While it’s great to have a healthy social media presence, eye-catching graphics, and a big email list, these things are all for naught without an attractive, functional, and user-friendly website.
Here at KWSM, we tell our clients that their websites are the “hub” of all of their digital marketing efforts. The website is where people will go to familiarize themselves with the brand, check out their products and/or services, look up hours and of operation and directions, etc.
If users arrive at your website and are unimpressed with the design, the content takes too long to load, or they struggle to find the answers they are looking for, they will likely write your brand off for good.
When determining the appeal and functionality of your website, here are some things to consider.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
As more websites are added to the internet each day, it is important to continually optimize your website’s SEO to earn and maintain your rank in search results.
The goal is to be the number one search result, but anywhere in the top 10 spots is good – as long as you land on the first page. After all, 75% of people never scroll past the first page of search engines.
There are a few things you can do to give your website the best opportunity to rank well in search engines. To name a few, your website should be mobile-friendly, have a fast loading time, upload a stable stream of content, and have basic safe-browsing precautions in place.
Web Design
Think about it… How long do you typically wait for a web page to load before giving up and trying out a different site? How long would you spend searching through a website that wasn’t laid out in a clear, user-friendly way? Do you find yourself spending a good deal of time on websites that don’t look appealing or trustworthy?
Even without thinking about it consciously, all of these factors influence what users will believe, not only about your website but your brand in general. An unorganized, unreliable, unresponsive, unattractive website is a surefire way to turn users away before they even see the product or service you’re offering.
Website Analytics
Building your website is not a one-and-done process! It takes regular maintenance and management to ensure your site is fully optimized for search and user experience.
One major part of this is regularly checking your website’s analytics. KPI’s such as the number of sessions, bounce rate, average pages per session, top search queries, user demographics, and more are essential to monitoring your website’s performance and knowing which changes should be made in order to be more successful and effective.
Do you want to learn more about how to set your brand’s website up for success?
Join us on March 12, 2021, for our Website and SEO Bootcamp!
CLICK HERE to learn more and register for the workshop.
