3 Signs That It’s Time For A Website Refresh

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Website Design | 3 Signs That It's Time For A Website RefreshYears ago, simply having a website was an important factor for your business. Now, you need to make sure that your website is the right kind of website to help your business stay relevant compared to the rest of its online competition.

Keeping your website fresh and up to date is important for driving your business forward, but when was the last time you revamped yours? There are many reasons why your website might need a refresh, and understanding what’s current and important about having the right website will help you make the changes you need.

Is it time you refreshed your website? Take a look at the following signs that it’s time to make a change.

1. You’re not getting enough traffic

The best way to find out how your website is doing is to measure its impact. With the right analytics tools, you can see which pages are landing well, where people are dropping off, as well as what’s generating the traffic.

Making some much-needed changes to your website can help you start over and build up your audience. There are a lot of ways to increase traffic to your website, including social media, better SEO and advertising. However, to make the most of this traffic, you need to give the visitor a destination that’s worth their time.

2. Your website is slow and clunky to use

While people are spending more and more time online, they’re using that time on the things that matter to them. A website that loads slowly and is difficult to navigate will have them reaching elsewhere in a matter of seconds, which means you need to make it count from the off.

To ensure your website performs effectively, you need to take make sure you have the maximum bandwidth, as well as security and a design that is suitable for all types of browsing platforms. Ensuring you have the best PHP framework can help you to develop a stellar website that does everything the visitor expects and more. Conduct testing to measure how well your website works, and establish how you can improve it.

3. Your design needs an upgrade

New web design trends emerge all the time, making it important for your business to keep up with the latest trends. While you don’t need to have a major refresh every year, understanding what’s happening in the world of web design will help you add new features and functions that will continuously improve your website.

Creating a new design that is appealing to the eye and is laid out well will have a great impact on your website’s traffic. Consult a web design expert and transform your website to help give it the boost it needs and help it stay relevant for longer.

Whatever the purpose of your website, it should always project the best image of your business. By having a great web design, content and functionality for your website, you can help ensure your website stays modern and impactful to help deliver the best results for your business. Whether you need to make minor changes or a complete overhaul, make sure you give some thought to refreshing and improving your business’ website.

3 Ways to Keep Consumers on Your Website for Longer

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Website Optimization| 3 Ways to Keep Consumers on Your Website for LongerAs a modern-day business owner, you know just how important it is to have a website that attracts traffic. Attracting visitors to your site is, however, only half the battle. You actually have to keep them there if you’re to stand any chance whatsoever of, one day, turning them into customers of yours.

In order to ensure that consumers stick around on your site long enough to see all of the great products and services that you make available, you’re going to have to put the following pieces of advice into practice.

Focus on speed optimization

A whopping 47 % of consumers expect a web page to load within 2 seconds. In order to ensure that the speed at which your website loads doesn’t affect your ability to keep consumers on it, you need to focus on speed optimization.

Do you feel like you have no clue where you would even get started in this instance? Fear not, as there are plenty of people and companies out there that are waiting and willing to help. Pixel Panther, a company that offers SEO services Romsey, are one such professional entity that you could turn to. They would work alongside you to ensure that your website is quick to load whether it’s accessed on a desktop computer or a mobile device. One of the things they would do to optimize your speed is fix any sticky menus that you have — this will ensure that none of your site’s pages fall foul to the plight of slow loading.

Be clear about what it is you do

Consumers aren’t going to stick around on your site if they don’t deem it relevant to them. They need to know that they are going to be able to unearth the information that they need to know, and they need to know this quickly. If they are unable to figure out what it is you do and what it is you can offer them within a few seconds of accessing your site, they’ll move on. For this reason, you have to be clear about what it is you do. Don’t waste anybody’s time — get straight to the point of what your business is and what it offers.

Keep it simple

Similarly, consumers won’t feel the need to stay on your site for too long if what they see confused them. What you should do, then, is keep everything as simple as possible. Do not litter your site with huge chunks of writing or, on the other hand, over-compensate with clever interactivity if the content that you upload doesn’t engage with your consumers. Everything that you do has to find the perfect balance between being both informative and intuitive.

After working so hard to attract them to it in the first place, why would you want consumers to leave your website within seconds of accessing it? To keep them around on your site for longer in order to, subsequently, give you a better shot of garnering more custom and profit going forward, you need to consider all of the above advice.

Why Having a Website is Important for Your Business

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Website Design| Why Having a Website is Important for Your BusinessIf you haven’t yet got a website, you’re probably wondering what all the fuss is about. The truth is that you’re missing out on an amazing opportunity to market your business. To achieve any kind of success in the modern world of business, it’s imperative your company has an online presence in order to be visible to potential customers. If you think you’ve been doing alright so far without one, here is a list of the top benefits.

Your Business Will be More Accessible

Do you run a business with operating times from nine to five? How many times have you had to turn someone away because it’s time to close your doors? With an online website, your business is going to be accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You may well find people choose to visit your site rather than your business premises.

Build Better Relationships with Your Customers

It’s easy to build relationships with your customers if you’ve got a website. Your customers will also be able to review your products or services and leave feedback for potential customers to read. You’re going to be able to keep them informed of any special offers and share information they find useful.

Simple to Set Up

It is possible to set up a website quickly and easily thanks to the various online website builders you can use. If you offer a specialist service, however, you should take advantage of a professional website builder. JustLegal Marketing, for example, can design professional, expert websites for lawyers.

