If you have a website for your company, but you aren’t seeing a lot of traffic or profits from it, it may be because you have an outdated, poor website design.
However, hope is not all lost.
The first thing you need to do is diagnose why your website is failing at generating a proper return on your investment.
The best way to do this is to ask yourself one major question...
Does Your Website Do These 5 Important Things?
1. Attract Visitors
Attracting People And Robots Alike
It may seem obvious, but one of the most important things for your website to do is attract attention to your company website, both from actual people and from the search engines they use. This can be broken down into three types of design essentials: User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
How To Optimize Your Site
- For UX design, focus on how easy it is to use your company’s website. Can someone go to it and find all the information they need quickly or do they have to dissect every page to find one answer? Write copy that answers main questions, easily communicates your message, and have a nav. menu on all pages (aside from landing pages).
- For UI design, focus on what looks good to your customers. Is it easy to read the information on your website, or is your website so complex that even you get distracted reading it? Do A/B testing to see what performs best and utilize that design.
- For SEO design, focus on improving your on-site SEO and backlinking.
2. Convert Leads
Getting On A First Name Basis
It’s not enough for your website to attract visitors. If your website does nothing to convert visitors to leads for your company, then you simply have a very expensive digital business card. Your website needs to be more valuable, and effective, than a small piece of cardstock.
How To Convert Leads With Your Website
Converting leads on your website doesn’t have to be difficult. It does, however, take experimentation and effort. You can’t set up a great website and expect it to perfectly and permanently produce profits. Instead, utilize techniques like conversion paths and CTAs to turn that one curious Google search into an intrigued lead, and that intrigued lead into a delighted customer. Create valuable offers and forms for people to enter in their contact info. Once this happens, you start talking to them, discuss your services or products and nurture them into a customer.
3. Establish Online Presence and Branding
Making An Excellent First Impression
Even if you have a website that looks good and has the ability to convert leads, it doesn’t do you any good if your business doesn’t stand out online. The web pages may be well-designed, but will a visitor remember that they were on your website versus similar, competing websites? Your conversion path may be well-defined, but does it also resemble twenty other conversion paths your competitors use? If so, you need a better online presence and better branding to separate yourself from the pack.
How To Effectively Brand On Your Website
- Standardize your UI/UX Design. Make sure your web pages flow together like a big picture, instead of looking like a web page scrapbook. Have uniform colors, logos, and web structure.
- Make your brand clear and identifiable. Don’t just put the logo in the corner of each web page. Instead, use colors from that logo to tie your entire website together.
- Stand out. Make sure that your website showcases your company’s values, unique voice, and personality, from the tone of your content to the theming of the designs.
For ideas and examples of good online branding, take a look at this article here from HubSpot.
4. Pass the Blink Test
Don’t Blink. You Just Might Miss It
At this point, the elements we have discussed are tying together more and more. The Blink Test is the time it takes for someone to decide whether or not a website gets their precious time and money. This is usually between three and five seconds, and it can determine whether or not all of your efforts have been worthwhile.
How To Optimize Your Blink Test
- Streamline your information. Ensure that anyone who lands on your website can get just enough information in those few seconds to decide they want to learn more.
- Hook their attention instantly. This can be an attention-grabbing image, a stand-out statement, or something else. The key is shoving your company into that brief spotlight while you can.
- Optimize the unseen. Inevitably, long load times will drive away visitors before they even see your website. While the quality of a visitor’s connection isn’t something you can control, you can ensure that your website doesn’t take a lifetime to load. Formatting images and adapting your website to the latest technology are just two ways to speed up these times.
- Learn by example. Plenty of other websites can serve as examples of what to do, or avoid when trying to pass the Blink Test.
5. Have Responsive Web Design
Adaptive Response That Darwin Would Approve Of
In a world dominated by mobile devices, websites designed solely for traditional desktops and laptops are dying off rapidly. To ensure your website isn’t amongst the outdated, knuckle-dragging sites, you need to optimize it for mobile devices.
Specifically, you need to turn one individual website design into a set of matching website designs, specialized for different platforms and screen sizes, allowing your visitors to view your content easily on their phones, tablets, or computers.
How To Do It Yourself
- Decide what content is the most important. Mobile websites are generally more streamlined, so it’s better to center them around your most important content.
- Contact a pro. Web designers, digital agencies, and other design gurus can help you optimize for mobile since it’s incredibly complex.
- Utilize Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). One of the latest trends in mobile web design is using AMP. AMP strips your web pages of unnecessary design elements, allowing them to load even faster on mobile devices.
Final Thoughts
A website is more than a digital business card. It is and should be, one of your most valuable assets in securing customers.
Improper design can leave your website visitors lost, distracted, confused, or permanently uninterested in your company.
The best way to ensure your website is designed effectively is to ask if it does five important things:
- Attract Visitors
- Convert Leads
- Establish Online Presence and Branding
- Pass the Blink Test
- Have Responsive Web Design
Does your website do these? If not, drop us a line to see exactly where you need to improve and what we recommend to get the job done!
