Top Tips for Web Design
Search engine promotion gets more complex by the day, With Google penalties challenging some of the most die-hard companies, Google ranking and successful ethical climb is more challenging than ever.
To use an analogy, one needs to create a reflection of one’s business online. What do we mean by that? A company is a moving, living thing, and as a business trades and communicates, one needs to reflect on the life of that business on the website. The ongoing creation of good, relevant and valuable content, as well as links to it, up-to-date and helpful user (and for user-read prospect) information, case studies, testimonials and more, are all essential for the latest, winning websites, but having said that, the most excellent most potent foundation is a well thought out and structured website.
Ten points to think about when building a website.
1. Think very carefully about titles. Most people search for a product or service, NOT the provider of such, e.g. “order flowers online”, rather than the name of a florist or service.
2. Avoid plain, empty home pages. If there is no content on your home page, you can’t expect a search engine to interpret what your site is about.
3. More rather than big pages. Over 20% of visitors will give up if your page hasn’t appeared in 12 seconds. The smaller the page, the faster it will open. Large graphics and many animations are best avoided.
4. Use text as well as images. Search engines can’t tell what a picture is. Images are essential to create the right impression, but they won’t help you get a good search engine listing.
5. Use simple navigation. How easy is it for the customer to move around your site? Don’t forget that you are familiar with it. Ask someone who has never visited your area to give you constructive criticism.
6. Include something to encourage a return visit. Internet users are looking for information as well as products and services. Give them something valuable, and they might return later.
7. Contact. Make sure your contact details are available on every page. Some search engines list many pages, not just your index page. Remember that visitors might start on any page.
8. Content is king. Clever images and features may look impressive, but the content will keep people returning.
9. Keep up to date. Internet users get bored of static sites, so put something different up as often as possible. Review the performance regularly.