How Does Your Website Stack Up?

Your website serves as the centerpiece of your marketing efforts. It’s the main place where customers come find out what products and solutions you can offer them. Whether you’re creating a website for your local store or one for large national brand, there are some characteristics that all good websites have in common.

1. Is Easily Found – the website should be the first place that provides potential customers with information about products and services. To make it easy to find, your website address should be on every piece of electronic and print communication you produce. You should also make yourself easy to find online, particularly in Google Maps.
2. Loads Quickly – More and more people use their smart phones to access websites. Make sure you pass Google’s mobile-friendly test.
3. Responsive – More and more people use their smart phones or tablets to access websites. Make sure your site looks good on all devices and passes Google’s mobile-friendly test.
4. Quickly Communicates the Brand’s Identity – Customers should be able to identify with the message that the brand is trying to sell, the website should help enhance brand recognition, instill confidence in the product or service offered, and build authority.
5. Follows the AIDA Rule – Well-designed pages use images, text, and negative space to create pleasing content patterns that engage the user and guide them to take the desired action. (A) Attracts Attention, (I) Piques Interest, (D) Creates Desire, (A) Causes Action.
6. Uses Powerful imagery – A picture really IS worth a thousand words. Investing in quality photography for your site is one of the best investments you can make. Studies show that engaging visuals keep visitors on sites longer and help encourage them to navigate deeper. Utilize large ‘hero’ images to attract attention and punctuate blocks of text with inset pictures images to keep visitors interested.
7. Easy to Navigate and Use – Visitors should know where they are and what page they need to get to from the second they land on your page. Make sure your navigation is prominent, logical, and easy to follow. If your site has too many clicks to get to what they need, customers will leave. The easier it is to navigate your website, the more likely a customer is to return.
8. Tells a Compelling Story – Creating compelling content that educates, informs, and entertains can attract more visitors to the website. Using storytelling is a wonderful way to make your content entertaining.
9. Enhances Credibility – Sites that feature customer testimonials or online reviews from Google and Yelp make it easy for visitors to feel comfortable doing business with you.
10. Has Prominent Calls to Action – Make it easy for visitors to do something when they land on your site. Whether it’s a download button, phone number, request a quote link, or something else, make sure your CTAs stand out from the rest of your content. Calls to action turn visitors into customers.
11. Instills Trust with Support Options – If customers become frustrated and take their business elsewhere. Make sure your customers can reach you quickly with an omnipresent phone number and email address. Consider investing in a chat bot or live chat feature to help build trust and keep visitors returning. Customers trust sites that are easy to communicate with.
12. Is Accessible to all – Offering accessibility tools for visually impaired people is a terrific way to make sure that everyone can use your site.
13. Collects Customer Email and Phone Number – Make sure your site has a form to collect visitor email addresses and cell numbers for future drip email and mobile marketing promotions.
14. Has a Footer – The footer is an extension of the main navigation of the site and provides additional information they can access if interested. It should contain your logo, contact details, company information, copyright, terms of service, privacy policy, and support information. This is also a suitable place for social media icons.
15. Features a Content Management System – Updating and adding new content on a regular basis is a must for building a solid website strategy. Most modern websites feature easy-to-edit content management systems and blog features to make editing and adding content faster and easier.