- 6 Ways To Make Your Website Design Stand Out For A
- 6 Ways To Make Your Website Design Stand Out As A
- 6 Ways To Make Your Website Design Stand Out Like
- 6 Ways To Make Your Website Design Stand Out Without
Today there are over 1,000,000,000 websites on the internet.
It is with a solid layout and structure that you can truly make your website stand out amidst the crowd. If you apply a fancy layout or site structure that no one else has every used, you are indeed making your website unique, and that is by having something that no other site does have. Get the Branding Right. Branding is without a doubt. Your Website from Standard to Stand-Out. When you own a business, you’ll know exactly how important first impressions are. And for modern businesses, your website is the cover that people will judge you buy. Your website can be a lot of things for your business. It can be an information portal, a shop, or a showcase of your best work. Keeping consistent themes in all your branding, including your website, is a great way to maximize conversions. Effective website design is about more than just looking good; the information on your website must flow in a logical and easily followed pattern. People read web pages in what is called an “E Format”. To really make your website stand out from the crowd, you may want to get a bit more adventurous and use some additional design elements. There’s a huge library of goodies for you to use at Envato Elements, which range from ready to use stock images for your blog posts (250,000+ fully licensed stock photos), web templates, fonts, backgrounds.
And they’re all vying to capture the attention of your customer.
I’m not telling you this to scare you. In fact I am probably not telling you anything you are not aware of already.
I’m telling you this to demonstrate that since there are over one billion websites online, the chances are there are at least ten, maybe even a couple of hundred in your niche and location alone.
And with figures like that, you need to make sure that your website is successful at helping you reach your business goals, capturing the attention of and building trust with your target audience.
In this post you will receive ten specific and actionable strategies to turn your online presence into a marketing asset so you can increase the number of leads you generate, the prospects you convert into customers and ultimately enable you to rise above the competition.
Have a Mobile Friendly Website
Whether it’s performing a search, opening an app, visiting a website or watching a video, people turn to their mobile device to get answers or take action.
If the website you have is not mobile optimised the user experience will be poor; it will be harder to click on buttons, more difficult to read the information and the user may not even be able to “click to call”, all of which can result in them moving on very quickly. Worse, if Google notice this, and they will, you will effectively be penalised and your website will be pushed further down the search rankings as a consequence.
6 Ways To Make Your Website Design Stand Out For A
Claim Your Google My Business Listing
Google is the most powerful and popular search engine, every second there are 54,907 searches globally and it has loads of great resources on offer as well. By taking advantage of Google’s resources you will also make your business more easily searchable. One of the best things to do is claim your Google my Business Profile and make the page your own
It’s important to make sure you’re including key contact and location information on your website and Google my business profile.
According to research by comScore, address and location are the primary pieces of information sought by local searchers. Here are some of the other types of info searchers are looking for:
- Businesses by category (In other words, searchers are looking for a particular type of business but haven’t yet decided which one to select.)
- Phone number
- Products or services (Again, they don’t have a particular business in mind, they’re searching for a specific product or service.)
- Opening Hours
- Driving directions
- Coupons and special offers
- Ratings and reviews
Given the desires of local searchers, it’s important to keep your content concise and actionable.
CLAIM PROFILES ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media can have a huge impact as it can put you in front of a huge targeted audience in a relatively informal setting. It’s also great for backlinks, getting your content shared and increasing the awareness of your brand. Having your own profile to link to also reinforces your brand image and gives you a good link back to a very highly ranked source.
These social media profiles are very relevant for your brand and can be used to protect your reputation from other companies or unwanted press articles appearing in brand related search terms.
Optimse Your Website for Search
If you want your site to show up in the search engines, then you have to make sure that the terms that people would use to search for your type of product or service are on your site for the search engines to see. For example if you are a Dentist, your potential customers might be searching for “loose tooth”, “straighten my teeth” rather than just “dentist”. Find out what your customers search for, and then optimise your site for these words and phrases.
Sit down and create a list of your products and services. Take each service individually and add the problems that you can solve. You then have the basis for a content campaign.
PRODUCE QUALITY CONTENT
Search engines are hungry for fresh content on websites. They see it as a measure of how up to date and relevant a site is. If you produce a great, fully optimised website don’t think you have done it once and can leave it forever without updating it. You need to add new content to your website regularly, not least because if people see that there is a lot of fresh new information they are more likely to come back time and time again.
The more good quality content you have, the greater the opportunity you have to have your website presented to a targeted user in search.
Grow your email list.
There should be a focus, a desired result so to speak, for everything that you do online. If you are going to create a website and provide educational, entertaining and enlightening content for your target audience then you should enable those targeted users to take the next step and become leads and future clients of your business.
In order to do this you have to provide the website user with something of incredible value that will help them solve their problem.
An example of such would be that a legal firm who offer conveyancing services could provide a download for a user to subscribe to called “5 Reasons Choosing the Least Cost Conveyancing Quote Could Leave You Thousands of Pounds Out of Pocket”
If you are looking to buy a new home then this is something you want to know, so you can provide the user with that information in exchange for their email address and more importantly, permission to email them and market your strengths in that area.
ENCOURAGE COMMENTS AND FEEDBACK
Social Proof is very important. Think of any major purchase you’ve made and the chances are you did some research online. Customer reviews and feedback are often more valuable than a blurb or product description. They show that real people have bought, used and enjoyed the product or experience enough to come back and review it.
MANAGE YOUR REPUTATION
The internet is a huge open forum and no matter how many happy customers you have there will always be someone who leaves a bad review or a negative comment. While you can never stop these entirely, you need to be aware of what is being said about you online and make sure that you control your image and reputation as tightly as possible.
