Remember – your website is where your brand and all your statements live. It all starts with the design and setup phase, where you focus on the plugins, domain names, and more.
Since there are so many things to consider, it so happens that the user experience suffers. In a chain reaction, poor experience affects the reputation of the brand, and a business fails before it has even started.
How can you prevent this? For starters, make sure users have an excellent experience regardless of why they came in the first place.
Here are some useful tricks:
Include A Hero Section
Hero sections on websites ensure memorable first impressions. They embody the very first encounter between your website and your clients and promise a good journey ahead. They should look nice, but also be informative and include a call-to-action button.
Most of the time, we are talking of memorable taglines that contain a critical differentiator from your competitors. Can you offer a best-in-line service? Is that service unique? Does it guarantee success? If so, make sure customers know that.
The next thing would be to determine what you want visitors to do. Do they keep exploring the site, or do they book a service right away? Before this decision, consider the decision-making process of an average visitor, and make sure you offer the right steps at the right time.
List The Services
Successful SEO depends on many factors, but services are critical. This is how prospects land on your website, and they should have a clear overview of what you offer.
A detailed explanation of each service may not be necessary, but you still need a catchy line and a CTA for customers to get an offer.
If the service is more complex, you can go the extra mile and devote an entire page with examples and explanations plus a scheduling service software or a WordPress scheduling plugin, if your site is on WP.
Include Contact Forms
Make it easy for customers to get in touch. While telephone and email remain valid options, you can create a contact form page and link it to all pages on your website. Prospects should ideally reach it with a single call-to-action button. Consequently, they should see all essential information displayed on the page.
Remember to not overwhelm customers with unnecessary details. None of them will spend 20 minutes filling in data just to get a quote for your services. At best, request the basic info only: name, email, or number, and a short description of their request.
Also, make sure there is a mechanism in place that sends out the request to the most qualified/available person so that you can reach back promptly. For example, you can ask prospects to select a department from a dropdown menu.
Run A Blog
Blogs seem like extra work at the beginning, but they add value to any website. This way, you can link and share new information, distribute important industry news, or simply share your opinion on any topic. Blogs also boost SEO rankings and make sure more customers reach out to you in the long run.
Same as headers, footers will be present on every page, so don’t forget them. Invest some time to make them appealing and informative, and place only essential information there. This could be a link to your contact form, the About Us page, or even the pricing link. You can even use the footer section to promote your blog.
Mobile Optimization Is Key
Nowadays, people do almost everything with their handheld devices. Booking your services is no exception, so make sure you run a mobile-friendly website that fits on every screen. In this way, you will reduce bounce rates and get more clients.
Think as a designer – scrolling is everything. What is the first thing that needs to capture attention? Is it images, videos, or an inviting slogan? How do prospects get to it? Is it easy and intuitive for them to navigate your website?
There are many tricks to how you optimize content. For starters, you should divide large text into ‘chewable’ sections or use media content instead. Graphs and visualizations are also great ideas for transmitting the desired information.
Scalability
You need a website that can grow in parallel with your business. You should be able to enhance it and add new features any time you want, so you keep up with your audience.
Keep in mind that only one part of the heavy lifting here is done by the website developer. The most important decisions are still yours. For instance, you need to choose a CMS that is scalable by nature and doesn’t need coding for simple adjustments.
Also, you need to be able to add content yourself and stay informed on how you track performance and how it can be improved.
Finally, make sure that adding information doesn’t affect the speed of delivery. It only takes seconds of delay for prospects to bounce and go to your competitors.
Use Video Content
There is nothing more effective for engaging audiences than video. Surveys suggest that almost 80% of online users respond better to video content.
Of course, it comes down to the type of industry you’re in, but if you run a restaurant, videos are as good as mandatory. You can show footage of satisfied customers dining or experienced chefs preparing the food.
Videos tell stories, and they connect with customers on a whole different level. Think of your audience and try to estimate which videos would work the best for them.
A Website Is Never ‘finished’
That’s right. You are now part of an ever-changing world of digital wonders. This makes you a savvy entrepreneur that follows trends and likes to stay on top of them.
Look at your website as a work in progress, a promising construction site, if you wish. The more it is used, the more intelligence it will provide on how you perform and what you can do better. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t bring the desired result right away. All good things take time.
