If your website is not getting the attention you would like it to, you are probably wondering how you can improve it. There are many, many areas of a website that you can ‘optimise’ to try and increase traffic, clicks etc but one very important aspect is ensuring that it is optimised for mobile use. It simply isn’t enough to have your website optimised for laptops or desktops in this age.
People generally spend an inordinate amount of time on smaller, mobile devices so, it is imperative that they can easily access and use your website on those devices. If people cannot easily navigate your site via a mobile device, they will go somewhere else. Its as simple as that. In most cases, more than half of website traffic will be from a mobile device.
If you are wondering how mobile-friendly your site is, Google offer a Mobile-Friendly Test so you can try it out and see how it works, or just access your site on your mobile device and see what the user experience is like. Do not underestimate the importance of the mobile-friendliness of your site.
Category: Web Design
The Top Five Things Users Want from a Website
Having a user-friendly website not only benefits your customers, it also benefits you. With technological developments, people’s attention spans continue to decrease. If potential customers cannot find what they need and quickly they will leave rather than faff with a long or difficult process. Here are five top tips to retaining users and turning them into customers.
1. Have a great Landing Page. When people click on your website or are lead there via a link, the first thing they see needs to be appealing.
2. The site needs to be easy to use. Having a comprehensive menu and search bar that helps the user find exactly what they need can make a huge difference. People of all technological abilities need to find it simple to use. Try having friends and family use your website to help identify any issues.
3. High performance is important. The longer it takes pages to load, the more likely people are to lose interest and leave. Also, if it takes more than 3-4 steps to get to any one point, try to find a way to reduce the steps.
4. Ensure your website is integrated with other platforms that you are on. People want to be able to see from your website, if you are on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. Having all of your platforms integrated and portraying the same brand and tone will build trust.
5. Ensure your website is adaptable. It is very important for the content on your website to scale appropriately for use on mobile devices so that the pictures fully visible and text is easily legible. If it is difficult to go through your website on a phone, users may just go somewhere else that is mobile friendly.
Will an image post or video post receive a better reach on Social Media?
Social media is one of the most powerful tools you can use for every business but understanding the algorithms of social media is a bit of a minefield for most. Posting on your social media platforms is one of the most important things you can do for your online presence and is a task that you should carry out daily.
Deciding what type of content to post can be tricky, but posting unique, eye-catching, and creative content is a sure way to increase engagement on your posts. Compared to text-only posts video and images posts perform far better statistically and you should avoid plain text posts if you can.
The algorithm on most social media platforms is likely to push out an image or a video post to more users than a plain text one but more specifically, research suggests that a video or a live stream video is likely to be shown to more users.
What is SEO?
SEO is an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimisation which is the practice of increasing quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. To understand SEO, you will need to consider the quality and quantity of traffic.
1. Quantity of traffic – this is how many people are clicking through to your website
2. Quality of traffic – this is your target audience. You need to make sure your SEO is bringing you the correct people to your website.
How does it work?
All popular search engines such as Google have a primary search results list, these results are based on what that search engine considers most relevant to users. Each search engine you’re using has a crawler that gathers information on content they can find on the Internet. Using this information an index is built and fed through an algorithm that tried to match all the data with your query.
Should you be investing your time on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn has over 250 million active users but seems to rank behind Facebook and Instagram in terms of time business owners invest using this platform. LinkedIn is a slightly different platform to the others and is a completely professional platform rather than a social one.
LinkedIn is an ideal platform for every business owner and is becoming a place where lots of people check out profiles before using a business. You can have a business page set up with your personal profile connected to it.
There are a lot of high-profile users on LinkedIn in senior positions – these are the type of people who actually make big decisions in big companies. Connecting with them can be a great advertising tool that could help land big contracts.
LinkedIn articles are a great tool for your businesses and will keep you up to date with changes in your industry and industry news. This also means that you can publish interesting articles which in turn will build up engagement and establish valuable connections.
Top 3 Facebook live video tips
Videos on Facebook tend to perform far better than text or photo posts so it’s a no brainer than you should be doing Facebook live videos. People love to see the face of the brand so they are a great way to build up interaction with current and potential customers. We’ve picked out our top 3 best tips to help you perform better with your live videos.
1. Source the content from your following – by allowing your following to pick the type of live they want from you; you have already started engaging and got your following excited to see the topic they have chosen.
2. Let your following know in advance – many users jump on a do a live video without any prior warning to their followers and wonder why it was a flop. You need to give your following a heads up so they can be there to watch.
3. Be prepared – limit distractions – this one really does go without saying but even the smallest disruption can throw you off track. Something as simple as alerting other members of your household not to interrupt at a certain time can eliminate distractions and keep you focused.
Adding an Instagram feed to your website
Adding an Instagram feed to your website is actually a rather simple thing to do nowadays as there are lots of plugins which do this job for you, especially if your website is a WordPress site.
Instagram is often being labelled ‘the new Facebook’ and it was once a bit of a baby compared to Facebook and Twitter, but since Facebook bought the social media app, it has moved on to become a bit of a must-have social account for all kinds of businesses. If you’re taking the time to produce really good quality content on your social media accounts and Instagram in particular, then you should have that beautiful content feed through onto your website’s homepage or about section so potential customers can see that you’re ‘down with it’, and producing good quality product-focused content on a regular basis, as well as sharing positive testimonials and reviews.
Are ads driving your users away?
When you start to monetize your blog or website, it can seem like an amazing feat, no matter if it’s a small amount of money made. That said, there may come a time when you have to decide between money and user experience, and many companies have had to refrain from putting too many adverts on their website because it was slowing pages down, annoying users and in general giving readers a pretty dire experience. When someone likes the content you produce, they will take the time to read it, but if that content becomes to difficult to enjoy because it’s overloaded with adverts, readers will begin to look elsewhere. If you’re only just starting to make money from your website, you may want to consider the experience you give users before you take it too far. Too many ads can often give users a negative experience. Don’t be that type of website or blogger.
The importance of testing your website regularly
Many businesses feel they can relax and unwind and let the business pour in when they have a new website designed, but the design work is really just the start. Websites can pick up bugs and minor issues due to updates with various plugins, software and browsers. This is why it’s incredibly important to test your website on a regular basis. You can pay for a service to have issues reported to you as soon as they come in, but just by being more cautious and by spending more time on your website you can find flaws and have them fixed in a jiffy. Sometimes it’s good to look through your website as if you are a prospective customer, and you may find that you spot issues that never stood out before, or perhaps an area that you missed when the design was originally created. A website is always a work in progress, and you will have to accept this at some point if you want yours to be successful and engaging for your customers.
Popups without being pesty
Many websites utilise popup adverts and opt-in CTAs and it’s a great tool for boosting cash from paid adverts or acquiring email addresses. That said, too often these are very annoying, and they can actually deter visitors from browsing your website’s content. To make sure you create a popup advert that is user-friendly, make sure it has a clear cancel or close area, so people can quickly remove it if they need to. You should also make sure it blends in well, matching the colours and brand of your website.
The text should be short and sweet too, so people know what it is by reading the first 3 words, they can quickly decide if they’re interested in it or not. With popup ads, it’s best to run A/B testing, ensuring you choose the right popup for your target audience. Don’t be a pest, be a pleasure!