6 Web Design Features Your Website Must Have

As we get ready to start the second half of 2014 many businesses are looking into their websites to make sure that it is up to par for what they hope is a strong second half of the year. Most business owners realize that in today’s world a strong website is key to a successful business. However, you now need more than a simple website. You must keep up with the different trends and technologies that seem to be coming out faster than the new smart phone. That is why you must make sure that you constantly are checking to make sure that your website is up to date and that it has the design features that will make your online business successful. With technology and trends constantly changing this is a big deal if you want your business to continue to be successful. Lets take a look at some of the features that your website should have currently.

Superior Navigation - Businesses in today’s world spend a lot of money in numerous types of marketing trying to get users to their websites. Then many small business website’s all have similar issue. They finally begin getting people to visit their website only for the visitor to discover that they have a hard time finding the content that they were looking for. The visitor get’s frustrated and leaves without converting. So all of the money spent to get that user to the website was wasted because of something as simple as poor navigation design. This is why it is so important to make sure that the navigation on your website is setup in a user friendly manner. The website visitor should be able to find anything on your website within 1 or 2 clicks.

Optimized Images - We are beginning to see this one more and more due to the popularity of content management systems. Website managers are uploading images to the website not understanding that they need to optimize the images prior. So then what happens is that their website has all of these gigantic jpeg images that need to load anytime somebody visits a page on their website which causes the site to slow way down for website visitors. This is a major issue on your homepage because of the likely use of a slider. All the images in your slider have to load before your homepage will fully load.  As I am sure you are aware, people are not very patient when it comes to the speed of a website. If your website doesn’t load within a few seconds they will leave. Now I still remember dial up connections and wonder how we ever surfed the web.

Increased Conversion Rate Techniques - Conversion rate is the one statistic that should truly matter to you. This statistic will correlate directly with your profit. You do not want to spend money getting users to your website and then your website not convert. The higher your conversion rate the higher your return on investment will be.

Consistent Design Throughout The Website - You will not believe how many websites we see that not only have different font styles, colors, etc but have different designs on every page of their website. This causes your website to look confusing and unprofessional. It is important that your website is consistent. Think back to a website that you have seen where every page is different. If you have noticed a severe case of this then you were probably confused and did not know if you were even still on the website or if it had directed you to an entirely different website. This will cause a visitor to your website to view your site as poorly designed and cause them to lose trust in you. If a website visitor does not find your website trustworthy then the chances are they will leave your site without doing any type of business with you.

Great First Impressions - It is said that when somebody views your website they make up their mind in the first 5 seconds whether or not they are going to use your site or not. This doesn’t give you a lot of time to impress the visitors to your site, does it? This where a great web design company that has a great design team can really take your website from average to great. If you give your website users a great first impression you will have a great shot of gaining a new customer. On the other hand if a visitor has a bad first impression of your website then they are not only likely to leave they are likely never to visit your website again. People are not too forgiving when it comes to website. I know there are certain website URLs that I will never click on. When I run a search and if certain websites pull up I will ignore them. If I am like this then I am sure there are a number of other people that are the same exact way.  That is why it is important that you always give a great first impression

Mobile Friendly Website - Technology keeps on advancing. It is advancing so fast in fact that it is impossible for people to keep up with it. That is why you must have a mobile website. Mobile users have already over taken desktop and laptop users and this will only continue to grow. If you do not have a mobile website then you are missing out on a large group of potential customers.

Soon these will become the normal and there will be an entire new set of technologies and trends that you will need to make sure that your website has. I know websites are not cheap and they need updating every couple of years but this is a very small investment considering that your site is your number one salesman and works for you twenty four hours a day 7 days a week three hundred sixty five days a year. In the grand scheme of things a new website every couple years is a very minimal investment.

Article Source:- http://www.hireawiz.com/blog

5 Online Mistakes That Will Damage Your Brand

Whether you are looking at starting a new business or you already own a business, your brand could be the difference between your business failing or succeeding. I know that there are exceptions to the rule. There are companies that aren’t very good at branding that have made it big but they are far and few in between. Let’s look at the shoe industry for example. When I ask you to name the top basketball shoe brand. What are you going to say? Chances are most of you will say shoe brands like Nike, Reebok, Adidas, etc. Many small business owners end up making mistakes that doom their brands from the beginning. The mistakes that they end making will actually cause people not to purchase from their brand. If you brand get’s a reputation like this it makes it very difficult to market your business.

Not Presenting Enough Information - Many online shoppers require more information about a small business and their products than they do when they go into a brick and mortar store. If they do not have enough information about the company and or the product most consumers do not feel comfortable to purchase from that company or website. As identity theft becomes more and more of an issue, consumers will become more cautious. This is especially true for online businesses, with the news being flooded about companies being hacked. Most people think of Target but this appears to be the tip of the ice berg. That is why when you are giving information about your products you want to make sure to talk about the security on your website as well.

Visually Looks Bad - Many small online businesses make the huge mistake of attempting to save money on their website. So they end up choosing a company that doesn’t have the skills to design or create the functionality that they require in their website. Have you ever went to a website that looked terrible? Did you purchase anything? Probably not! That is why it is so critical that you invest in your website. After all your website is the one salesman that will work twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred sixty five days a year. A great web design company will be able to design a website that will show your visitors the wow factor. Besides this there are many other benefits of a professional web design company. So please don’t fall into the trap of hiring a web designer out of college or outsourcing your project just because it is cheap.

 Missing Client Testimonials - One of the best way to gain trust is by showing your website visitors what other customers are saying about your business. Make sure that you highlight your testimonials and ideally you should make sure that they show up on every page of your website. What people are saying about your website is so important that Google has added it into their search engine optimization algorithm. They are doing this by monitoring the comments and ratings on Google local, yelp, etc. If Google is deeming this as important you better believe that consumers are paying close attention to this.
    

Errors On Your Website - It looks really bad when someone goes to your website and there are links and images broken, misspelled words everywhere or format broken. You want to make sure that when a visitor comes to your website they know that you are a professional and reputable company. If a potential customers gets the impression that you are a cheap company then they are likely to feel that whatever you are selling is going to be cheap as well. Now I am not saying if you have prices that are lower than your competitors they will feel this way if you have a website that gives off a professional look and feel customers will be more likely to trust your website. It is just like with a house. If you see a house where the yard is not taken care of and it looks really bad you are likely to get the impression that their house is a mess as well. On the other hand if you drive by a house that has a well kept yard then you are likely to get the feeling that the house is immaculate inside. If it where somebody looking to buy one of the two houses the chances are they would choose the one with the nice yard if they weren’t allowed to see inside.

Bad Reputation Management - Word of mouth can be a great way to grow your business. However, it can be a way for upset consumers to quickly tear down your business. That is why it is so important that you manage the complaints about your business. If you own a business then there will be somebody that will complain about your business. With social media becoming so popular many of these complaints can take off like wild fire and become viral if you don’t do damage control. That is why you must stay active on social media and deal with these complaints as they arise because if you wait then the problem will become much more difficult to deal with later. This is why many business owners preach to be proactive and not reactive.

It is critical that when somebody sees your brand they have nothing but praise. This will make any marketing campaign that you are running much easier to convert the users you get to your website. If you have a bad brand it could make internet marketing campaigns like search engine optimization and pay per click useless. To make any type of marketing campaign worth your while you need to have a high conversion rate.

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