Rules for creating websites that REALLY work
Think of your website as a shop window. It must turn visitors into paying customers. There are a lot of cool things you can do with your website but nowadays it is not enough to just design a fancy looking website. The website needs to really work for you.
At Livewire we think of websites like a plant, odd I know but there is rationale behind the horticultural approach. Even once a website is built it still needs to be looked after and cared for. If you do not look after it the website will fall down the rankings and potential customers will not visit your site. See just like a plant, if you don’t constantly attend to it, water it, prune, repot it will wither and die.
We have put together a few rules to ensure your website really works for you:
Rule 1 - Faster beats fancier
If visitors have to wait a minute for a page to load, then they will leave your site and might never come back. Always optimise images on your website so they do not slow down your site’s load times. Also ensure the code on the website is efficient.
Rule 2 - Content is king
Create engaging content that people want to read. “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” – Content Marketing Institute
Rule 3 - Ensure each page has meta content
Page titles are an important on-site factor that assist a website’s ranking in SERPs. They provide summarised information about your website which appears in the SERPs when keyphrases related to a website’s page are searched. Meta descriptions are extremely important for improving user click-through and give you the opportunity to let users know exactly what is on the page.
Rule 4 - Simple Navigation
Navigation does not need to be complicated. It should be easy to identify, logical and easy to use. It is also important to keep navigational menus to a minimum so you do not overwhelm users.
Rule 5 - Contact Information
Contact information normally appears in one of two ways – in the header or as a Contact Us page with a form. Either option can work well, depending on your website design. The main thing to do it make it highly visible. Having contact information such as a phone number, physical address, or form to contact the company adds validity to your website. It can be frustrating for users who want to find you and the information not be clearly listed on the website.
Rule 6 - Call to Action (or Signup)
Make calls to action obvious. Placement should be in a highly visible part of the page and next to the item it relates to. Buttons should be of a contrasting colour and say exactly what you should do.
We hope you have found the above guidance helpful. Please contact us today if you would like more information on how we can design and build a website that really works for you.
