71% of small business reported that they had a company website in 2017.
It has been a year since then so we can rightfully assume this number is increasing as we speak.
Having a website is the key to being successful in this industry in 2018 and that is because of how much we rely on the internet to find our products for us.
Gone are the days where you spend all day Saturday shopping in a mall and roaming around the town. You can cut your time in half by looking up the businesses on Google and ordering the product online.
A website needs to be improved constantly. This will allow for optimal success for the company.
Here are 8 tips on how to improve a website.
1. Remove These Things From Your Website
Your message needs to be concise. It has one underlying message that captivates an audience.
This is different for every company but it is likely either a service that you offer, a product selection you wish to sell, or an opportunity for a consumer to be a part of. All other elements on your website that hinder this cause need to be removed.
These elements are going to take away value from your customer and leave them with no choice but to find a new website:
- Complicated animations
- Heavy content on each landing page
- Very “stocky” photos
- Too many tabs for the consumer to scroll through
- Lack of labels
A consumer takes about 8 seconds to look through your a website and decide if the message is what they were looking for and if it is valuable to them.
Help them find what they want quickly and watch your bounce rate decrease and your duration of consumer’s time on the website increase.
2. Have CTA’s (Calls To Action)
What do you want customers to do when they land on your website? Are they supposed to purchase a product or service? Share the information with a friend?
Whatever the goal is, make sure it is clear to the potential consumers.
Call to actions are one of the many ways consumers can understand what the “next steps” for them are. Funnels that are not clear can lead to consumers who do not actually want your product nor will they benefit your brand.
Your website may also be marked as spam if you neglect to add effective CTA’s or exclude them all together. The lack of CTA’s show that you do not have a plan for your consumers when they arrive on your site. Improving your website starts with having effective CTA’s.
3. Images!
No one wants to read an essay on what your website has to offer them. The best way to share what you can do for them is to show them through captivating images that are clear.
You cannot just use any image, but most images can be very helpful. They can show your logo, some of your staff, your products, or other helpful tools that can make your company more of a person with personality and character.
Stock images are a no go. If you need to use your cell phone to take images, that is better than a very posed fake image. A personal photo shows that you care and that you personally took the photo with the intent to gain customer trust.
4. Include Share Buttons
Can your consumers share your products with their friends through social channels such as Facebook, Pinterest, or even email?
Especially if your products are aimed towards women (they love referring friends), you need to give them ample opportunity to share your services with their friends. Referrals are one of the most trustworthy and reliable sources.
Adding these buttons also increases your social media traffic.
5. Search Capabilities
Can consumers search your website to find your blog, services, or contact information?
Adding a search tool can be spendy, but it will increase the efficiency of your website. Which should be worth it!
There is nothing worse than landing on a website that is disorganized and difficult to find the one thing you are looking for. A search filter minimizes the consumer errors and dissatisfaction exponentially.
Some search capabilities that you can add are streamlined content, navigation hierarchy, responsive design, and a mobile specific layout.
Using one of the best website builders will help this process be much easier. Here is an article that talks about the best website builders.
6. Increase Your Homepage Info
No, you don’t want to have EVERYTHING on your homepage, but the information on your homepage is what your potential customers use to decide whether or not they will stay on your website.
Including a good 4 or 5 sections that display different aspects of your website is totally acceptable.
Here are some ideas on what you can add to your Homepage:
- An Intro Paragraph
- Video Overview
- Overview of Services
- Top Performing Products
- About Us Incerpts
- Reviews
This is the information they are looking for anyways, might as well provide it to them all at once!
7. Add a Value Proposition
Also known as a ‘Mission Statement’ this paragraph can be a headline that captivates your potential customer and lets them know what you stand for.
The Content Marketing Institute shared a great outline of what this looks like:
[our company] is where [our audience] gets [what information] that offers [what benefit].
Follow this strategy and add a value proposition to your site.
8. Testimonial Page
Whether you include this on your homepage or on a separate landing page is up to you, but don’t forget this page.
How are your potential customers going to trust your product/service if they do not know anyone who has used it? These are what testimonial pages are for!
You can show people who love the product and even have it filtered to show the reviews nearest the person location so they see that people near them have had success.
What a great way to improve your website and engage new customers with each other.
How to Improve A Website Today!
Implementing even one of these strategies will bring your website a greater reach and overall engagement.
One of the best strategies when integrating a new structure to your website is to do it piece by piece. This is so you can test the success of each piece and to give your current consumers ease when they land on your site and are confused because it looks different.
Check out this article to see how you can measure your site’s visitors while testing new website improvement strategies!