According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 77 percent of all households in America have a broadband internet subscription. This number will continue to increase as the older generations decrease in size and the younger generations increase.
This means that a website is absolutely crucial for any business, new or old. However, many websites are slow, do not display correctly on mobile devices, and are lacking in terms of modern features and design. According to Leah Marsden, a digital strategist at Ironistic, websites should be redesigned “every 2-3 years. However, your site should never be stale. You should always be reworking pages to improve conversions and provide a better user experience.” Some key things that many websites could improve upon include a clear call-to-action, a modern look, and functionality on a wide range of screen sizes.
In terms of a clear call-to-action, this could be as simple as a button that opens up a contact form. This button is a clear reminder of what the user came to the website for. For a company like Apple, the home page on their website has links on the various items that read “learn more” or “buy.” This makes it much easier for potential customers to find what they need. As another example, 71 Media’s website has call-to-actions on every page. There is one at the bottom of this page that reads “Request a Meeting!” and similar ones on the home, about, and contact us pages on the main website.
These call-to-action buttons are very simple to set up and an experienced web designer could reasonably create one within 10-20 minutes. Otherwise they can be added with the click of a button on any website designer such as Wix, Wordpress, or Shopify. They take very little time or effort to make, but they can add a great deal of value to your website. I will write a tutorial about how to code a call-to-action button in your website in a later blog post, but until then there are many sources online that can help.
While a call to action button helps, one of the most important things to realize is that website design trends and styles change over time. This means that you will need to periodically update your website so that it never looks outdated or archaic. Keeping a consistent color pattern with few colors is one thing that is a common style currently. For example, this website primarily uses four colors. Gray, black, maroon, and gold. This ensures that the pages look consistent. Additionally, pictures and videos are a fantastic addition to any website provided that they are relevant and high-quality. They should not be blurry, out of focus or poorly sized. Lastly, there should be a link to your social media pages. All businesses should utilize social media in some way, shape, or form and consequently, they should have a way for customers to find their profiles through their website as well as their website through their profiles.
Modern design can increase the visual appeal of a website, but without responsiveness to different screen sizes, the modern design is rendered almost useless. Although it may seem like a hassle or a lot of work to make a website function correctly on phones as well as desktops, it can actually be very simple. In a nutshell, the width of different divisions on a website need to be set to 100%. This will make the website adapt to fit on any screen. This coding is very simple, much like a call-to-action button, and an experienced website designer should reasonably be able to make a website responsive within a half-hour. Web-design software such as Wix, Wordpress, or Shopify will make this even easier as they will automatically code the website so that it will be responsive to any screen size. This step of the process can be time-consuming if parts of the website are sized incorrectly from the beginning, but it is a crucial step to creating a website that will work for any customer and that will look good on any screen.
If you would like to implement these three ideas but are not unsure of how to do so, I will delve deeper into each topic in later blog posts. If you would prefer to meet with me to learn how I can help you, click the button below (an example of a call-to-action) and fill out my meeting questionnaire. At the meeting I will provide you with a FREE all-encompassing recommendation for you and your business to do with as you please. If you want to hire me to help you? Great! If you would prefer to take my tips and integrate them yourself? Great! There are no strings attached at my meetings. Click below if you would like to take the first steps towards improving the marketing of your business.