In this increasingly digital age, it is more important than ever to evaluate and tailor your website to garner more leads and sales. Your website is an interactive part of a solid marketing strategy. In most cases, all of your marketing efforts are being directed/funneled towards it, and you don’t want your website to fall flat and lose the potential customer. Below, we have outlined essential steps to take your website to the next level to promote a positive website user experience.
#1 Research
Find out who your target audience is, and make sure you are tailoring your content and message to them. Utilize third-party services, such as Google Analytics, to help you determine what your current website traffic is doing on your site. Armed with this information, you can see where visitors are navigating, how long they are staying on pages, and where they are clicking through next. You can even ask for customer feedback on your website. This can be just a small sampling of people to help you better understand how they use the website as well as what they like or dislike about it.
#2 Restructure written content presentation
Written website content should include well-developed headlines, sub-headlines, and call-to-action buttons that break up your text so users can find information faster. It is best to implement the inverted pyramid style of writing. This means all of the most important, interesting information should be placed at the beginning with additional information of lesser importance incorporated towards the bottom. Bulleting text can make it easier to read, but overall, you will need a minimum of 600-700 words per page to have a wealth of content for search engines to scan.
#3 Use white space
This doesn’t mean your website needs to be white. This just means you’re leaving space between elements and text, giving your design “room to breathe.” Website programmers and designers often use the word “padding” to describe additional space before and after blocks of content (written, photo, or color backgrounds). White space makes content easier to read and appears clean and modern.
#4 Incorporate original photography
There are a lot of free and paid sources for images (illustrations, photos, etc.) available online. However, if you can use quality, original photography that is directly connected to your brand, it builds trust and is less likely to be overlooked than some basic stock photography. These can be photos of your building, lifestyle photos, product photos, employees, and/or services being performed. Custom photography also allows you to integrate branded colors, which help make the overall experience consistent with other marketing.
#5 Keep page layouts consistent
Consistency ensures your website looks orderly, and the visitor has a seamless transition page to page while navigating the site, on all devices. This doesn’t mean the website will be boring; this just means it has similar structures and repeated elements throughout its pages:
- Navigation menus located in the same position on each page
- Same fonts and color palette used throughout
- Consistent headline and sub-headline placement and structure: Title (H1), Headings (H2), Sub-headings (H3), Paragraph/body text
- Consistent vertical and horizontal spacing of content and elements
- A hierarchy for all elements (text, photos, etc.)
- Text links and buttons in the same colors
- Similarly formatted forms with consistent fonts, text inputs, select lists, submit button, etc.
#6 Integrate responsive, mobile-friendly programming
More than half of web traffic comes from mobile devices. If your site is currently not mobile-friendly, this should be a top priority to get it converted. A fully-responsive website works on all devices (desktops, laptops, smartphones, and smart devices like tablets, Kindle, game consoles, etc.). This is a critical step as Google penalizes sites that aren’t optimized for mobile devices.
In conclusion
Website visitors expect a seamless, easy-to-navigate, and fast website experience to collect information for purchasing decisions. Whatever steps you can take to improve the buyer journey, the more likely you are to achieve an ROI for your business. For more tips like this, visit our website at baerpm.com/blog.
