Avoid Common Web Design Mistakes
Avoid Common Web Design Mistakes by Market Action Research
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Investing in the right website design for your business is fundamental in marketing your company on the internet. Without a well-designed and functional website, your company’s web presence is at the mercy of anyone who can cast you in a poor light in review sites, social media, and elsewhere on the web. Your website is a window of opportunity to put your best foot forward for your business, clients and employees. Having a website also allows you to display your business promotions and messaging exactly as you wish people to see them. With careful attention to SEO optimization, this information can help your business become more relevant in search engine results.
There are potential pitfalls when considering the right website design. When drafting your master plan for your website, the following issues must be considered when crafting your company website.
Presenting Clear Contact Information
Transparency in displaying contact information for clients and customers is very important for your business’s online success. Customers these days want fast answers. If they cannot accessibly get their questions answered, they will often turn away to your competitors. Providing them with easy access to physical contact information, social media, and customer service will help your potential customers have their questions answered promptly and relieve this stress point. Implementing this best practice will help to drive more inquires and ultimately increase your bottom-line.
How Much is Too Much Information?
It is wise to consider every item you want to post on your website. The common sense side of this philosophy is to not post or add anything on your website that you wouldn’t mind seeing on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper or in today’s digital age on the front page of Yahoo! From a psychological standpoint, anything that is not directing or indirectly drawing attention to your website’s purpose is subsequently dragging visitor’s focus away from what you’re selling. In short, stay focused on point with the purpose of your website – aka sales or generating interest.
Web advertisements on your company website are often seen as an additional stream of revenue, but they can have inverse effects that lead to more problems. The appeal of profiting off ads on your website may sound tempting, however there is also a chance that it may be directing traffic to your competitors’ sites. This is because many advertising programs are designed to use intricate targeting algorithms to display advertisements on websites that show similar interest or relevance – a perfect little window for your competition.
Keep Your Content Fresh
Maintaining a freshly updated site is an important element to ensuring your site’s success. Providing regular and relevant updates will not only present more opportunities for visitors to engage more with your brand, but will keep people coming back for more. A good complement to this is to integrate social media and encourage social sharing – which is the Holy Grail of marketing – free marketing from peer to peer.
It’s a good idea to be prepared to update your website regularly with marketing materials to stay relevant. These marketing materials can take shape in the form of (but not limited to) blog posts, social threading, product updates, and press releases. Keeping information updated throughout your website will demonstrate your investment in digital space, giving them your best. Major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc) calculate the how current, relevant, and targeted your content is to determine your organic search rankings, making it even more relevant to keep your content fresh.
Takeaway Summary
In order for businesses to survive in today’s digital age, it requires having the right website design, clear call to actions, and relevant content. The internet is more accessible today than it has ever been before. In some countries, there are places where they have access to Facebook, but don’t have paved roads. The point is that putting your best foot forward on the web is imperative for your business to succeed. Creating clear call to actions will help your visitors stay focused on purchasing and help direct the flow of audience attention. Making your site free of unnecessary material and advertisements will lead to higher long-term ROI. Keeping your website content fresh and up-to-date will help you maintain higher rankings and relevance on the web. Remember, first impressions are everything on the web – hit them with your best shot.
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