Is your Website Hurting your Business?
Your business website has never been more critical to the ongoing success of your organisation? Century 21 customers are tech-savvy and more than likely to check your website before doing business with you.
They want to be able to find the information they need quickly, without feeling like they’ve compromised their privacy or data security.
So how does your website stand up? Is the design of your website helping or hurting your business? Not sure? This blog unpacks 5 crucial factors of good web design. Use it as a quick checklist to make sure your website is up to scratch.
Let’s start with one of the most obvious (but often overlooked) features of a website. Site speed.
1. Speed
Did you know that most people will abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load a page? A slow website is a bad experience for the user, and Google will penalise you in their search results for a sluggish performance.
But your website does not have to be slow. Skilled web developers know exactly how to streamline a website for maximum site speed.
Structurally you can expect from a reputable agency:
Optimisation and compression of backend code.
Strategic use of render blocking CSS and Javascript.
Lightweight, responsive themes and plugins.
Caching layers.
Mobile-first approach.
A good web developer will also have access to a range of support services including reliable hosting, image optimisation, and content delivery network (CDN)s.
2. Aesthetics
On the world wide web, looks do matter. Your business website should be on-brand, uncluttered, and easy to use for anyone who visits.
Clients, customers, and prospects will be judging the credibility of your business by how easily they can find your:
Business address and contact details.
Service offerings (with prices).
Customer reviews and testimonials.
They’ll also be expecting a fresh design with balanced tones and contemporary images. After all, just think for a moment how you feel when you visit a site with ugly colours and cheesy graphics that have been in use since the 90s.
Your web-developer should be able to balance sleek aesthetics, with an innovative backend that works perfectly.
3. Search
Is your website visible and ranking well on Google search? The design and structure of your website directly impacts how Google sees and organises your site. Bottom line: rank well on search, get more traffic, more prospects, and more sales.
An experienced and knowledgeable web developer will be able to:
Use schema and structured data to ensure your site is eligible for rich search results.
Optimise the site for local search — ensuring your business ranks well according to your suburb, state, and geographic region.
Develop a best-practice site structure and linking strategy that incorporates your products, categories, tags, blog posts, and static web pages.
I agree buddy, a 21st century business requires a great website, nicely built and easily accessible, no one wants a complex website as well, ensuring that customers are able to find all they need with ease on the website is highly vital.