects find your site when they use your targeted keywords in web search queries. If you don’t optimize your site, search engines won’t be able to recommend it in relevant searches.
Keyword research is a very important component of SEO. Ranking for the right keywords can make or break your website. An online resource like Google Trends or a professional like your website specialist can help you come up with a list of relevant keywords that are based on popular search terms. These targeted keywords should be directly related to your products, services, and company. After your list of keywords is created, we recommend inserting them into your website’s copy. Try including them in these 5 places for better a ranking:
- Page Title
- URL
- Body Text
- Image Tags
- Meta Description
5. Know that content is king.
Even though the look of a website design will draw in visitors, it is the content that keeps them around. Consistent and freshly updated copy will aid in the popularity and success of your site. Make sure that the text on your website is written with your target audience in mind. Your content should also be interesting enough to encourage people to return. Low quality content will greatly affect your search result rankings. Your website’s content needs to achieve the following to rank high on search engines:
- Catches the attention of your prospect
- Makes the prospect feel like you’re talking to them directly
- Describes the benefit of your product or service with sincerity
- Positions your company as an industry expert
- Offers the prospect an incentive to buy immediately
- Motivates the prospect to ask for more information or contact you
Are you in need of a new website? Do you want to improve your site’s SEO? One of our Ballistic Artists would be happy to assist you. Call us now at 604.553.1081, send us an email, or visit our online contact page to set up an appointment.
