What's more important? The content or the look? The amount of hits or the navigation? When assessing the success of a site, should we focus on the amount of emails and hits? The amount of comments on our blog posts? Unique visitors or return visitors? Why are some sites, seemingly perfectly assembled, with brilliant content not rendering any hits when other sites without bells and whistles are seeing all the success?
In all honesty, like any other digital marketing platform, there can be some random hit-or-miss factors. Just like there is sometimes no explaining why certain videos go viral on YouTube or Facebook...
What we do at Sage Tree is look at a lot of websites, we know what we like, and we certainly know what we dislike! Although we didn't exactly call those items dislikes, we were rather polite and hinted at what a website shouldn't do. It took us a long time to turn things around and come full circle with the more obvious: rather than define what a website shouldn't be, let's be direct and address what it should be!
Let's face it. Yesterday's websites would not survive in today's world. Take for example a screenshot archived with the WayBack Machine pulled from 1999. Would YOU accept your bank's online services to look like this? Or would you give it a quick glance and quickly judge them for lacking professionalism? We expect a certain quality from a national banking system.
Here's what we don't want: to land on a page and wonder what it's about. Make it clear to your visitors what you want them to do. This is accomplished via a clear call-to-action (CTA). What is a great CTA?
Blah-blah-blogs are so much more than just daily ramblings. Many do not like the title "blog," and that's ok. The good news is you can call it whatever you like! Whether it's news, tips, resources or even cookie jar: do create a blog, and contribute to it at least once per week. It's harder than it looks because it requires a minimum of research and planning. But... it's easier than you may believe because you are already poised to becoming the best blogger since you are an industry leader in your field. Congratulations!
Now that you know why, find out how to write the bestest blog post here!
We won't debate on the amount of mobile users vs. visits from a computer. We can however be very clear on the need to offer a responsive design and how essential it is that your site be easily viewed from any device.
This is crucial. Test your site on your smartphone, borrow one from a friend so you can view it from either a Droid or an iPhone. Also make sure to test your site on a tablet. Look at it horizontally and vertically. Can you access all the menu items? Can you fill in the online forms from a phone? Can you click on your phone number and have it launch your phone app with auto-dial? Can you click on the address, and also have that launch an app giving viewers directions to your place of business?
We have a great blog post on what you need to know about Google's modified algorithms for going mobile.
We find a simple menu is key. And by simple we mean fits on one line with a clear navigation without endless dropdown tabs. Make sure your site is well organized and structured: the last thing we want is a user getting lost in a confusing trail of breadcrumbs. Try to keep your top menu items to a minimum of 5-8 links. Oftentimes basic pages within the menu structure can turn into blog posts helping keep the navigation clutter to a minimum. Offering a full site search tab makes it easier to find content not directly linked in your menu.
The footer is the bottom section of the website. The main items from the menu can be repeated in the footer, included any pages that fall under the "fine print" category such as privacy policies and copyright information. Do repeat the essentials such as the contact information in the footer. If your business relies on a physical location, insert a small map helping visitors find you. And of course, you guessed it: the contact information and the map should be direct clickable links on a mobile device!