Improves Customer Service

A web presence allows you to enhance the customer service experience. Your customers can contact you any time of the night or day, raise questions, ask for advice or let you know what a fantastic service you’ve been able to provide. You’ll be able to react promptly to any issues, as well as keep them informed of your latest business news.

Able to Target a Larger Audience

If you have a storefront, your audience is limited to the people who might be passing by. Even if you use traditional advertising, such as magazine and newspaper adverts, or word-of-mouth, your reach is very limited. With a website, you’re able to reach people across the other side of the world if you want to.

Improves Business Credibility

It is now expected for a reputable company to have an online presence. Once upon a time, consumers would have been very suspicious of a business that didn’t have a telephone number or physical address. Nowadays, the same is true if a company doesn’t have a website. If your website is easy to use and of the best quality, consumers are going to feel more comfortable using your services.

Cuts Costs

One last benefit that’s going to be important for many of you is that a website allows you to cut costs. Because you can use your site to sell goods and services directly to consumers, there is no need for a bricks and mortar store. If you don’t need premises, you can slash your operating costs.

Super Easy Ways to Increase your Website Traffic

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Website Traffic| Super Easy Ways to Increase your Website TrafficIf you want to boost your website traffic, then this is very easy to do. It won’t take long and when you are able to understand the mechanics behind getting more website visitors, you will soon be able to benefit not only your site but your customer experience as well.

SEO

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation helps you to really increase the visibility of your site. It also helps you to attract more visitors too. You should note that 75% of visitors don’t look past the first page of Google, so if you are not ranked there then you really are missing out. If you want to increase your traffic, then you can start by filling out the meta tags on all of your pages. You also need to do your keyword research as well, as this will help your customers to come across your site when they type in a specific keyword.

Domain Authority

Domain authority is a rating that helps to measure the strength of your domain name. You can really increase your domain authority by getting more and more people to visit your site. You can also add more content, or age your domain. A lot of this can be done naturally, and over time, so you really don’t have to do much here. If you do want to help yourself then it is a good idea for you to get rid of any bad links, or spam sites that are bringing your site down.

Linking

Getting websites that have a very high domain authority to link to your site is one of the best things that you can do if you want to get a lot of website traffic. If you aren’t sure how to do this then you need to invest in guest posting. You can also chat with other site owners to see if you can mutually benefit one another. When you do this, you can really help yourself to get more visitors on a day to day basis.

Advertising

Advertising helps you to attract visitors to your site by creating clickable ads. These will direct people right to you. If you can, you should always invest in PPC. When you do this, you only pay for the clicks you get, and this can be very good for your budget. If you want to make things even easier for yourself then it is a good idea for you to look into Adwords campaign automation.

Social Media

If your company is not on social media right now then this is a huge mistake. Social media can bring your site a ton of traffic and you would be surprised at how great it can be for your ranking. If you have never used social media before then you need to set up a business page. When you do this, you can then link your other website pages to your profile. This will really encourage people to click on the links and it will also help you to gain a much higher level of control over your investment.

Four Ways to Overhaul Your Company Website

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | Four Ways to Overhaul Your Company WebsiteIf your company’s been around for a while, it’s likely that your website has been, too. If that’s the case, you may well find that design trends, features and styles have moved on from the point at which you dusted off your finished site. The web design world moves fast – and consumer attention moves faster. If customers arrive on your website to the impression that you’ve not updated it for a number of years, they’ll instantly judge you for it. You’ll lose business as a result. As such, here are four ways to overhaul your website in favor of something a little more snazzy, modern and sleek.

Rebrand

While this is not necessarily a web-based overhaul, it is something you should consider if you’re in any case about to entirely change your website’s appearance. A rebrand will echo through-out your website, and as such it’s best to cover both a rebrand and a web redesign at the same time, in the same cohesive process. Get your design team on it immediately, or outsource to de-sign professionals who’ll help you achieve your vision.

Hosting Platforms

The very base – the foundation – of your website is its hosting platform. If you’re about to go through an overhaul, it’s certainly worth considering whether you ought to change hosting providers at the same time. In recent years, cloud hosting has become particularly favored in the web design world – something that you’ll not be using in your current legacy website.

Restructuring

Many companies are so used to their existing website that they fail to recognize some glaring failures in terms of its structural layout. Even if there are no failures per se, the gold standard for webpage and site map layout is always changing, which means your website is almost certainly behind the curve, confusing web users and alienating potential custom. When you overhaul your website, be sure to restructure it in such a way as to smooth all click-throughs and open up pathways for your traffic to pass easily through.

Redesigning

Now it comes to the more visual side of your site’s revamp. Here, you’ll want to go with some of the most exciting design trends to be taking place in 2019. Mini-animations, activated by the scroll function, have become something of a dominant trend for websites in the past year, and continue to dominate the ecosystem for businesses aiming to look ultra-modern and super-slick. Engage with these trends visually in order to bask in the admiration of your site’s visitors.

A Word of Warning

While website overhauls are incredibly important in order to keep your business modern and functional online, you shouldn’t erase your old web pages until you’re sure that your new and revamped website is entirely bug-free. A second word of warning: be sure to bear in mind that repeat customers may be shocked by a very different website appearing when they go to visit yours. Take steps to reassure these customers, and to keep some consistency with the old de-sign.

These four tips – and brief words of warning – should help you conduct a thorough overhaul of your company’s website, updating your appearance and functionality for the trends that are dominating 2019.