What do I need to do to make my website a success? It’s a common question we get asked by our clients. Pretty much everyone with a website has their eye on the big prize – getting their business onto page one of Google. In today’s demanding and competitive online space, if you want the best chance of boosting google rankings, increasing traffic and ultimately attracting more customers and sales, you need to make sure you’ve got the key elements covered.
You see, not all websites are made equal. If the essential components aren’t there, your efforts at placing top in Google ranking search results won’t deliver the desired results. Google has lots of different algorithms and tools to determine where websites appear in search engine results. It means you have to fight hard to make yourself stand out. And it starts by following a few simple steps.
So let’s take a look at some of the fundamentals a website needs if it has any chance of succeeding.
Be responsive
We’ve previously blogged in detail about the advantages of responsive websites. With more people than ever before turning to their smartphones and tablets to search the internet, if your website stands any chance of being successful, it must be optimised for mobile devices. If you want to give your customer the best user experience possible and help boost traffic and search engine rankings, a responsive website is a necessity and not a luxury.
Have well written relevant content
Let’s not beat around the bush. Google loves and respects well written, unique and relevant content. High quality search engine optimised content will help you gain more website traffic, strengthen your brand’s online reputation, increase engagement and generate more leads. Creating quality content doesn’t just mean using correct grammar and ensuring the copy isn’t littered with typos. It also means making sure what you write about is readable. The benefits of great website content speak for themselves. So change it. Refresh it. Update it. And never, ever, lift content from another website without permission. Google strongly discourages duplicate content and copying content will come back to bite you on the bum – never mind the fact that it’s just plain wrong!
Make sure your content is optimised for search engines
Your content needs to be well written and engaging; enough so that it grabs the attention of your audience and potential customers. But it must also grab the attention of search engines too. So you need to optimise your content with keywords and phrases. Keyword optimisation is a process which involves incorporating keywords relevant to your business into your text. Keyword research will help to determine the words and phrases people are using when they search the internet for goods and services. When optimising content don’t let readability suffer, so avoid keyword stuffing at all costs. Over-optimisation will ultimately do more harm than good. Relevant keywords should also feature in title tags, meta descriptions and URLs. Don’t forget to optimise the visual elements of your website too, such as photos, with alt text descriptions and image title tags.
Have a blog
So you’ve got great, well written and engaging content. And you’ve made sure to optimise your copy with useful and relevant keywords. Good job! But don’t forget to keep your website updated with fresh content. Regularly updated websites are looked favourably upon by the Google gods. And one of the easiest and most affordable ways to get new content onto your website is by having a blog. Blogs help businesses establish themselves as industry experts and they can boost website traffic too – by as much as 55%. Remember to create content that meets the needs of your target audience. And because most people scan content rather than read it, make it easy for them to read because if you don’t they won’t.
Publish high quality images
It’s often said that images speak louder than words. Good quality high resolution photos are essential because they will help to tell your story and sell your products and/or services. In the case of ecommerce websites, 67% of customers rate the quality of a product image as “very important” when it comes to buying products. Using high quality images can help to increase the quality of user engagement. Not only that, websites featuring poor quality images look unprofessional, less trustworthy and less reputable. Images must also be relevant to your content, otherwise you run the risk of sending conflicting messages.
Contact details on every page
Make sure visitors to your website know how to get in contact with you. Ideally you should have your phone number and email in the footer of every web page. A specific contact page should include these details together with your bricks and mortar address, mailing address (if different), hours of operation (if applicable) and a contact form for customers to get in touch with you. If you’ve got social media profiles like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, make sure to include these too. Basically the more information the better.
Call to actions
Good call to actions are very important and can improve conversion rates. Call to action buttons are used to direct site visitors and to get them to take a specific course of action. They need to be easy to find and easily identifiable. Use short actionable words and regularly test the placement, size and even colour to see what works best for you.
At TAD Graphics, we offer a range of affordable creative services. We design cost-effective responsive websites for individuals, businesses and organisations who require a professional online presence. We can also assist with various forms of content creation to address marketing needs, including promotional photography, graphic design and copywriting.
Get in touch to discuss your requirements by giving the team a call on +61 402 636 014. You can also send us a message by filling out the form on our contact page or drop an email to tadgraphics@t-adstudio.com
