Tips for Building an Effective Business Website in Utah

When all your competitors are online today, having a website alone no longer cuts it. A website in 2022 needs to be fast, easily accessible and user-friendly.

If you are wondering how to achieve that, keep reading! The 8 tips below will help you develop a website that is easy for customers to find and use.

Outline:

• Mobile responsiveness is key
• Use a simple and easy to find domain
• Keep your contact information above the clutter
  
• Color matters
• Include CTAs
• Keep loading times to a minimum
  
• Make it a personal experience
• Incorporate the best of SEO

Mobile responsiveness is key

Over 80% of all internet users use mobile devices to browse through the internet so it only makes sense to ensure they have a flawless experience. According to studies, the average American adult spends more than five hours on their smartphone daily while one-third do all their shopping through smartphones.

Those two facts alone should underline the importance of a strong mobile browsing experience. A poor experience could definitely push users towards a competitor and it can also affect your SEO ranking – but more on that later.

Use a simple and easy to find domain

Your domain name should match your company name or describe your business in an easy-to-understand manner. Some businesses go even further by including multiple domains that direct users to the website. Of course, SEO, keyword research, PPC campaigns all play a role here.

Keep your contact information above the clutter

This is especially important if you have a business that relies on people contacting you or your sales team.

Ideally, you would add your contact information at the top of the homepage. This way, customers will not have to hunt for phone numbers or email addresses if they want to get in touch.

If you have social media channels (which you should!), add these too to the header or footer.

This brings us to a more important point; make your website easy to navigate.

Limit your top-level navigation bar to five defined tabs. Keep related pages listed underneath these five tabs. Also, add an easy way for users to return to the homepage no matter where they are in the website. This is because some Google search results take visitors to a specific web page and not the homepage.

Color matters

Color isn’t an aspect that’s given a lot of attention, but it is an incredibly helpful factor when looked at from a marketing perspective.

Why you ask?

Well, because different colors cause different reactions in the human brain.

Red is particularly powerful which is why you see many businesses, especially restaurants, use it. Meanwhile office buildings tend to use blue due to its more relaxing and calming effect. And then you have purple which is a luxurious color that signifies royalty and distinction.

To decide on the color, you first need to decide what you want your brand to convey to the consumer.

Do you want to display a certain tone of exclusivity and luxury? Purple it is.

Want your customer in a state of relaxation? Blue.

Wish to persuade your customer into making an action or purchase? Opt for red.

Include CTAs

CTAs are crucial to online success which is why your website should include plenty of them. Through CTAs, you can directly tell visitors what to do next, helping you convert them into paying customers.

CTAs are best when used to guide consumers towards contact pages, pricing pages or other web pages that are created to convert. Keep it to only a few words long and ensure they all include actionable verbs that tell the reader what their next move should be.

Use a mix of standout buttons, colors and eye-catching features to draw attention to your CTAs and maximize their effect!

Keep loading speeds to a minimum

Studies have shown that close to 88% of online users will close a website if it takes too long to load. In addition, it has been noted that long loading times also affect the purchasing decisions of 70% of online shoppers.

These are dramatic stats and you would be wise to keep them in mind.

Keep your website running smooth by ensuring all software is up to date, photos and videos are optimized and your server host can manage the expected user demands.

Make it a personal experience

Gone are the days when brands put out a cold, corporate brand image. Today, brands are rapidly embracing a modern, down to earth and friendly brand image and online websites need to create a similar vibe.

Don’t let your About Us page be a dry corporate-toned block of text but instead add your photo or the team photo and an interesting note to go along with it. Pair this up with a strong, quirky tone on social channels.

Incorporate the best of SEO

You could develop the best website out there but it will do you no good if nobody can find it. And this is why SEO matters.

Some may argue that you could easily spend money on PPC ads to drive customers to your website but it is definitely more cost-effective and prudent to bring in organic search traffic.

Since people rarely ever search beyond the first page of search engine results, this is where you want your business page to appear.

Search engines like Google have their own algorithm through which they rank sites but it all comes down to the three methods they use; crawling, then indexing and finally, ranking.

As the name implies, the crawling stage involves finding your website through other indexed websites. So, make sure that your website is linked to by other more-established websites.

After the crawler bots have found your website, the indexing stage begins. This is where the content is analyzed. Aspects like keywords, the authenticity of the content, plagiarism, relevant links and media, and freshness are looked at.  

Once this is done, the search engine determines which search results your website is a good fit for. The ranking process is based upon authority and relevance so add a lot of relevant content on your industry. Increase your authority by increasing the size of the website, drawing more traffic and getting well-established sites to link to your site.

Good luck!

Interested in a Marketing or SEO Audit of your current website?