Guest post by Lindsey Weiss of Outbounding.com
Image courtesy of Pexels
In our increasingly internet-focused world, simply having a website is no longer enough. You need a website that is head and shoulders better than your competitors, and Chickadee Web Design can certainly help you on that front. However, it’s important to explore what essential qualities can give you that special advantage.
Brand Building
Your brand sets you apart from your competitors. It tells your customers what to expect, and it sends a message about the culture of your company. There are several ways your website can support or detract from your brand. Contributing factors are things like colors, consistency, conversational tone, and the overall mood of your website.
There are various elements that will support your brand on your website. For instance, you should expect basics such as your logo to carry across your website content as well as other marketing materials. An iconic logo is simple, unique, and relevant. Your audience should easily associate it with your brand, it should be recognizable at a glance, and it shouldn’t be too much like what everybody else in your industry is doing.
Organization
This might seem obvious, yet it’s something a great many websites miss. When a visitor lands on your page, the last thing they want to do is spend a lot of time fishing for what they came for. A properly laid out site will be easy to navigate and have a sensible flow, and users won’t struggle to find key elements, like who you are, what you offer, and how to get your product or service.
Top-Notch Content
While your colors, layout, and logo catch the attention of browsing customers, it’s content that keeps them coming back for more. This is where you focus more on the needs of your target audience, rather than just trying to sell them a product. Educational blog posts, podcasts, vlogs, and such give them something to chew on, and what’s more, search engines like it. They look at whether you’re providing valuable information to the user, and as Search Engine Journal says, good content will ensure better rankings when people are searching.
Speed
Let’s face it, we live in a society that likes instant gratification. We like fast food, fast transportation, fast package delivery—and we sure don’t want to wait around for websites to load. Gone are the days when users were content to twiddle their thumbs while special music loaded in the background, or for some truly “amazing” video footage to autoplay when landing at a site.
Aim for an experience that is clean, quick to load, straightforward, and simple. Getting too caught up in adding what you perceive as bells and whistles will ultimately turn off your prospective customers, and they will move on to your competitors and their speedier sites.
Scannability
Hand in hand with a fast-loading page is the ability for your customers to scan the page and know what you’re all about. This goes back to having a clear brand message, excellent layout, and proper organization. Most users aren’t going to take the time to really read everything on your website. They will glance over it, and if they don’t see what they are looking for, or it looks like too much work to find it, they’ll move on.
To boost scannability, aim for high contrast in your imagery and layout, and ensure your text color stands out well from the background. For instance, hunter green text on a black background will be difficult to read, whereas a peach background would make the hunter green text easily seen.
In order to be competitive, many small businesses come to the conclusion that their websites are in need of an overhaul. Keep in mind that there are a number of loans out there for small businesses, as well as grants through government funding or private companies.
Are you ready to take your website to the next level? Examine it for the qualities that will make it stand out from the crowd, like organization, speed, quality content, and scannability. And remember, a better experience for your clientele ultimately means a better bottom line.
