We all know the importance of having a website in today’s fast-moving, digital world of business. Your website will often be the first interaction that potential customers have with your brand – the “shop window” people see when your name comes up on a Google search or even in conversation with other people. There are several things you can do to make sure as many of those customers as possible explore your website more deeply – or “walk into the shop” to continue the analogy – and increase your chances of converting that into revenue.
Here are some hand chosen tips on how to enhance the experience for anyone viewing your website for the first time:
Have a Clear Message
You should think carefully about the central message you want people to take away from your website, even after only a quick skim. Human beings are notoriously easy to distract and you want site visitors to understand very quickly what value you can offer them. Part of this involves avoiding information overload – keep your website concise and get your message and offering across to visitors as efficiently as possible. They should be able to tell almost as soon as they arrive on your site that they’re in the right place!
As a business you should have a mission statement that expresses in relatable terms what you want your business to achieve – this mission statement is an invaluable tool in helping you craft a clear message for your website; whether it’s explaining why and how your brand started, or describing what you can offer people and what makes your service or product unique.
Quality Visuals
Nothing will put off a potential customer more than when a website looks like it’s been designed by someone who hasn’t got a clue about visual aesthetics. Use consistent fonts and colour schemes across your pages, make sure any images are high quality and don’t pixelate and (this goes back to the precious point too) don’t overload your pages with words.
You don’t have to break the bank with a really expensive web designer to create something that looks sleek and professional – there are a stream of new platforms like Wix and Squarespace that offer ready made templates, whatever your brand does, and Canva offers a really good guide on choosing the right fonts.
Easy to Interact
Users love to feel part of the experience – whether it’s through leaving reviews, receiving exclusive updates or just hearing directly from the people running it. Depending on the nature of your product or service, there is a great variety of ways to do this. If you include a blog on your website about your sphere of industry, you might allow users to leave comments so they can ask you direct questions. Collecting email addresses from people who love your site is a great way to enable connecting through newsletters – as long as you comply with GDPR regulations (Mailchimp is a great platform for managing newsletters and offer useful support on GDPR compliance). You could even build a community for users to interact with each other and use their conversations to gather insights into how effective your product service is. Have fun and be creative!
Smartphone Friendly
We now live in an age where users spend more time browsing on their smartphones than on desktops – in some countries, more than double the time.
It’s therefore crucial to ensure your website looks and functions as beautifully on a smartphone as it does on a desktop. Especially when you design it yourself on a laptop or desktop, it’s easy to forget this. Wix offer a really simple way to switch between the different views so you can make sure everything is in its right place, no matter how people are browsing.
