11 Jun 5 Ways to Improve Your Website
Nowadays not being online can often result in a massively decreased chance of succeeding as a business. But sometimes just having a website is not enough, and having a good website is essential, however that can include many things. So here are 5 things you should ask yourself in order to potentially improve your website:
Is my website’s design good enough?
We as humans are bound to form impressions and make assumptions based on what we see, so it comes as no surprise that one of the foundations of an excellent website is its visual design. In fact, it is so important that when visiting a website, a potential customer decides only in 10 seconds or less whether they trust your company, purely based on the design of your website, and the majority of users (whooping 75%) form their whole opinion on a website just based on what it looks like!
These are one of many reasons why the design part of any website can take just as long as populating it with content. So, consider this – does your website look as good as its contents? If the design is no good, it’s possible that no one will even get to the content.
If you find it hard to evaluate it yourself objectively, try and ask your customers and look into the statistics of your website. How positive is the user feedback, how long do users stay on your website, how large is the traffic? You can even consult a professional, as many web design agencies will do a website evaluation free of charge (including us!), so don’t hesitate because you can always improve and evolve your design.
Is the design of my website user-friendly?
Striking, eye-catching design is definitely a fantastic checkbox to check off when it comes to your website, but a very important part of design is how user-friendly it is. It’s so important that 88% of people simply will never come back to your website after a poor user experience!
User-friendly depends on many factors, but firstly, you should ask yourself this: is my website easy to navigate? If you were in the shoes of a potential customer, how easy is it to find the product/service on your website? How easy is it to find information about said product/service? How easy is it to go through with the purchasing process? How easy is it to contact you?
It all comes down to how quickly, easily and efficiently can a person get from point A – your homepage, to point B – their goal. If your website design is cluttered, hard to navigate, has too many animations or too little interactivity, you may find yourself losing clients by the minute! So test your website because optimising your website for great user-experience is directly linked to how well your business may do.
IS MY WEBSITE MOBILE-READY?
It is obvious that mobile age has come and is here to stay. Smartphones have completely revolutionised the way we browse, and now the average time a person spends on their smartphone per day is 5 hours. This is 5 hours that could include your website! But if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, 40% of users will not even give it a chance. But did you know that half of the global e-commerce revenue, meaning selling online, comes from mobile?!
Having your website not optimised for mobile would simply be a mistake that could cost you half your potential client base. So, open up your website on a smartphone and see just how good your website looks on it and how easy it is to navigate, because everything that goes into standard desktop website development is also part of mobile. This means you have to take all the factors we mentioned earlier and more into consideration.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to a professional web designer who will be able to detail why your website is or isn’t working well on mobile. And if you choose us to make you a website, we automatically include that in the development package as we consider mobile experience vital to your website.
Does my website load fast enough?
We all know people have become less and less patient when it comes to browsing the internet, and when a person has a goal in mind, slow loading times can cause a lot of frustration and result in loss of customers. Google has previously listed website speed as one of the key factors that algorithms use to rank websites, so not only is it important for users but how well your website will do in a search engine.
47% of users expect websites to load in less than just 2 seconds! So, if your website takes a painfully long time to load for whatever reason, a potential customer is very likely not to wait and move on to your competitor. Of course we must take internet speed into consideration, but it is your website’s job to be as optimised as possible for whatever internet speed out there. Simply put, the better your website’s loading speed overall – the easier it is for slow internet users.
Why is my website slow then, you may ask. Well, many factors can contribute to slow loading times on a website: unoptimised images, image format, coding issues, not using caching, not using compression, excessive ads, poor hosting and more! An experienced web designer will be able to evaluate your website and pin-point exactly why it is taking forever to load. Even here at Interphase we do evaluations to let you know whether your website could be performing better, so don’t hesitate to drop us a message if you’re interested.
Is my website Search Engine Optimised?
You have probably heard of SEO so many times now if you have been researching ways to improve your website and your business at the same time. And yes, we may sound like a broken record but SEO is absolutely essential. If you want actusally customers actually finding your website, you just can’t skip SEO because 93% of online experiences start with a search engine, and 95% of web searches go through Google.
When you need something or you want to research something, where do you go? We bet it is beyond rare for you to go straight to a specific website that will provide you the answer. Admit it, you search on Google. That alone is valid enough of a reason to look into SEO, but additionally, it is also important to rank well, not just be on there.
75% of people while searching for something will never click past Google’s first page of search results. So, try and type in your business/brand name into the search bar, is your website on the first page? Now type in something directly related to your business, for example ‘Dundee restaurant’ or ‘Cleaning services in Scotland’ and see how high up you are in the results. If you are nowhere near the top/on the first page, the likelihood of new customers discovering you decreases dramatically.
Unfortunately, SEO isn’t always simple or easy, that is why we would highly recommend doing your research, educating and informing yourself on how to do it correctly and most importantly keeping up to date because Google is always changing something. If you do not have the time or will to drown in information overload, we would of course recommend professional SEO services. A simple Google search will help you discover countless options out there! Thankfully, you don’t even need to go anywhere because we offer website SEO right here at Interphase too.
In conclusion, the world of website development and design can be complicated and confusing, but it is so worth your time. Having an excellent website can improve how well users respond to it and therefore result in more customers. So don’t wait and fall behind your competitors.
If you would like some help, our friendly team will be more than happy to arrange a free or charge consultation with you. Contact us through our website contact form, e-mail [email protected] or even speak to us on 01382 221777.
