[lead]Last month we started with our website tip series. Most of them simple things you can do today. Here are 9 more simple tips for a better website.[/lead]
9 More tips for a better website – Issue no. 2
12
Keep your website fresh and relevant
Old, outdated websites don’t get a lot of traffic. They also do a poor job of keeping visitors around for a while. Be sure to add new content often to show visitors you’re active.
13
The one and only purpose of a website home page!
The purpose of the homepage of a website is to get the visitor to page 2. If they don’t get to page 2, you’ve essentially accomplished nothing. They have not begun to move down the sales funnel. Instead, they’ve taken a peek and kept moving on.
14
Have your blog content do double duty
Use blog content to populate your social media pages. Send blog articles to prospective customers as a way to follow up after meetings. Refer to posts with support answers (ideal when doing support via email).
15
Always add an alt text to your images
Google can’t see what your images look like, but they look at alt tags to see what the image is about.
16
Make sure you've got the prefect headline
You spend hours writing exceptionally good content, but how much time do you spend focusing on crafting the perfect headline? Chances are not enough time.
Why? Because 8 out of 10 people will read your headline, but only 2 out of 10 people will read the rest of your post. By crafting a magnetic headline, you’ll increase the number of people that will actually read your content.
17
Don't try to shove everything above the fold
It’s the rallying cry of conversion optimization pros everywhere: “Above the fold! Above the fold!” But trying to cram as much information as possible into the first 1/3 of a user’s screen space may have the opposite effect you’re looking for.
And while it’s true that people’s attention will primarily focus on that point, 1995 has long since passed us by. These days, people do scroll.
18
Get rid of stock photos
Most experienced web users intuitively block out whatever messages these stock images are attempting to send. In effect, then, stock images are doing nothing but devaluing your brand, wasting landing page real estate, and possibly even annoying your user.
Get rid of stock photos, and replace them with high-quality custom images.
19
Keep your domain name short
Long domain names are hard to remember, hard to spell over the phone, and tricky to fit onto business cards!
20
Keep optimising your website content
Not getting as many hits as you would like? Adjust! Change your content and experiment. Not on the first page of Google for a particular term? Optimize! Rewrite some content and change some keywords.