In this day and age, its pretty clear that a website is one of the most, if not the most important parts of your digital presence. A lot of times, it can be the first and onlytouch-point you get to impress your potential customers. So how come so many websites still load bad on mobile devices or completely ignore the rules of aesthetics?
What can you do to avoid losing out on potential clients as a result of poor website presence?
It is best to engage the help of a professional designer. Yet, you might want to ensure your designer remembers these rules.
1. Make it fast.
A modern website needs to be designed for the modern browsers. Not only does a cleaner site create a better user experience, it also improves its functionality. One of the most important things to constantly monitor is the speed of your site. Did you know that 40 percentof people abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load?
Its hard to resist installing all the coolest plugins, and makingsome money displaying ads, but these things slow down your site. Your site speed might really suffer, and you’ll loseyour readers along with it.
2. Make it responsive.
I dont need to tell you thata lot of site traffic will comefrom mobile devices. If your website is still not responsive, you haveto take care of that right NOW! It is a horrible experience when a website takes too long to load, the text appears way too small to read, and your fingers aretoo fat to click on one thing instead they click on three different links. Guess what? People wont tolerate this. They will simply leave your site.
Additionally, Google now penalizes sitesthat are not mobile-friendly. Forty-eight percentof consumers get on your website via search engine. So youre losing out on potential sales in more ways than one.
3. Make it stylish.
Be clear on what mood and impression you want to project, and what color palette will help you achieve that. Select a palette, and stick with it. It makes people think you havebipolar disorder when different pages have inconsistent background colors. It is generally a good idea to have one neutral color and one bright color to balance the two.
4. Make it legible.
Select a font that willcomplement your overall imageryand that will be easy to read. Pleasedont use Comic Sans or Times New Roman. While there is nothing wrong with those fonts, they dont convey an image of a polished, well-defined brand.
5. Make it easy on the eyes.
Just because youve got so much space on a screen, doesnt mean you have to use it all. Nicely space out text and images, and employ the power of white space. It makesreading easier and creates an overall pleasurable experience; whereas websites that are too crowded create a sense of information being crammed onto website and pushed onto readers.
6. Make it easytonavigate.
Your navigation should be as minimal as possible. You neither want, nor need every single page to be represented under the navigation tree. Instead, it might be a clever idea to have a general page underneath each option that further directs traffic with various links or buttons.
If you cant decide among all the pages you have, you can gain a great insight into how your traffic flows through your site by visiting Google Analyticsand selecting behavior.
7. Make it clear.
When people visit your website for the first time, make sure you screenthem outwith a clear mission or even a slogan right up front. This way, only people, who are looking for the types of information you provide, will stick.
One way to see if youre doing a good job at attracting the right kinds of readers is to look at entry rates, exit ratesand bounce rates for individual pages.
If a page has ahigh number ofentries, but 80 percent of that traffic is bouncing,there is clearly an issue with the page.
8. Make it focused.
It is ok to have varied interests and be knowledgeable in more than one topic.
Yet, you have to narrow in on a couple of topics or less. You may select wider topics such as digital marketing instead of social media marketing. Butit goes back to being useful to a very specific group of people. Drive that focus and usefulness home before taking on any more topics.
9. Make it valuable.
Provide value all the time. Provide value with your blog, your online sales andyour copy that not only sellsbut educates. Make visitorswant to stay on your website for as long as possible.
Remember, your companys website is your first and last chance to impress website visitors. Make sure its a pleasant experience- withclean copy, a well-defined objective and a relaxing experience.