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.