In last month's blog we opened up the can of worms regarding common problems many people experience with their websites. As you can guess, VisionAmp sees these mistakes every day - which is a huge reason more and more people are turning to professionals to advise, build and maintain their sites. It’s too important just to throw something together for the world to see - ESPECIALLY if you’re depending on your site for revenue and/or foot traffic generation. Mistakes on your website can be like building a rubber wall for people to bounce away from you, TO your competition and other sites.
Let’s explore some more errors (literally) that many websites contain:
When it comes to website detail, ask yourself these questions:
Do you have misspellings on your homepage/any page?
Did you copy and paste a bunch of the images on your website? (This is probably illegal)
Is it easy for users to contact you based on the information you’ve posted?
Does your website accurately represent your business?
Does the site flow well, easy to read, easy to follow and click valid links?
Three things are the key to a successful website - Detail. Detail. Detail.
Unfortunately, most "do it yourself" template-based websites don’t offer any back door for you to personally keep things current and customized to your liking. Being able to upload content and keep things fresh is huge. Without this option, your website can become stale and non-relevant. A website that is constantly maintained not only lends itself to more frequent and repeat visits, but you will break through the clutter and stand out.
VisionAmp offers backdoor access, as well as the training (if desired) to show you how to upload and change many things on your entire site.
People are easily distracted - especially online. The first page people see on your website is the most important page. When people land there, you want them to stay a while and explore. When they land on your subsequent pages, these need to be just as effective. Landing page optimization can be defined as a process of improving the performance of various page elements, ensuring that they get your business the highest possible conversions from visitors who arrive on these targeted pages. VisionAmp can make your main landing page, as well as your following pages, user-friendly, increasing the chances that they will dive deep. If your landing page is well-organized and visually pleasing, you will experience many more customers, resulting in more sales.
Let the airplane land - and not just touch the runway and fly away.
Creating your own website can be draining. As a business owner, you want to devote your attention to building your business, not figuring out how to build a website. If your site is not constructed correctly, it can end up costing you more time and money than it’s worth. Companies like ours specialize in web design and web development. Letting a pro build your site so that you can focus on building your business.
This last point is one we are going to deal with next month in detail - but for now, here’s an introduction to typography and the mistakes we see all of the time that are associated with it.
Typography is like an invisible art form. If successful, good typography could be compared to the frame of a picture, lending itself to supporting the picture, NOT overtaking or distracting from the art. Typography exists to make the words and their meaning the focus and not a distraction. Of course, misspelled words are always a no no - but still you would be surpriZed at the number of grammatical and spelling errors you can find on popular, well-known websites. If your site contains misspelled words, your credibility instantly tanks.
When it comes to spelling errors among top national companies, according to Forbes: “Coke vs. Pepsi: Coke is the clear winner in this (spelling) contest, making four times fewer writing mistakes than Pepsi in its posts on Linkedin. Likewise Coke tops Pepsi’s market share by a wide margin (42% to 31%) in its share of the cola market. Facebook vs. Google: Who’d have guessed? Google makes nearly four times fewer mistakes than Facebook. It makes many times more money as well: even after taking a giant miss in Q2 at $14.1B in revenue, more than 7x the revenue of Facebook at $1.8B.”
Other typography considerations include insufficient leading, too much positive traction, kerning, spacing issues, alignment problems and more! Don’t miss next month’s blog - it’s a dandy!
At VisionAmp we are extremely passionate about making your website work for you, not against you. That is why we are relentless in the pursuit of a well optimized, converting website. VisionAmp believes that your website should be the center of your marketing efforts, and with that comes some accountability. Your website should be a salesperson that is working 24/7 for your business.
Let us help take your website to the next level! Contact us at info@visionamp.com for more information.
