The average Internet user will spend roughly 15 minutes browsing your content—hardly a fraction of the time you’ll spend building your website. Still, it pays to boost your marketing presence with a thoughtfully-designed digital space.
Consumers turn to websites for several reasons—to learn more about your brand, purchase your products and services, or find a quick fix to a pressing solution. Your clients are likely to formulate an opinion in seconds—not minutes—so you’ll want to get ahead of the competition by focusing on these four website-building fundamentals.
- First Impressions
Your website is typically your business’ first impression, and you’ll want to make a lasting one. When we say impression, we don’t mean something blatantly overwhelming.
Instead, opt for minimal design elements that make sense. Study your competitors, but don’t take after them—you don’t want to publish a website that is a glaring copy of another.
- Search Engine Optimization
You’ve likely heard this term before, and it isn’t without good reason. Crafting content isn’t going to be enough to earn first-page SERP status—Google has to approve your content, too.
Thus, you’ll want to stay updated when it comes to search engine algorithms. Do regular keyword research and determine how well specific pieces of content are performing by studying its metrics. Which post is receiving the highest viewership? What keywords are performing best? Are you writing to satisfy your target demographic, or could you do better?
- Navigation
Nowadays, consumers are often after instant gratification. That means if they can’t find what they’re after with a glance of your website, you’re going to lose them as a customer.
Your website should be available to consumers even in the wee hours of the morning, primarily if you’re functioning internationally. If you don’t have a dedicated customer service system, the least you can do is make it easy to access every page.
Keep navigation bars intuitive and where your site visitors expect to find them. Don’t clutter your home page with dozens of options to get to one place—keep it simple.
- Accessibility
A thoughtfully-designed website is essential to a successful business and high-performing inbound marketing techniques. However, it won’t be the case if it isn’t accessible.
First, you’ll want to ensure that your website is responsive. Otherwise, you’ll be missing out on millions of potential customers who prefer to browse on mobile devices or tablets.
Second, you’ll have to account for those who may require special needs, such as those hard of hearing. Make your website even more welcoming with screen readers, speech recognition software, alternative keyboards, and other helper tools.
The easier it is to browse your website, the more frequently users will return. Pair this ease of navigation with valuable content, and you’ll be an Internet go-to in no time.
Conclusion
Standing out as an industry leader doesn’t necessarily have to do with what you know—it also involves demonstrating this knowledge in a simple, approachable, and available way to all types of consumers.
For SEO services that place your website above the rest, collaborate with our marketing experts at Springboard Labs. From site audits to monitoring results, we take care of your progress from start to finish.
