Websites define who and what a company is now more than ever. From social media campaigns, email newsletters, and blogs, consumers connect with their favorite brands through online interaction.
Meeting consumers online, then, is the best way to gain a solid following and increase sales. So, if you’re not online or don’t have a solid website, you could be in trouble. You’ll need a few solid website building tips to get you on your feet.
If you’re looking for tips and tricks for building a great website in 2018, you’re in luck! In this brief article, we’ll go over 11 tips for website building that will be sure to improve your online reputation and status this year.
Website Building Tips for Long-Term Success
1. Settle on a Platform
When you set out to build a website, you need to determine who will be in control of the design and who will be in charge of updates. This person (or people) will make a choice about which platform your website is built on.
The platform (such as WordPress or Wix) has its own set of rules for updating files and making changes. Some platforms come with themes or options with upgraded elements for personalized design.
First, you have to choose a platform. Do a quick Google search on top platforms or discuss your options with partners or other professionals.
2. Choose a User-Friendly Design
If a visitor to your website is unable to locate what they’re looking for within seconds, they’re likely to move on. You have moments to grab visitors’ attention and guide them towards sales.
The navigational bar is a huge help. Here, the visitor can find links to pages discussing services and products and others for contacting or purchasing.
Set your website up in a way that puts the user’s ease as the priority. Keep pages organized and move leads towards the hot spots they came for.
3. Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly Through Responsive Design
Mobile users make up an overwhelming percentage of eCommerce shoppers. Regardless if your product is an online item or not, people are using the internet for information first and foremost.
This means that it’s imperative to develop a mobile-friendly website to reach customers. Many platforms and themes come with an automatic responsive design built in that will adapt from desktop to mobile viewing.
With more and more people catching onto the mobile browsing/shopping trend, businesses stand to lose countless potential customers.
4. Write Resourceful Content
One of the ways Google indexes content is based on how useful the information is to visitors. The crawlers don’t want to pick up on dead links, duplicate pages, and run-on copy with nothing to reveal.
This means to show up higher on search results, your content should serve a distinct purpose. Pages should explain products and services more thoroughly or direct them to an action button.
Blog articles should be relevant to your market and as informative as you can make them.
5. Optimize Copy with SEO Tactics
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a tactic to improve your pages to rank higher on search results. Apart from useful content, web designers can implement keywords and phrases to rank higher.
By including words and phrases that people are searching for, you can appear more often in Google results. There’s more to SEO than that, so make sure to perform your own search on optimizing tactics.
6. Publish Regular Content on Your Blog
The blog is a place to host your own articles and guest articles, which visitors can follow links back to off article shares on social media. It’s a great way to grab people’s attention and direct them back to your website for a sale.
Posting regular content shows Google that you offer resources often. A blog is an essential piece of any professional website today and an excellent way to stay relevant in your market.
7. Use Backlinks to Gain Authority and Increase Ranking
Another great way to rank higher and improve your reputation is through backlinks. When a different website hosts a link back to your website, it has a positive effect (as long as the site is credible) on ranking.
Just make sure their website is relevant to your market.
Consider your professional network; are there any companies willing to host a backlink? Hint: backlinks in content (versus sidebar links) work best.
8. Build Professional Relationships
If you don’t have any professional establishments that could link back to your site, it’s time to build relationships. Professional outings or meetups are great ways to get face-to-face with other like-minded individuals.
Use LinkedIn and other social media to reach out to businesses and make connections from afar. From there, you can work on mutual shares and links to improve ranking and credibility for both sites.
Alternatively, you could consider purchasing backlinks to improve your ranking.
9. Pay Attention to the Competition
Many business owners shy away from the competition’s tactics and work tirelessly to be original and creative. However, you can learn a lot from paying attention to the competition.
Monitoring how well their tactics work to gain attention and rank well will help you figure out how to improve your own. You can mirror their efforts or learn to avoid their pitfalls. Don’t be afraid to observe, especially if it can enhance your business.
10. Audit Your Website on Occasion
A quick Google search will bring up a range of free website auditing tools. From verifying your loading speeds to examining SEO tactics, these tools provide an outside perspective on your website.
Through this, and through A/B testing on landing pages, you can easily determine what is or isn’t working.
11. Implement Video Without Compromising Loading Speeds
Video is a major force right now in online marketing. Connecting with new audiences means getting in on the trend as soon as possible. However, you have to be careful not to slow down your loading speed in the process.
If it takes more than a few seconds to load a single web page, you’re likely to lose the majority of your visitors. Invest in a couple of high-quality videos for your homepage, but don’t overstuff video throughout the website.
More Insider Advice from Backlinks
There are more website building tips out there, but these provide a solid enough foundation for your company to thrive online. Implement many (or all) of these tips to attract and retain loyal customers for long-term success!
Looking for more tips and tricks from the professionals?
Head on over to the Backlinks blog now to learn more about improving your ranking and increasing your returns online!
