5 Ways to Make Your Website Better

You begin with a dream of starting your own business and feel excited like a child about to experience a theme park for the first time. It’s the first thing you think about when you wake up and the last thing when you go to sleep at night (who are we kidding, you are starting a business, you’re too excited to sleep!).

See how happy and excited she is to start a business?!

You work hard, do everything right and get organized, all your paperwork is filed and in order. Then you need a website. Do you:

A. Do it on your own with a do-it-yourself website builder?
B. Spend the cash to hire a web designer and developer?

Good news, we’re not here to tell you what the right decision is for you and we will cover the differences in another blog post (stay tuned!). Either option can make you feel overwhelmed and less excited than the day you were when you first started on this magnificent journey.

Whether you go with option A or option B, there are things you can do to make your website a featured attraction at your business ‘theme park’ without losing your excitement and sanity.

1. A picture tells a thousand words – We’re pretty sure everyone knows that good images on a website equals a better website, but we are still amazed at some websites we have come across and their choice of images. Pictures should not be blurry and should be great composition and lighting. They should also be properly sized. Before you go find new images, please consider copyright laws and do not use any images on your site that are protected by copyright law. Take a look at the photos below. If you visit 2 websites, one that has the photo on the left and one that has the photo on the right, which business would you choose for your next Yoga session?

A website with blurry and outdated graphics can never compete with a website that has high-quality photos and graphics that realistically portray the business.

2. Use language that people will understand – Technical talk can quickly lose someone’s interest. You may understand what you’re saying, but consumers probably will not. You don’t want to completely ditch the technical speak or you’ll come across sounding like a 5 year old. Using technical terms will also increase your chance of having a better ranking on a search engine results page (SERP). Search engines, such as Google, will see you as an informative source for a topic and people browsing on Google will see your site sooner in the long list of results. See what we did there? We used technical terms, but also let you know what they are and how it benefits you. We used balance. Use a light and easily readable intro and then go into the technical speak. Define the technical terms for your consumers. It shows you care and want them informed. With only a little research, like asking your friends and family what they think, you can improve the writing on your website.

Being informative will let your website visitors feel empowered by knowledge and appreciative of you. Search engines will also reward you. Good business owner!

3. Less is more – If you opted for tons of video, graphics, animations, fireworks, and everything else you can think of to make your site awesome but slow, you will lose visitors. Not only will people will leave your website if it takes too long to load, but also because Google tracks your website’s speed (gasp!) and will drop you in search rankings like a ton of bricks if it’s slow. You can still have pretty, attention-grabbing graphics, but your photos should always be resized before uploading them to your site. Consider hosting videos elsewhere (like YouTube or Vimeo) instead of on your own website server to further increase site speed. Clean the clutter from your website. Too much text, links and images (and not enough white space) makes it difficult for people to find the information they want quickly (because we are in the “find things fast” day and age) and they will end up visiting your competitors’ website instead to find what they need.

A cluttered website makes you look disorganized and unprofessional.

4. Don’t be the same – Set yourself apart from your competitors. What can you offer that they can’t or haven’t thought of yet? Add it to an about us page, the footer, your on-site blog, your social media, etc. If you sell ties, you can be sure that there are a lot of other companies doing the same thing. What makes you different? Is it the fact that you started your business to help someone? Do you use special materials in your products or have special promotions no else has? Do you have anything that sets you apart from your competitors? If the answer is no, you should immediately go to the drawing board and consider implementing something that no one else is doing in your realm of business.

What do you offer that no one else does? This will help you stand out from your competitors.

5. Don’t expect anyone else to know your business more than you – While us web designers and developers are really good at what we do, we also need input and information from you – the business owner. Only you know the great story of how you started your business, what makes it personal to you, why you do what you do, who you want to help, etc. Internet Marketers can fine-tune the information you give them, but it’s important you give them something with substance to start with. These personal touches from you on your website will tug the heart strings of your potential consumers and you are more likely to be remembered.

Don’t be afraid to give your website a personal touch about how you began and what motivates you. It will help you connect with your customers.

Whether you are using GoDaddy Website Builder, Squarespace, or have hired a professional, you are now equipped with 5 easy ways to make your website better. We wish you the best of luck on your new and exciting journey!