How can website services help your business grow?

Website services can be vital for your business. A great website has the ability to grab your audience’s attention, convert them and grow your business.

Your business’s website has around three seconds to make a lasting impact on your audience. First impressions count and so does each second. Effective website services can help take your website to the next level, helping you to achieve your business goals.

A website can help support your customers, build trust with your audience and establish credibility. Ultimately, you want a website that enables your customers to take the next step. Closing sales allowing you to grow your business.

In this guide, we provide five tips to take your website to the next level.

1. Develop your user experience 

The user experience is critical. You want a seamless experience throughout your platforms. If your website only looks good on desktop, you’re excluding yourself from a whole plethora of mobile users.

Making sure your website is responsive to different screen sizes is a must. Studies have shown that 21% of millennials no longer use a desktop computer to go online. If they’re your target audience, by only focusing on the desktop user experience, you’re excluding yourself from potential clients.

Visual consistency is also key. Your brand should be consistent, no matter the platform it’s being accessed on. This includes colours, font, illustration styles and more. Everything should be coherent between pages or it could leave your audience to question the legitimacy of your site.

Drastic changes from one page to another within your site can lead to your audiences feeling confused. This is something you should avoid at all costs as it results in disengagement. Here at Vocal, we create easy to navigate, beautifully designed websites that focus on user experience. If you don’t have time, our website services can help to blend your user experience, creating visually inviting, responsive designs.

2. Search Engine Optimization

The power of search engine optimization (SEO) shouldn’t be underestimated. SEO is often misunderstood and seen as complicated; however, the truth is far from this in reality. Harnessing your SEO is easier than you might think.

Organic listings on the first page of Google receive 90% of clicks. This means if you’re not paying for adverts to get on the first page, you need to be strategic. One strategy is through the use of SEO content on your website. This can be done via:

Keywords and phrases

Including keywords and key phrases in the content you’re writing can boost your sites search ranking. Google Trends is a useful tool that can help you see what your audience is searching for. By writing content that uses these keywords and phrases, you will meet the demand for knowledge. More people will see your post, thus driving more traffic to your site.

Meta descriptions

Meta tags are often overlooked when it comes to SEO, but you should be paying attention to them. These meta tags are snippets of text that describe a page’s content, but they don’t appear on the page itself. They help tell search engines what a web page is about. It’s important to include your keyword or phrase here. You want your meta descriptions to be short, informative, punchy and entice the audience to click on your link.

3. Don’t underestimate the power of content marketing

A content marketing strategy is essential to any website. Having a blog on your website is another way to take your website to the next level. Through writing a blog, you can attract more traffic and increase your rankings via the inclusion of keywords and phrases. As mentioned above, Google wants to provide relevant content to its audience.

If you write rich content that provides useful information and answers a question, Google will reward you for it. The more people who click, engage and share, the higher you’ll rise in the ranks. Linking internally to past blogs you’ve written can also increase traffic. It helps to show search engines that you have authority in your industry and your content is relevant.

If you’re struggling to come up with new blog post ideas why not try:

• Guest posts

Inviting a guest writer to post on your blog every now and again can bring a fresh perspective and get a different tone going. Have a think about which industry leaders, specialists or influencers coincide with your brand message. Perhaps they have a unique insight into your industry. A different point of view is always refreshing, and it’ll get your audience talking, sharing and engaging with your content.

If getting someone of such a calibre isn’t for you, you could always try looking closer to home. Why not ask your, colleagues and staff to write ‘a day in the life’ post each month? This will give your audience a behind-the-scenes look into their role. It’ll give your co-workers a chance to showcase their unique perspective leading to insights that your audience may find helpful.

• Changing up the format

If you’re getting bored with the mundane layout of your blog posts, why not mix it up. Consider other formats such as listicles, guides, tutorials and interviews. Changing the typical format of your blogs is a fresh way to keep your audience engaged.

• Asking your audience

Knowing your audience is paramount. Involving them in the process is a great way to generate interest and engagement – after all, that’s who you’re writing content for. You could try talking to your clients, asking what they want and would be interested in reading about. This is a fun way to get the creative juices flowing.

If conducting an interview, why not post on your social media asking your audience what they want to know. This is a great way to engage your audience, making them feel valued and part of the process and community. You could try putting a poll on Instagram or Twitter with a call to action asking for their input. Asking your audience is a great way to make sure you’re putting out content that your audience wants to see. It’s almost guaranteed to drive traffic and engagement.

Pro Tip: You want to make sure when formatting your blogs that you pay attention to headers. Make sure your main titles are H1 and include the keyword or phrase. You should use H2 as your sub-heading. This will allow Google to rank your page higher because it recognizes what content you’re offering to a visitor.

4. Use white space

White space is essential to good design. White space makes content more legible, allowing the eye to focus on the important things. Some studies have even shown to increase user attention, and this should come as no surprise.

If you think of a site that’s jam-packed with images, text and information it can be a little overwhelming. Now if you think of a site that has plenty of white space. It isn’t so crammed, you instantly feel at ease.

White space can make your website feel open, fresh and modern. However, it’s important to find a balance. Having too much white space might end up replacing valuable information.

Our website services can help you find the right balance when it comes to UX design.

5. Optimize your page speed

Have you ever been on your mobile and clicked on a website and it’s taken about five minutes to load? Yes – we have too. It can be off-putting to potential clients who instantly loose interest.

As consumers, we have become used to instant solutions at the click of a button. This has made us rather impatient. If a website takes too long to load, consumers won’t stick around. Even the smallest of delay times, just 3-seconds, can result in abandonment rates of up to 87%. Your audience will simply move on to another site that’s faster and more engaging.

If your website takes too long to load, it could be down to a whole multitude of things. A slow loading time can be a source of frustration and interrupt your user experience. Most commonly, it could be down to:

Images

A lot of the time, slow loading times can be down to image file size. High-resolution images can consume bandwidth while loading. One quick solution to this by compressing the image down or using JPEG instead of PNG.

Video

You shouldn’t upload a video directly to your site. By embedding the video from sites like Vimeo or YouTube, you can cut the loading time down. This also allows the video to be easily shareable, which can lead to greater audience engagement.

Animations

Aminations can cause a serious lag on your website loading time. This will affect the user experience, so use them carefully!

Here at Vocal, our team are experts in optimizing your website. Our extensive website services and experience means no more lost leads due to slow loading speeds.

Have a chat with our team

At Vocal, we provide website services that don’t just look good – they help you see results.

Whether you’re looking for a fully bespoke website build, WordPress site, clickable prototypes or user testing. Here at Vocal, we offer a range of website services to suit your business needs. Together, we can help ensure you’re getting the best out of your online presence.

Why not get in touch with our team to have a chat about your businesses’ goals and website service requirements.