In 2019, we are blessed with a wealth of accessible and affordable technology, particularly with regards to web design. Therefore, there are no excuses for a business that doesn’t have a website. Regardless of how small your company is, it will always benefit from a strong site.
Building a professional and functional website is one of the number one ways to start generating new customers. The majority of consumers begin their journey towards purchasing something on Google. They search for whatever they’re looking for and click on a relevant website. If your website impresses them, then they may stick around for longer, meaning you could generate a sale. But, if your site isn’t up to scratch, they’ll leave within a few seconds.
This begs the question; how do you improve your website so it helps generate new customers? Well, here are a few tips that you’ll find highly effective:
Make Your Website Look Modern
Web design isn’t like interior design where more old and traditional things can still look great. On the web, if a website isn’t current, then it sticks out like a sore thumb. If you want your site to look professional, then it has to actually look like a contemporary website. It can be well worth hiring a web designer to help make your website look more sleek and professional. By doing this, you ensure that people don’t leave within their first few seconds on your site. It also makes your brand look more trustworthy and authoritative.
Ensure There’s Responsive Web Design
A significant aspect of modern web design is the ability for your site to be responsive. This means it will still look and function correctly when loaded on different devices. Mainly, your site must be mobile-friendly. So many consumers browse the web on smartphones or tablets, and desktop sites can be horrific to use when they aren’t responsive. To avoid losing out on lots of potential mobile customers, make sure you have a mobile-friendly website!
Speed Up The Loading Times
Did you know that around half of all users will leave a website if it takes more than two seconds to load? These days, thanks to technological advancements, websites are expected to load almost instantly. So, if you want to try and generate new customers, you must keep them on your site! One easy way to do this is by speeding up your page loading times. Keep them under two seconds, and you don’t give people a reason to leave before they even see what’s on your website. A great tool to use is PageSpeed Insights from Google – it will analyse your web page and tell you what’s slowing it down. A lot of the time, you can make a site faster by de-cluttering it and keeping things simple.
Provide Excellent Content
The content on your website is so crucial when you try generating new customers. If you want to make your site better, then start providing excellent content. Give people things that are useful to them – where they actually gain something. For example, if your business sells clothes, then start producing blog posts that talk about fashion trends or how to look good on a budget, etc. This does two things; it keeps people on your site for longer, allowing you to encourage them into buying something, and it drives more traffic to your site through search engines.
Improve The User Experience
Improving your SEO, as this is how you rank higher in search results and get more clicks – which results in more traffic, more leads, and more sales. However, the majority of tips revolving around SEO are to do with the user experience. Essentially, Google ranks websites highly when they’re easy for people to use. They should load fast, all the menu buttons should work, there shouldn’t be endless adverts or pop-ups, and so on. You can do other things to improve your SEO – like keyword research and link building – but start by looking at your site and making the user experience as good as it can be.
When you really think about it, creating a website for your small business isn’t too difficult. The whole purpose is to drive traffic to your site and keep as much of it on there for as long as possible. This will ultimately result in more lead generation and conversions. As such, you will start getting new customers! Follow the tips above, and you’ll take one giant stride towards a more professional and effective website.
