Optimize your platform, increase user engagement, and drive conversion by building a first-class website.
Optimise your platform, increase user engagement, and drive conversion by building a first-class website.
In today’s web-based world, everyone is looking to strike the right balance of beauty and performance when it comes to their online presence. Those who choose a lot of flash, may not have the capabilities their customers are looking for. Yet, those who decide to focus all their energy on substance, run the risk of their customers looking elsewhere if they can’t spark their attention. It’s a fine line, but one we are capable of walking.
Here at Build Digital Growth, we believe there are five crucial tenets every website must follow if they wish to keep from falling into either of these traps.
1. Keep your navigation simple
Interesting typefaces and flashy designs can spell trouble for any website. If your customers can’t read the words or figure out how to navigate your pages, they’ll most likely take their business elsewhere or simply end up with a headache and no desire to ever use your site again.
The same goes for the number of links in your navigation; offer up too few or too many and you’ll find yourself needlessly complicating the entire design. That’s why it’s a good rule of thumb to keep your navigation clean, simple and easy enough that even grandma could use it.
2. Consistency is key—and that goes for every page
If your brand is already established, you need to convey those elements on your site. Visually, if your customers don’t recognize you, they’ll immediately begin to feel uncomfortable and confused. Have they navigated to a phishing site by accident? Did they land on an old site with old branding? Can they trust the information if it differs from what you’re saying elsewhere?
When you design your site to be vastly different than the rest of your communications efforts, you raise more questions than answers and that’s never a good thing.
3. You Can Spell Success with the Letters SEO and UE
How a user experiences your website is a very big deal.
Consider when building your website if you’ve buried the information they are looking for or simply don’t include it, chances are you may have lost yourself a customer. The same goes for drawing new customers in. If you’re not utilizing the correct terms and phrases, you could be bowling up the wrong lane.
Regardless of your industry, it’s best practice to always put your most important information at the top and work your way down to more niche offerings. The same goes for your navigation and page design—establish the relationship first and then draw them in for what they’re looking for.
5. Build Trust In / Get Trust Out
Well-maintained websites always outperform those that look as if they were built a few decades ago. That’s because, as times change, people will demand different capabilities from their websites.
If your web presence looks outdated, people will associate it with your product or service and assume they, too, are outdated. You have to build trust by ensuring you deliver exactly what the audience is looking for in a manner they can immediately relate to.
Long gone are the days of hideous backgrounds and spinning text. Today’s world is a gorgeous flow of e-commerce, social media, brilliant visuals, compelling stories and much, much more.
While there are a number of other characteristics that factor into the overall success of your site, we believe these are five of the most important you must consider when building an effective online presence for your brand.
At Build Digital Growth, we work hand-in-hand with our clients to ensure each is met on every level—and to the highest degree.
