Are you thinking about building a business website or wish to update your current page? Making the choice to do either one of these can be difficult, especially if you have no idea about current trends and don’t understand how web design can improve your traffic and conversions.
Luckily, there are a few tips that we can share about the best current web designs and how to incorporate them on your website. Keep reading to learn exactly what you need to know about successfully updating or building your website in 2020!
Videos Help Create a Memorable User Experience
Chances are, you have a smartphone… the chances are also high that the smartphone you own has video capabilities. With this said, it has never been easier to film a video, upload it, and share it on your website.
The types of videos in which you can film and share are almost limitless, including customer testimonials, expert interviews, how-to/explainer videos, product launches, live streams, or even behind-the-scenes snippets.
In order to create a successful video, you’ll need to put forth a little effort:
- Identify your target market
- Organize the key information that needs to be presented
- Decide what you’ll say/any accompanying actions
- Edit your video’s takes
- Add music, text, or a voiceover, if needed
Unless you happen to be experienced in video marketing, these steps are often easier said than done. Your finished video may be exactly what you want, or it might be a complete disaster (hopefully it’s not the latter!).
Another option for getting the perfect video for your website is to hire a video marketing agency. A specialized agency will take the guesswork out of your video, incorporate your message, and know how to reach your audience in ways that might otherwise escape you.
They’ll also know all of the important stuff, like the fact that 92% of mobile viewers watch videos with the sound off – and know how to compensate for it so that your video is understood no matter how it’s consumed!
Consider the User’s Experience
When people search for something online – be it information or a product/service – they want to find what it is they’re looking for quickly without having to click through dozens of pages. If they’ve landed on your website (by chance or on purpose), you want to make sure that they can find the information they need without navigating to another site.
If you happen to have a lot of written or video content on your website, you might consider using a WordPress table of contents plugin to help users glance through the various featured topics. A table of contents can make your website’s user experience that much better and can improve your search engine ranking.
In addition to a table of contents, you also need to optimize your website for mobile devices (if this hasn’t already been done), ensure that you’re using eye-catching images, and be sure to remove any broken links as they can be frustrating and confusing for your customers/readers.
Staying in Touch
Photo by Stephen Phillips – Hostreviews.co.uk on Unsplash
When you redesign or create your website, you’ll want to be sure that your contact information is readily available – especially if you are selling a product/service. Allowing customers to contact you will help you answer questions and address concerns without losing out on any potential sales.
If your website happens to be more of a blog or informational site, a contact form is still important so that your audience can give you feedback on what they’d like to read or even offer additional information about your topics.
Make sure that your contact form is easy to complete and somewhat streamlined. The last thing you want is to lose a customer or a reader because of contact form complaints!
Aside from allowing customers to contact you through a form, you should also consider how you’re contacting them via your subscriber list. You should look at how your website is collecting information and if it is doing so successfully. Allow your audience the ability to easily opt-in or opt-out of newsletter emails, updates, and other forms of contact.
Make sure that your privacy policy is easy to access and understand, giving users the confidence boost they need to hand over their information!
Make Sure Your Website is Found
There is hardly a worse feeling than to spend time, effort, and money creating or updating a website only to have very little (or no) increase in traffic. In order to keep a steady flow of traffic, your website will need to be search engine optimized.
Typically, SEO strategy involves the use of keywords, interlinking, and external linking. You should also consider the fact that search engines ‘crawl’ websites’ headers and tags to create a better picture of what information is available – this means that your headers are as important as the content on your site!
Another way search engines glean information from your website is by reading its meta tag. A meta tag is a little snippet of what your page is about and is typically how the page is described in search engine results. This makes it important both for ranking purposes and to help users know if your website will answer their questions.
Seeing the Fruits of Your Labor
As you create or redesign your website, you may feel frustrated or overwhelmed at how much there is to do and how to do it. This feeling is common and you aren’t alone! Luckily, there are many great resources available for you to use (both for free and nominal fees) to help you build the best version of your website yet.
Once you’ve completed your website, it may feel like there isn’t much of a change in the amount of traffic or number of conversions. Don’t worry, you didn’t do anything wrong! It can take time for people to realize the changes made as well as the aforementioned search engine ‘crawlers’ to update their indexing of your site.
Increases in traffic or sales may take a few weeks or even a couple of months before showing improvement, but it will happen! Be patient and continue to periodically update your website as needed in order to constantly see the fruits of your labor!