On the flip side when customers leave great feedback about your business you need to make sure those reviews and testimonials are everywhere that potential clients may be online.
ENGAGE WITH CUSTOMERS
It can be all too easy to hide behind the brand, with an online presence it’s good to be visible. Let your customers know who is behind the business, let them know who they’re talking to on Social Media. You don’t need to give away anything personal, just be personable, reply to comments so that people can see they’re being listened to and engage in conversations to create a bit of a buzz about your business.
MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE!
A fully optimised, engaging online presence that draws customers in and encourages customer interaction takes a lot of effort and skill. If your online presence isn’t working for you, it more than likely means customers aren’t finding you, or if they are then they don’t like what they see. Done correctly, your online presence with your website at the centre should provide a constant stream of leads and ultimately be a full time sales person for your business.
38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the design is lacking. With numbers like that, it’s crucial that your homepage design is putting its best foot forward. But what makes for good homepage design and how can you make your website stand out?
Here are 8 amazing design tips to get your website’s homepage looking its best and engaging customers.
Brand Effectively
Your home page should answer 3 questions:
- Who are you?
- What do you do?
- and/or What can you (the user) do here?
Branding is the most effective tool you can use to answer question one. Your brand should be prominent on your homepage. Your audience should be able to glance at it and know immediately who you are.
Displaying your logo prominently is only step one of the branding process. You should also look for ways to visually brand your whole design. A great brand comes with a signature look and feel.
A signature color palette, imagery composition, and content tone can all work wonders for making your homepage look and feel like yours and yours alone. This, in turn, will help people engage with you and your brand.
Make It Responsive
Internet users are becoming increasingly multiplatform. That means your website needs to look its best no matter how your audience may be viewing it.
The gold standard for ensuring one’s website looks good on mobile, desktop, or tablet is a responsive design. This means your layout adjusts depending on the resolution of the screen, rather than targeting specific devices.
Designing your website responsively isn’t just a boon for your audience either. Google actively penalizes sites that aren’t mobile-friendly. Your SEO and your user engagement will thank you for implementing a responsive homepage design.
Use Authentic Imagery
People remember images far better than they do words. Choosing the right imagery for your homepage design isn’t just about aesthetics, it’s also key to creating a lasting impression in the minds of your users.
6 Ways To Make Your Website Design Stand Out As A
Which isn’t to say you should buy stock images in bulk!
Audiences are becoming increasingly savvy to the use of inauthentic stock photography. Smiling freelancers posing in cafes are more likely to hurt your reputation than help it.
Your homepage imagery should tie directly into your brand. If you have a brick and mortar location then investing in a photo shoot of the area for use on your homepage will be a boon to your user engagement.
Images that present your brand in an authentic way will go a long way to helping your website stand out from the crowd.
Don’t Overwhelm
It can be all too easy to slip into the habit of highlighting too much on your homepage. The problem with highlighting everything, of course, is that you end up highlighting nothing.
This practice can also lead to your homepage design ending up cluttered and overwhelming to boot. 88% of people (more about this here) won’t return to a website if they’ve had a bad experience, so you want to avoid this at all costs.
Instead of implementing two sidebars and a slider, think minimal. Present your audience with a clear UI that’s easy to navigate.
Also, keep your calls to action clear and concise – lean away from pushing too many options that might overwhelm your visitors.
Display Social Proof
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that’s particularly effective when used in marketing strategies. It describes the way a person will assume the actions of others in an attempt to behave correctly in a given situation.
There are many ways to leverage social proof in your homepage design. One way is to display positive feedback and testimonials from your customers.
If you have a particularly large presence on social media then displaying your follower count can be a great way to encourage user trust through social proof as well.
Pay Attention to Readability
The most beautiful imagery in the world won’t save a website that can’t be easily read. How you lay out your written content and the web font choices you make can make or break your homepage design.
You should pay attention to your text’s alignment. Left aligned text is the most readable and should be used for any content that’s longer than a header. Right aligned text is the least readable and should be used sparingly.
Your font size and line spacing choices should also be made with readability in mind. Also, ensure that the length of your text falls within best practice standards. Each line of text should be 45-75 characters per line.
Include Clear Calls to Action
Your homepage should be the beginning of your customer’s journey. To avoid it becoming a dead end you need to display clear calls to action.
An effective CTA will be both action and benefit orientated. You shouldn’t just tell people to “click here” or “call now”, you should give them the incentive to do that action. “Get my eBook” is a much better CTA than the two previous examples.
Also, ensure you’re not overwhelming people with too many CTAs. Giving your users too many options can lead to choice overload and decision fatigue.
Test, Test, Test!
Use Google Analytics to death if you have to! You must ensure you’re testing the effectiveness of your homepage design decisions at every step of your development and beyond.
Keeping track of analytics and setting goals is the best way to understand what design elements are working and what should be pulled back to the drawing board.
If in doubt, read up on current design trends and industry studies. There are very few metrics the design and marketing industries haven’t measured.
6 Ways To Make Your Website Design Stand Out Like
Savvy reading can be a great way of leveraging other peoples’ metrics for your own designs.
Good Homepage Design Is Essential
Your homepage is often the first thing your users will see on your website. It’s essential that it’s presenting you and your business at its best.
6 Ways To Make Your Website Design Stand Out Without
With these 8 design tips, you’ll ensure your homepage is serving your customers a beautiful experience and your business a great first impression.
Looking to stay on top of the current design trends?
Here are 9 online communities to get the latest ones.