The best practices in digital marketing and web development are constantly changing, so keeping your website up-to-date and working as well as possible for attracting traffic and visitors can seem like a difficult task. To help, our experts at DMP have put together this quick overview of the most important elements of your website that you need to keep an eye on.
Responsiveness
In today’s world of smartphones and tablets, where over 68% of all website visits come from mobile devices, having a website that displays well across all devices and screen sizes is critical to your success. Indeed, this design element is so important that Google openly admits to penalizing websites that do not work across different devices which means you will appear lower down in the search engine results pages (SERP) when people search on Google and lose out on organic traffic.
Luckily, most modern websites created on content management systems like WordPress are made to be responsive. However, often new versions of the website with tweaked formatting are usually required to get it working perfectly across all devices.
Load Times
We all know the feeling of rage that comes from being delayed and in the online space, with so many websites competing for traffic, having a long loading time is a sure way to lose traffic. Having too many complex design features and large images on your pages will mean your potential visitors are left waiting and will quickly press the back button rather than waiting for your site to load. Therefore, keeping a balance between quality and speed is crucial to your website’s success.
Look and Feel
First impressions matter, which means getting your website looking slick and professional will go a long way to captivating your visitors. Nobody is going to spend too long on a website that looks like it was coded in the 90s. These days you need to have a highly visual and well-laid out website with the most important information easily accessible. Not sure what I mean, look at the websites of top tech businesses like Apple and see how their site´s design portrays them as a modern, professional business.
User-Friendly Design
In line with the points mentioned above, having a user-friendly design is yet another way to ensure your website is professional and accessible. Good web developers will know the principles that make a website user-friendly – essentially it is all about easy navigation so that your visitors don’t get confused or exasperated when trying to find the sections relevant to them.
Keyword Optimization
Keywords are a vital element of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the processes that help your pages appear higher in the SERP for related search terms. Therefore, carefully selecting the top keywords related to the topic of your website and including them in the right pages and areas of the website is vital for attracting the right visitors. However, this is not just a technical task. The keywords you choose will also need to be added to the webpage titles and descriptions which are the elements of your page that are visible in the SERPs. This is all essential marketing copy, so carefully considering these aspects of every page on your site will mean you can entice more visitors interested in your offering.
Regular Updates and New Content
One important way to get Google to preference your website over others is to regularly publish new content on your website. This is an important part of content marketing, a modern approach to digital marketing that has become more and more important in recent years. Good content marketing can be achieved in many ways, from updating old pages to creating new web pages on your site.
However, most marketers find that creating a blog and regularly publishing new articles is the best way to create a steady stream of fresh content to bolster your keyword strategy and help you rise the ranks in the SERPs. In addition to keywords, try to also include links to other parts of your site and other trusted websites, this can also help your website appear more professional and stronger in the eyes of Google.
With so many elements to consider, attracting traffic and visitors can seem like a lot to handle. However, with careful planning and support from external partners, you can keep on top of everything, improve your traffic and attract visits from those most interested in your offering. Just keep an eye on your websites: design, content, keywords and links and you can expect to see your traffic increase in no time.
Author Bio:
Paula O Gorman is the marketing manager at Promotive, a marketing agency that specializes in web design, logo design, and graphic design. She is responsible for planning, leading, and coordinating the activity of the marketing agency. She graduated with a distinction in Design & Communication from Waterford Institute of Technology in 2003 and joined the Cantec Group immediately afterward. Starting as a junior graphic designer, she now manages her team at the senior management level.
