Whenever someone comes to your house, you want to put your best foot forward and leave a good impression on them. You wouldn’t invite people over to your house, if it was messy, and not give them the proper treatment, such as food, drinks etc. Well, the same attitude reigns true for your website.
When a visitor comes to your website, you only have a matter of seconds, to grab their attention. Studies have shown, that the average web visitor will read around 20% of the text on the page. If your website is messy, with things all over the place, lacks a call to action or clear message, then you can expect your visitors to not stick around for very long.
Below are 7 ways that you can improve your website, whether it’s for extra conversions, readers or the like.
1. Make Your Site Responsive
We’ve witnessed, over this past couple of years, more and more people using their mobile phones to access the internet, because of this, web designers have started to make responsive sites, sites that alter to fit the screen of the device you are viewing it on. Additionally, search engines started to penalise websites for not being mobile friendly. So, if you have a website, one thing you’ll want to ensure is that it’s responsive, and if it’s not, then you should get to it, right away. If you have a responsive website, you can expect an increase in search engine rankings, more visitors and happier customers.
2. Call to Action Colour Scheme
You’ll want to ensure that the colours that you use for your call to action button(s) are contrasting. For example, if you have a bluish website, then you may want to go with warm colours, like orange and yellow.
If you are able to give your visitors some kind of idea where the link takes them, then you are more likely to get the result that you intend.
3. Testimonial Pages
The reality is that no one checks out a testimonial page, not ever. Can you remember the last time you checked one out? I know I can’t.
If you have clients that have nothing but great things to say about you, that’s great, and it should be out there for all to see. But you want to do it, by scattering the information across the website. If you have video testimonials or case studies, then you should tuck them into product pages and the like.
The reality is that no one will actively seek out pages that praise you, so you will need to adopt a method which will allow you to take advantage of all the positive feedback you have received.
4. Simple Navigation
If you don’t want visitors to your site to get lost and leave your website, then you’re going to want to make a navigation that is easy to use. You’ll want your item list to be no larger than seven, that way, people will be able to better utilise it to navigate the site. You want your labels to be as descriptive as possible, and use a navigation bar that is fixed. If you implement all these things, you can ensure that your visitors will stick around longer than just 20 seconds.
5. Linking Internally
You don’t want your visitors to reach a dead end on your website. Always keep your visitors (and search engine bots) moving around your website. If you have a service page, then you can link it to your contact page, with a simple button.
On your home page, you could link to your service page, for example, just make sure to describe where exactly the link will take them, and they will click on it.
6. Forgetting About the Fold
Many people make the mistake of thinking that visitors don’t look at anything below the fold on their sites. When in reality, that is anything but the truth.
Scrolling is one of the most common activities that an internet surfing will make. Yes, it makes sense to focus a great deal on the content above the fold, since that is the first thing your visitors will see, but that doesn’t mean you should neglect everything that precedes it.
You should have your most vital information at the top, which will give the visitor a reason to scroll down. If you try and cram things, then you’ll have a page that looks cluttered and untidy.
7. Use Social Media
If you’ve spent any amount of time using the internet, then you should already be aware of how popular these social media networks are. There are hundreds of millions of active users on these websites like Twitter and Instagram, which is why you should have social media buttons on your site to tap into them. There’s a good chance you will be happy with the results, so spend some time integrating this stuff into your blog posts.
8. Use Custom Illustrations
There is something that you can add to your website that will enhance its overall value, and I do not mean stock photos. Custom illustrations is what I’m talking about, and they are highly effective at keeping your visitors on your site, and enhancing the look of your website. If you have anyone in-house that is capable of illustrations for your website, then I say you should definitely take advantage of that. Original images are always better than stock, as they leave a lasting impression on your visitors, which you want.
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