You all were thinking the latter of the two, I know. If you are in the first of the two, flip into the second bucket before reading on. Making an effective website takes work, and to understand why word is so important you need to view your website as a tool that will help your company grow.
Now comes the hard part, putting that idea into action. Unless you’re going to hire an outside agency, you’ll need to figure out how to make a website that helps you grow. Well you’re in luck. One of Reds Media’s core values is that we’re here to help, all you have to do is ask. Considering you’re reading this blog post, we’re going to chalk that up as you asking! So if you want to know how to make a website, below are some tactics and best practices to keep in mind that will help you grow better.
Mobile Responsive
According to Statista, view data here, since 2017 the percentage of website traffic that is being served on a mobile device is over 50%. So far in 2018 that percentage is 52.2%. This means that more than half of the time, your website is being view by someone on their cell phone. So, you always need to keep this front of mind when designing your website. You can even make the argument that you should make your website for mobile visibility first, and after the mobile version is completed, adjust it for desktop view. This is especially true when considering the trend of mobile usage is only going to increase, which makes mobile responsiveness 100% necessary.
Speed
This might seem like common sense, but we cannot put a strong enough emphasis on how important the speed of your website is. Someone might know how to make a website look and feel great, which is phenomenal. However, if that website does not load fast, no one will stick around long enough to see the incredible design! In fact, this is the number one cause for a poor user experience, which leads to a high bounce rate.
SEMrush wrote a blog post providing further insight into the affect slow load times have on your users, you can view that blog post here. Furthermore, Google Webmaster posted a Youtube video (view video here) where Maile Ohye, Google senior developer, states you should aim for a 2 second load time.
We have some advice here. If your design is resulting in a slow load time, lighten the design and test the speed. Still don’t see the desired results? Remove some more from the design and test again. Continue this process until the desired results are met. If after this you still don’t see the speed you need, you might need to purchase a more robust hosting package. Finding the right hosting package is a chore in itself, we know. Don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and call the hosting company and explain to them the situation. Through our experiences, they’re more than willing to help.
High Level Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy
We’re huge advocates of having a strategy before you do anything. We believe it is extremely important to know and understand why you’re doing something and how you’re going to measure the effectiveness of what you’re doing. If you want to know how to make a website at the advanced stages, the overall strategy for the website is imperative for success. But, for the beginning stages of a website build or a website redesign, you don’t need to go that deep. However, you do need to know how to make a website that your customers CAN FIND. If your customers cannot find you, what’s the point of a great website?
One of the major factors that will control the effectiveness of your website’s SEO is the content on the site. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Your content tells readers what your site is about. Thus your content will effectively tell Google what your website is about, thus telling Google when to push your site in SERPS (search engine result pages) to help answer a searchers question. Obviously, the world of SEO is complex and requires a lot of time and research. So to get things off the ground for your new website, following are a couple of questions you’re going to want to answer before you start crafting great content.
What keywords do you want to rank for?
What alt texts do you want to give your pictures?
If you’re building your website on WordPress, you should absolutely download the Yoast plugin, which you can find here, and follow the instructions they give you.
Effective Pictures
Want to know how to make a website? Get pictures. Pictures say 1,000 words. That expression couldn’t be more true and effective when it comes to your website. One of the first things a users eyes engage with on a site are the pictures. This is a very important facet of the site, so don’t mess it up! Just kidding. But seriously. Think about the pictures you want representing your business and representing your brand.
The most effective pictures are ones of YOU and YOUR company. Ones of people using your products or services. We understand that not everyone is in a position where they have those types of pictures available, so use stock pictures. Do not, and I repeat, do not type into Google Images topics of pictures that you want and then download pictures from the internet. This is a quick way to get a strongly worded letter from a photographer stating you’re stealing their product. Instead, take a look at some of the following stock picture websites.
Correct Forms
This might seem like common sense as well, but again, is very, very important. You could make the argument that have an effective contact us form is the most important part of your website. If a customer cannot get in touch with you, how are you going to grow your business. You need to make a contact form that is simple to fill out and gives you all of the information that you need to stay in contact with them. This is how your website will help you scale. If you’re missing “email” address on your form, how will you automate your communication to them through email drips if they’re not ready to buy right away? We’re big supporters of having a section on the form asking how they heard of you as well. Allows you to start collecting market data.
These are five areas you will want to think about when you start doing research on how to make a website that will help you and your company grow. For the average Joe, who does not want to hire an agency, this will help you get off the ground. Remember, I know we mentioned it very briefly, but we’re huge advocates for creating a strategy before doing this type of work. Lay the foundation before you build the house. If you’re interested in scheduling a time to talk with one of our guru’s, schedule a time here.
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