It’s important to remember that your website is your company’s digital store front, and often the first encounter people have with your brand. With this in mind, having a website that is appealing, informative and easy to navigate is fundamental. When it comes to creating websites for small businesses, ‘clear and simple’ should be the guiding rule of thumb. Additionally, optimising your website for mobiles will ensure you’re not losing out on those precious sales opportunities, with research now suggesting that over 50 per cent of mobile users (and let’s face it, that’s everyone) will abandon your website if it’s difficult to navigate, or takes longer than 3 seconds to load. That’s a very narrow window of opportunity to make a good first impression, so make it count by understanding these useful tips:
Know Your Target Audience:
When it comes to professional web design in Melbourne, understanding your target audience is vital in creating a website that drives inbound leads. As a guiding rule, think about the following questions; who is your target audience? what is it that they need? why are they searching for it online? And finally, how can you help them find it? Once you’ve addressed the answers to these questions, then you can think about developing a site that caters to the target visitor’s needs. Essentially, your website needs to say “I know exactly want you want, so let me help you with that”.
Find a Professional Platform That’s Easy to Use:
As small business owners, its common to assume that you can’t have the same features of established websites because they’re either too expensive to build, or too difficult to edit with limited expertise, or both. However, you might be pleased to know that there is a solution, and that solution is WordPress. This platform powers the back end of your website, commonly referred to as a Content Management System, or CMS, due to the many capabilities it offers users in creating media content and organising pages simply and effortlessly. What’s more, WordPress can be easily coded by almost any web developer, it’s SEO friendly, and it allows users to seamlessly incorporate and maintain a blog page. Professional web design Melbourne services will often encourage the use of a blog page, as it is a perfect way for small businesses to keep consumers up-to-date with their company’s latest products or services.
Be Clear and Simple in Your Message:
People need to find out what your business is about, and fast, so ensure you have a clear headline that addresses your visitors’ needs and only choose a select few, good quality images that illustrate your message. Overusing images can often distract from key information, as well as slow down loading time. Lastly, ensure content across your site’s pages are clear and concise, with an obvious call-to-action where necessary.
Make Sure Your Site is Easy to Navigate:
Complicated navigation will have a profoundly negative influence on the flow of traffic to any company’s website, not to mention small businesses. Web development professionals will often suggest no more than two levels of navigation and the use of very clear, text-base links. This is especially true with regards to mobile-optimised websites, whereby smartphone and tablet screens have a relatively small space in which to make navigation clear. After all, you’ve likely spent a lot of time creating content, so make sure visitors can find it.
Make your contact information obvious:
Having a clear contact page is important as to not force your customers to search around for it, we don’t want to make it hard for them to purchase your services. Whether you have this information on a separate page, or on your website’s footer, make sure the contact forms are clearly labelled so people know what to use them for. Basically, don’t lose customers to a fax machine.
Having a professional website is critical in the successful establishment of a new brand. It sets up a business’s image, identification and sales communication strategy, allowing them to compete effectively with other small businesses and established organisations alike. Newpath create professional website designs that grab the attention of your visitors, providing them with appealing and easy-to-navigate websites.
