15 More tips for improving your website – Issue no. 7

The goal of your social pages

Many small businesses start with Facebook as their only online presence. While it’s a cheap way to get online, you must understand that your social pages should ultimately drive people to your “home”: your website.

Use a single-column design for your forms

A single-column design is best for your forms readability. Many people now use mobile devices to fill out forms. Since mobile devices, have less screen space, it makes sense to use a single-column design.

Best SEO practices for your title tag

Give each page a unique title that describes the page’s content concisely and accurately. Keep the titles up to 50-60 characters long (for them not to get truncated in the SERPs). Put important keywords first, but in a natural manner, as if you write titles for your visitors in the first place. Make use of your brand name in titles.

Optimize your website for local SEO

Create a page for every product, service and location. Stop trying to consolidate, it’s not helpful for SEO and it’s not helpful for local SEO. In order to apply product/service schema to each of your individual product/service offerings, they have to have their own page. So not only is this an overall SEO best practice, as it helps to paint a more clear sitemap for search engines and also helps your product/service pages rank for that specific offering.

Make your thank-you page work for you

What happens after they’ve hit the submit button? Do you follow up with a bland “Thank you for your enquiry” message on a page that has nothing but this one sentence?

If so, you’re making a big mistake. You’re losing out on an opportunity to create a connection with your potential new client. Your thank-you page is the perfect place for you to show some personality and build a connection.

Aim to build links from websites in your industry and closely-related industries

Google wants to see that your links come from websites in your niche. This makes sense if you think about it: Imagine you just published an article about running a marathon. In this case, Google will put much more weight on links from sites about marathons, running, fitness vs. websites that are about fishing, unicycles, and cat grooming.

Keep your website consistent

Consistency means making everything match. Heading sizes, font choices, coloring, button styles, spacing, design elements, illustration styles, photo choices, etc. Everything should be themed to make your design coherent between pages and on the same page. In order to provide your user with a beautiful experience as they navigate through your site, it is important that they know they are still in your website.

Projects; fewer and better

Be very, very picky about what you show in your websites portfolio or gallery. If you only done three projects you are really proud of, then just show them. Talking passionately about how it went, what your contribution was, and what happened after it was finished will shine much brighter than ten single pieces of work.

Go for link quality, not quantity

No matter how many links your competitors have, you shouldn’t focus on quantity. You should focus on quality. A link from a site like CNN, assuming it is coming from a relevant section and article, will carry much more weight than 10 links from mom and pop sites.

Kill the captcha

Captchas are one of the most popular anti-spam measures applied to contact forms. A research study makes it clear that captchas have a negative impact on conversion rates. Companies that use captchas might be losing out on 3.2% of all conversions from their forms.

Calls to action need to be direct

Putting “Send” on a contact form is weak; “Contact us for a free consultation”, on the other hand, entices users, both because it asks them to do something and has a no-risk, free offering.

Don’t forget about your website

Nothing says “I’m not serious about it” quite like a forgotten website. Make sure to review it at least once a month to make sure everything is up to date, from work hours to product offers.

Website logos should link to the homepage

This recommendation is a long-standing web convention. Over time through trial and error, many people have learned that clicking on a site’s logo leads them back to the homepage. Following this standard on your site reduces confusion.

Encourage users to scroll

Despite the fact that people usually start scrolling as soon as the page loads, content at the top of the page is still very important. What appears at the top sets the impression and expectation of quality for visitors. People do scroll, but only if what’s above the fold is promising enough. Thus, put your most compelling content at the top of the page: Offer a good introduction. An excellent introduction sets the context for the content and answers the user’s question, “What’s this page about?”

You get what you pay for

Sure, you could get a free WordPress theme or use some cookie-cutter website-building service, but that’s like using duct tape and cardboard to fix a broken window. It might work, but you wouldn’t get the efficiency and beauty that a professional would provide.