A new web design launch shouldn’t mark the end of website improvements – it’s just the beginning. Ongoing tweaks keep your website performing at it’s best. Making a significant improvement to your website doesn’t have to take a significant amount of your time either. Here are 10 ways to improve your website right now!
Improvement #1: Add calls to actions.
Adding strategically placed calls to action will do wonders for your conversion rate. They’re integrated into most website templates and designs at this point, and it isn’t on accident.
Calls to action work. It’s practically hardwired into our brains to click on them. We want that next step to be easy and an effective call to action makes it effortless.
A/B testing can be put to great use with calls to action. Play around with the language, colors, buttons, and more to continue boosting that conversion rate.
Improvement #2: Review your website content.
For some businesses, the only time website content is reviewed is amidst a redesign. Don’t be that business! The content on your website is just as important now as it was then.
A few tips for writing better website content:
- Get to the point. Now is not the time to be long winded. Your visitors’ time is valuable and they don’t want to be greeted with a novel on each page. Three sentence paragraphs are usually what’s recommended.
- Make important points clear. As we said, users won’t stick around for hours reading your website content. Emphasize the key takeaways and make everything “skim friendly”. Bullet points and headers will break up your text.
- Steer clear from industry lingo. Acronyms may be a time saver for you, but are likely a stumbling block for your website users. Unless you are certain that these terms are widely known by your audience, stick with what’s familiar to the masses.
- Add helpful internal links. In addition to helping search engine crawlers index your pages faster, links make life easier for your users. Sift through your content and look for topics that relate to other pages within your website.
Improvement #3: Showcase customer reviews.
It’s probably not news to you that customer reviews are important. In fact, responses in a recent study revealed that 90% of users who recalled reading online reviews claimed that positive online reviews influenced their buying decisions.
If you have great customer reviews or testimonials, position them center stage! Adding customer reviews to your website will foster trust in your business and increase that all too important conversion rate.
Improvement #4: Optimize title tags and meta descriptions.
These are your opportunity to draw in new website visitors. As potential customers scroll through search engine results, a superior title tag and meta description can set you apart from your competitors.
If you’re not certain how to set these for your website, we have good news: it’s easy! Yoast SEO has a fantastic, free, plugin that allows you to edit title tags and meta descriptions for each page. With over 81 million downloads, you know it has to be good. However, Yoast is available for WordPress websites only. If you are running on a different platform, you should perform a search for SEO plugin for that particular platform.
Improvement #5: Treat each page like an entry page.
Not all of your visitors are going to enter your website through the homepage. Whether they enter a search term that brings them to your service page or click an article you shared on social media, make it apparent where they’ve ended up.
A sticky nav bar should do the trick! This will remain present on each page and as users scroll. Include basic information like your business’s name, phone number, or a short line summarizing what you do (“The biggest website templates marketplace” for example).
Improvement #6: Find and fix broken links.
Broken links hurt SEO and lead to poor user experience. Determining whether your website has broken links or not is quite simple and should be done on a monthly basis.
Finding the links can be done through Google Analytics or with any “broken link checker” tool online. We’d recommend a plugin like Broken Link Checker which allows you to both find and fix links directly on the plugin page.
Improvement #7: Replace cliche stock photos.
Stock photos… They’re outdated at best. Popular with spammy websites, stock photos can even make your website appear untrustworthy.
We should probably specify, this doesn’t apply to all stock photos. Websites like Unsplash make high quality, free images available to all.
If you’d like to use photos featuring people, use your own employees if possible. Hiring a photographer for a few hours is certainly worth the expense. Photos of your team (not those polished stock models giving each other high fives) will give your website instant authenticity and credibility.
Improvement #8: Integrate social media.
Encourage website users to connect with you on social media by including social media icons on your website and social share buttons for each blog post. For some businesses, pulling social media updates right into the website make for an eye catching design. This is particularly effective with Instagram.
Improvement #9: Simplify your website navigation.
There’s nothing quite like a cluttered and confusing navigation bar to hurt user experience. How is your website currently structured? Does it make sense to first time users?
Send a friend on a scavenger hunt to find information throughout your website. If they have a difficult time finding certain items, you may want to consider rearranging them.
Here is some important information that should be easily accessible:
- A one liner that clearly describes what your business offers.
- Contact information: phone number, address, email.
- Detail on services or products you offer.
- Return policies.
- Online chat support if you offer it.
- Have an online store? Outline shipping fees and options.
Avoid long drop downs by knowing when to consolidate related pages. Headers will break up your text and allow users to scroll down to the information they’re looking for instead of visiting scores of pages.
Improvement #10: Organize blog post categories.
Blog post categories are typically an afterthought. You’ve spent hours crafting a well written article and after formatting each header you plop it into a new category.
Suddenly, you have 50 different blog post categories with only one article in some of them. Luckily it doesn’t take long to merge and bulk edit categories. Use your top keywords to inspire the categories you create.
For example, if you owned a landscaping company your blog categories might look something like this:
- Lawncare
- Hardscaping
- Landscaping Design
- Snow Removal
Like building and maintaining a house, to keep your website performing at its very best it needs a little TLC. The right website template will serve as an attractive home for your business online, but just as any good homeowner knows; you can’t neglect crucial maintenance and updates.
With the quick website improvements we’ve outlined above, you’ll have your website tuned up and converting better in no time!