The lack of certain website features can be the reason your website traffic and conversion rates aren’t where you want them to be.
If people are leaving your site without returning or taking action, it might not be about the product or service but the website experience.
The way you represent your business is vital because your website is the first place people go to find out about your services. Here are a few website features you can’t go without.
Mobile
Because mobile devices are a huge component of online activity, going mobile is one of the most important website features you need to have. Customers want a fast and easy way of viewing a website, especially with a small screen space. 61% of consumers like a brand more when they have a pleasant mobile experience according to Mobify. Going mobile shows consumers that your business is innovative updated and active.
Social Media Platforms
The presence of social media on your site is critical. Social media is great for networking, communicating and showing people what you’re all about. People on social media can help your business grow by writing about your business, sharing your posts and inviting friends to follow you. Use social media to promote your products and offer promotions. Social media also gives you a platform to show your customers how you’re engaged with the community. Have share buttons on the front page of your website where it’s visible and stands out.
Sign Up Form
This is a call to action. Encourage customers to sign up for your e-newsletter. Through newsletters, you can inform people about your services, news and promotions. Offer incentives for signing up such as a discount on a product. This is a great way to interact with your customers by sending out emails on a consistent basis. Have your sign-up button on the front of your page where it stands out.
Blog
If you don’t already have one, a blog is one of the website features that gives your company a plus. Blogging is a great way for customers to get to know more about your company and the people that work there. Writing articles about your industry, its’ products and services helps position you as an expert and builds trust with customers. Customers can leave comments and questions for an interactive and personal experience. Blogs generate 126% more leads than those without a blog according to Yahoo! Small Business. A valuable part of blogging is that it can generate more traffic through search engine optimization (SEO). If your website has a blog, your website can be easier to find on search engines because they love fresh content to index.
Why? Because 61% of consumers like a brand more when they have a pleasant mobile experience according to Mobify.
These numbers prove that consumers value mobile interaction with a website.
So in 2015 you need a website that’s optimized for these devices. A mobile website benefits you with happier customers and repeat traffic. But it benefits consumers by giving them bigger text to read, links that are easier to click, and search options that actually work on a cell phone.
You can test your website to see if it’s mobile using Google’s mobile friendly test. Click here to run the test.
The Lowdown On Why You Should Mobilize Your Website
Mobile Is Growing Exponentially
Smartphones are taking over big time. One out of five people in the world own a smartphone now according to Businessinsider. People are using their mobile devices to buy almost everything and anything. This year mobile marketing in the U.S. is projected to make $400 billion. That’s almost double what it made compared to just 3 years ago, according to WebDam. Because mobile devices are a huge component of online activity, you need to mobilize your website in order to accommodate this rapid change.
Easier For Your Customers To Access Your Website
Remember it’s not about you – it’s about your customers. Customers want a fast and easy way of viewing a website, especially with a small screen space. Because a mobilized website calls for simple design, it will load faster. If your website is mobile, tabs will be larger and easier to click on. Fonts are bigger and images are reduced. Mobile sites are easier to navigate and have a more noticeable call to action. This way people don’t have to zoom in to read or click.
Google awards websites that are mobile. These websites will be ranked higher than non-mobilized websites. If you mobilize your website it’ll load faster, and download speed is among the factors for your website search ranking. If your SEO is greater, then you’re getting more page views. With that, your analytics will look better.
Your Competitors Have Done It
You’ve got to jump on the boat. You don’t want your competitors looking more advanced than you. But guess what? According to Searchengineland, only 5% of the top 500 online retailers have a mobile website. That’s a relatively small number! So this is a great opportunity for you to get ahead of your competitors. Who knows, maybe your competitors will look up your website.
You can test your website to see if it’s mobile using Google’s mobile friendly test. Click here to run the test.
Increasing your website search ranking is one of the biggest goals for your business. However there is a new algorithm, Google Panda, which determines your search rank.
With Google Panda low quality pages are ranking lower and high quality content pages are boosted.
So how do you get your pages to be of high quality content? There are a great deal of ways, but here some effective tactics that help in increasing your website search ranking.
Place Keywords At the Beginning Of the Title
A key word at the beginning of the title versus the middle or end will aid in increasing your website search ranking. Keywords placed at the beginning of the title grab more attention. Search engines weigh your title keywords heavily so they should be pushed to the beginning of the headline. Don’t forget there’s a limit of title words that appear in Google results. If keywords are at the end of a long title, the keywords might not show up in search result.
Original Content
Make up your own stuff. You have your own ideas to share and Google wants you to deliver it in your own way. Not only will original content boost your ranking but your company will appear knowledgeable and reliable.
Link To Authority Sites
Linking to authority sites is critical. This tells Google that your site is trustworthy because you’re using credible sites. Authority sites include domains with .org, .gov, .edu and .net . Major news channels and magazines are of good standing, also.
“List” Headlines
People love to search for lists. Having article headings with lists is a great way to help in increasing your website’s search ranking. For example, instead of writing, “How to Boost SEO” you can write “ Top 5 Ways to Boost SEO”. This minor tweak can go a long way.
Keyword Density
The keyword should be the most frequent phrase in the content without a doubt. It should be used whenever possible but without appearing forced. Google will recognize the attempt to over use your key word according to BackLink. This can result in lowering your search ranking. Find a balance with your keyword and use it responsibly.
Image Optimization
Search engines look for keywords within your image file names. You can use your headline for image tags. This can help your image pop up on Google’s image search as well as web search. People tend to underestimate image optimization; but it’s among the factors that help in increasing your website search ranking.
Sticky navigation is a web design trend that’s all about convenience and accessibility.
Do you ever get annoyed with scrolling to the top of the website to get back to the menu?
With sticky navigation you won’t have to. A sticky navigation menu follows you wherever you go on the page.
What Is It?
You might not have noticed websites with sticky navigation but you most likely have seen one. A sticky navigation is a menu that “sticks” around no matter where you go on the page. It follows you as you scroll down the page.
Website viewers like sticky navigation because it’s easy to navigate the website and find pages according to WebUnlimited. Usually people have to keep scrolling to the top of the page in order to get back to the menu. This can be annoying especially with lengthy websites. Traditionally, menus are on the left side column of a website but with sticky navigation, the menu is the front and center piece.
Why Use it?
Designing an effective navigation on your website is critical. With sticky navigation, users spend less time clicking and finding tabs. You don’t have to scroll back to the top of the site to get to the menu bar. It’s always visible no matter how far you scroll. This is a useful tool if your website holds many web pages. Sticky navigation keeps pages organized and easy to spot. In an experiment conducted by SmashingMagazine, 100% of the participants indicated that the website with the sticky navigation was easier or faster to use.
Disadvantages
Sticky navigation is not 100% responsive. There are compatibility issues with some mobile devices because of the differences in size.
A minor disadvantage is some people don’t like a menu floating around, sticking with them wherever they are on the site.
Another issue is sticky navigation takes up a lot of space on your website, leaving less area for content. However, preferences depend on whether you want as much content space as you can get or if you like clutter-free, clean slate websites. On the plus side one of the biggest web trends now is a clean simple website.
Contact NuZoo Media for more information on sticky navigation!
The lack of certain website features can be the reason your website traffic and conversion rates aren’t where you want them to be.
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s time for you to mobilize your website.
Sticky navigation is a web design trend that’s all about convenience and accessibility.