When was the last time you took a good look at your business website?
Unless it’s a daily source of lead generation or sales, many businesses tend to “set it and forget it.” Over time, the content and information on your website can become stale and out of date—and potentially lead to confusion on the part of your customers.
Read on to learn more about the five different elements that come together to create an effective, persuasive, and visually appealing website.
The Content
The content on your website is one of the most essential elements. It not only helps potential clients and customers find out more about your brand, but it also plays a vital role in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google is smart enough to tell good content from poor content—and uses that as a factor in how much free organic traffic they send a website.
Another aspect that many businesses overlook is the accuracy of their business info that’s on the home page, footer, header, and contact us pages. Sometimes their social media icons redirect to the wrong page, or perhaps the phone number or email address is outdated.
All of these seemingly minor errors can give off a sense of unprofessionalism to potential clients and customers.
The Aesthetics
While having a visually appealing website is nice, keep in mind that your company site should reflect and maintain your brand image. This will allow your audience to visually connect with your brand and will show them who you are as a company.
If your current website isn’t visually aligned with your brand, or if it’s just a barebones site with little to no visual design, perhaps it’s time to sit down with a website designer to learn what’s possible.
Mobile Friendly
With over 50% of all Google searches being performed on a mobile phone, it’s critical that your website load up and work perfectly on a smaller smartphone screen. If your site is older, there’s a good chance that it’s not “mobile-friendly,” and Google will refrain from sending it traffic from those on their phones.
The free Mobile-Friendly test from Google will allow you to check to see if your site will work on smartphones. Simply enter the URL of your website, and in a few seconds, the tool will let you know if any potential issues could be causing a poor user experience and whether or not your site is accessible by those using mobile phones.
Navigation
Your website should be straightforward to navigate no matter what page you’re currently on. Unfortunately, many older sites have JavaScript dropdown menus that don’t function properly. This can cause extreme frustration on the user’s part as they must manipulate the mouse cursor just right to make the menu work.
While interactive menus look cool from a visual perspective, keep in mind that they can quickly become annoying. When working with your web designer, try to keep the visual frills to a bare minimum. You should opt for functionality over visual aesthetics when designing a new menu.
Optimized for SEO
SEO isn’t rocket science—instead, it’s the process of optimizing your website for a better user experience. Many different elements go into on-site SEO optimization, such as:
- Does the site have a valid SSL certificate?
- How quickly does the site load?
- Is there content above the fold?
- Is the content on the website unique and original?
- Is the content optimized for keywords?
If your website hasn’t been updated in a few and a total site redesign is currently out of budget, an SEO site audit can help provide you with a few actionables to improve your website in the eyes of Google.
Website Design and Consulting in Dallas
The above five elements come together to create an outstanding website that will rank well in the search engines and provide your customers and clients with the information that they seek.
The Witmer Group has been helping Dallas businesses with their website redesigns for well over ten years. We offer a wide range of SEO and digital marketing solutions and create a customized marketing strategy to help your business remain competitive.
Give us a call today at (214) 865-9484, or contact us via our website to learn more about the various marketing and data analytics services we offer our Dallas clients.