A well-organized website can be the difference between a new customer and a lost sale

Having a good website for your business is akin to having a retail store in a great location. It has become one of the most effective ways of engaging with your customers and driving sales. A good website can add credibility to your company and make it appeal to more people. This guide has tips on the design, load times, accessibility, and content that would help you create the best possible website for your business.

Make Sure Your Website is Optimized

While a lot of businesses have websites, the biggest mistake they make is a lack of optimization. People will access your site through all sorts of devices, including phones, tablets, laptops and potentially even smartwatches. Your site needs to display its content correctly whether it’s on a 9:16 laptop screen or a 18.5:9 mobile screen. By taking the time to make sure your site is well optimized for all devices, customers are more likely to explore the site and find something they want to buy.

As this is likely a one-time optimization, you might find it more economical to outsource the job. If you’re inexperienced with hiring external IT specialists, you may find simple web searches ineffective. By finding affordable and reliable means to optimize your digital footprint, you can improve your website easily.

Keep Your Design Fresh and Simple

When you need to appeal to a mass audience, it’s best to use a design language that reflects your product in the most elegant way possible. You don’t need too many animations, 3D text, or fifteen category tabs to grab attention. Rather, ask yourself what impression you want to make on your customer. A simple site that clearly shows what product or services you provide is going to let new customers discover what they want to buy on their own. If you have too many options or distracting elements on the homepage, you could run the risk of giving your customers analysis paralysis. A pro-tip is using color theory to design your site. Many websites will use bright colors like orange or yellow on their product listings to catch the user’s attention. Then, the site uses a gradient to guide the user’s eye from the product to the ‘Buy Now’ button. It is a simple aspect of design that can have a great effect on your engagement.

Reduce Site Load Times

The above two tips will help you achieve one very important aspect of website engagement: having a quick load time. A study by the Aberdeen Group found that 40 percent of shoppers abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load. You do not want to risk having customers abandon your site or bouncing after just one visit. Even with loyal customers, a slow website risks lowering its customer satisfaction levels significantly. By making sure you’re not forcing your users to load too many high-res images, and that your website can trim itself according to whether it’s loading on a mobile or desktop, you can dramatically increase the loading speed. A slow site is similar to having a physical store in a high-traffic area. Even when people want to visit the site, it would take them longer, which can reduce the number of sales you’re able to accomplish across the day.

Include Good SEO Practices

SEO is not limited to websites that are content-based. Your site may simply be listing out the services your company offers, such as the website of a contractor detailing the skills they have. Or you might have an online retail site, which lists multiple products to sell. Regardless, you need to make sure that your website is able to rank high on Google, so it is more likely to show up in search results. This includes using the best possible keywords, including your information on Google Maps and Yelp, and that you gain backlinks. The words you use to write the ‘About Us’ page or caption an image can affect your site’s search engine optimization. SEO is a specialized field and can have a bit of a learning curve. However, if you master the skill, you will be able to make sure each page on your site ranks higher than the competition and finds more potential customers. If you cannot find the time to work on it yourself, it would be best to outsource the work.

Keep Crucial Information Easily Accessible

When a new customer visits your website, they could be looking for a specific piece of information, such as your business hours, or your retail location. They might also be looking for contact details to inquire about a product before making the purchase. By keeping this information in a place that is easy to find, you give the customer a sense of security. Not only will they find the answers to their question, but they will also get the impression that your company provides good customer support. You should keep your ‘Contact Us’ and ‘About Us’ tabs in the header of your website or in an easily viewable area. If you want to include social media buttons on your site, the best practice is to place them in the footer region. The world is fast-paced, and people are not going to go digging through your site pages to find the information they want. If you do not keep your information in an easy-to-find place, you risk the potential customer leaving you and finding another company to buy from.