Since we’ve all been in lockdown internet usage has soared, with many UK providers reporting an increase of over 50% in consumption. Now more than ever your customers are online and your website is you main business asset.
Whether your website has just launched or is a few years old, simple tweaks and increased site speed can significantly improve the quality of your website and help to increase search rankings and traffic.
Here are our Top Tips on how to improve your online presence.
Site Speed
One of the most frustrating experiences for users is waiting for a page to load. With the rise of the mobile devices, people are accessing content all over the world on many different platforms, often using multiple devices at once. And they expect a fast result for the content that they want.
When they don’t get it, they usually bounce (Bye, Felicia). Slow page load is an interrupting experience for the user and it also has an impact on where and how Google ranks you.
Simple things like compressing your images before loading them onto your website can make a big impact and can dramatically increase your page load speed.
Calls To Action (CTAs)
Who doesn’t like a shiny button to press? Best rule of thumb – make it pretty and make it make sense.
For pretty:
Find a contrasting colour for your call to action buttons. For example, if your site is predominately grey find a warm orange that accents your colour palette (remind you of any websites you might be on right now?!).
For making it make sense:
CTAs that are clearly marked with an action word enable your website users to more easily navigate your site and get exactly what they want in the location they expect to find it. Make your words are time sensitive and action-orientated.
[fusion_button link=”https://www.detype.com/free-website-audit/” text_transform=”” title=”” target=”_self” link_attributes=”” alignment=”” modal=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” s2id_autogen16=”” s2id_autogen16_search=”” color=”default” button_gradient_top_color=”” button_gradient_bottom_color=”” button_gradient_top_color_hover=”” button_gradient_bottom_color_hover=”” accent_color=”” accent_hover_color=”” type=”” bevel_color=”” border_width=”” border_radius=”” border_color=”” border_hover_color=”” size=”” stretch=”default” icon=”” icon_position=”left” icon_divider=”no” s2id_autogen17=”” s2id_autogen17_search=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ s2id_autogen18=”” s2id_autogen18_search=”” animation_offset=””]Here’s an example call to action![/fusion_button]
BONUS TIP: The great thing with CTAs is you can easily test them – test different colours and different text to see what is more effective. More people clicking on your neon pink button that says JUST DO IT? use that badboy!
Are you mobile friendly?
I cannot stress this enough – your website MUST BE mobile-friendly and easy to navigate no matter what type of device is used to access it.
Google gods penalise sites that aren’t optimised for mobile devices, making the need for ‘responsiveness’ even more crucial. This is probably the single-most valuable way in which you can improve your website’s usability.
PRAISE BE TO THE GOOGLE GODS
Consistency
Much like in baking, consistency on a website is key.
Essentially, everything should match: Heading sizes, font choices, colouring, button styles, spacing, design elements, illustration styles, photo choices – yep, EVERYTHING!
You want to provide the user with a slick experience as they navigate through your site. Drastic changes in design from page to page can lead your user to feel lost and confused, and inconsistencies in design lower the perception of the quality of the products and services you are supplying.
Well designed and SEO targeted Headers
Your headings and content should be driven by what your potential customers are looking for.
Search engines typically give headings more weight over other content, so choosing the right keywords and making it stand out can significantly improve your “searchability” as well as helping to quickly show relevance to a user.
404 errors – page not found
Whilst you are not punished severely for soft 404 errors by search engines, a user will curse you! As we learned with CTAs, a user likes to know where they are going when they click on something on your site.
Encountering a 404 error page is super annoying and journey disrupting. A frustration only surpassed by slow site speed, and y’all know I feel about site speed (see above).
But not all 404s are your fault, it may be that a user has typed a URL incorrectly.
Either way, use your 404 error page design to navigate the user back on track, like back to the homepage or back to the section they were just on.
Bonus points for making it funny: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/60-really-cool-and-creative-error-404/
[fusion_button link=”https://www.detype.com/free-website-audit/” text_transform=”” title=”” target=”_self” link_attributes=”” alignment=”” modal=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” s2id_autogen16=”” s2id_autogen16_search=”” color=”default” button_gradient_top_color=”” button_gradient_bottom_color=”” button_gradient_top_color_hover=”” button_gradient_bottom_color_hover=”” accent_color=”” accent_hover_color=”” type=”” bevel_color=”” border_width=”” border_radius=”” border_color=”” border_hover_color=”” size=”” stretch=”default” icon=”” icon_position=”left” icon_divider=”no” s2id_autogen17=”” s2id_autogen17_search=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ s2id_autogen18=”” s2id_autogen18_search=”” animation_offset=””]Get an impartial and free web audit[/fusion_button]
#shamelessplug
