A few free tips for your website
The internet is now 25 years old. It was also created by a British guy… article here. Back then would you imagine the speed was only 14k and to put this in perspective at the office the internet download speed clocks in at 50Mb on average which is 51,200k. Bit of a speed difference huh!
Websites as you know dominate the face of the earth bringing income to millions (including me) and also sharing a plethora of information.
So if you are set out to build a website here is a few things you can consider.
1. You have 5 Seconds to show your worth to users when they first enter your page.
2. Try to avoid long lettering on the homepage.
3. Include a Call to Action button above the fold.
4. Building Trust for example a telephone land-line shows you have a stable business.
5. Update your website regularly. First impressions count so try to stay with current trends or avoid them completely.
6. Use effective social media. If you have the time to keep up with it then this can prove essential for building loyalty.
7. Use clear & concise navigation so make sure you keep the layout straight forward and simple.
8. Focus on your users needs and not your own! Rather than bash on about how great you are, try to focus on what you can do for your clients.
9. We can now start to use video as a sales tool with the super fast speeds that are available to us today. Remember we can provide this service for you with actors and all. Click here for more information. Video allows your customer to get a visual aspect of what you are all about and is much more effective than text alone.
10. Use an existing CMS like WordPress or Concrete 5. Do not fall for the stale old misconception and use one built from scratch by some over zealous coder. There are hundreds of reasons why but for you it will be a less painful route. Just trust us on this one.
11. Keep on top of your game!! Its no good being best and getting to 1st google place (like us) but you also need to constantly push and push as there will always be someone using better keywords than you or paying more or indeed using better SEO techniques than you. Remember we have been number one for WEB – SLOUGH in the google search for over 5 years now. maybe its time to get knocked off our perch! lol
12. Security is always important! Especially if your customers are using credit cards.
14. Try to avoid lengthy forms to fill in because as useful as you may find it customers find this frustrating to do and will avoid this action if they can.
15. Keep your text clear and readable.
16. Share your knowledge with others (just like moi). This can show that you are an industry leader or at the very least that you are competent at doing your job well enough.
17. Like it or not most of your potential customers will be using mobiles and tablets. Think about those who are browsing on there lunch breaks, on the bus to and from work or even the toilet! Sales can come at the strangest of times and places.
18. Never forget who your target audience is. You just cannot cater for everybody. Even Tesco has a target audience even if some say their just too many of them!
19. You can monitor your website with the likes of google analytics. Find out who has been visiting your web pages, in relation to how many click through you achieve.
20. Google ranks pages individually and not your website as a whole so take the time to optimise each page on its on merit.
21. Stay away from Flash. Thanks to apple it has been killed of which is a shame as there is no better replacement. We used to be able to create great flash animations and apps. All pretty useless now. GO APPLE!!!
…Well that’s it for now. I going to raid the kitchen for Maryland biscuits!!
I didn’t know half of this. Very cool