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Without a top-quality website your online presence is hindered even if your direct competition may not have a tech-savvy website.
Establishing an effective and engaging website shows your current clientele and site visitors that you care about the details. However, before you jump into the web design (or redesign) process with two feet there are some things that you should know before you start the project.
7 Tricks of the Trade to Enhance Your Website
1. Determine Whether Website Design is Right for You
Misguided reasons for redesigning your website are driven by the thought that the freshness and “wow factor” of a new website will increase excitement over your brand. The main motivations behind website renovations should be to improve the performance of your website. A beautiful website, although intriguing and aesthetically pleasing, is secondary to a functional traffic and lead generating website.
The Right Reasons for website design:
- Want to get found by more prospects.
- Want to convert more prospects into leads and eventually, customers.
- We want to improve branding. (Only appropriate if oriented around one of the previous reasons.)
The wrong reasons for website design:
- We have a new corporate look and feel.
- It's been 12 months since our last redesign
- The CEO wants to do it
2. Insure that Your Website's Assets are in Order and Safe
If you do not fully understand the importance and practice of proper SEO, doing a web design can be more damaging than helpful. If you do not feel comfortable around SEO work, it may be best to hire a specialist to perform the redesign so all the hard work you have put into making a web presence does not disappear. it may also be time to contact a professional to set you up with a system that can track these metrics if you donʼt already have a system in place.
The asset check list:
- Determine how many pages you have.
- Figure out which pages are most popular/powerful.
- Determine how many inbound links you have.
- Establish where these links are coming from.
- Look up what interior pages have inbound links.
- Figure out which inbound links are most popular/powerful.
- Determine what keywords you rank for before the move.
3. Formatting Your Homepage
Your homepage is the face of your services or products. You only get one chance to impress that visitor, so make sure you carefully place the essentials you want them to know on your homepage. It should also act as a launching platform to places where they can contact you in the future (i.e. blog, social media, etc.).
4. Focus on Continuous Original Content that Attracts and Converts
Original content is your websiteʼs messenger; it will inform your prospects on what you do, and how passionately you do it. With a vast array of formats to create content on, you should always be continuously contributing original content to keep your prospects engaged and constantly interacting with your website.
5. Formatting Your Landing Pages
Landing pages are where the magic happens; they are the gateway to your conversion offers that create engaged and interested leads. Make sure you can grab their attention with an interesting offer, but also coherently explain what you are offering through the landing page!
6. Conduct Conversion Experiments
Website design is not a one and done deal. Your web pages should evolve and improve over time. This is especially important for your landing pages since they help convert your faceless website visitors into opportunities that you have collected vital information about.
If your landing pages and offerings do not seem to be reaching their full potential, you should try to:
- Attach their links in your email newsletters.
- Have your pay-per click ads go right to the landing page.
- Use them as the next step after a trade show or event.
7. Review Your Metrics
Metrics are pivotal for pinpointing the exact pain points of your website. By doing small, but constant adjustments to your website, you will be able to maximize the utility of your website so it becomes a platform for generating visitors, leads, and ultimately, sales.
This was an excerpt from IMPACT’s popular ebook, “Website Redesign 101.” For more expert tips on making sure you’re going into a redesign for the right reasons, be sure to check out the full ebook.
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