Custom Web Design
I understanding that hiring a full-time designer is difficult for most people even when there’s not a recession however, one of the most important things you can do for your business in 2009 is bringing your website up-to-date and making it stand out from the crowd.
In 2009 more people than ever before will learn about your company by checking out your website. They will make or not make a purchase according to what they see. Your website will be the most visible piece of marketing material you have. It needs to be easy to use, visually appealing and updated with current products and information.
I’ll give you the top five things a custom web design should have in place to help it convert the leads in 2009:
1. A Custom Web Design Should Load Quickly
First impressions are made within seconds. If someone has to wait for your site to load there is a good chance they’ll leave before it finishes.
And not only can a poorly built site that loads slowly hurt your conversion but it can also hurt your ranking in Google. In 2008 Google made load time for landing pages part of the quality score for AdWords.
2. Make Sure Your Custom Web Design Pops
Impress your visitors and turn them into customers with a custom web design that pops. Finding the right balance between a simple to use and great to look at site can by a difficult chore for the most skilled designers however, settling for anything less will cost you money.
Every part of your website will affect the conversion rate from one site visitor to the next. Last year we changed the color of one button and saw sales go up and stay up. If changing the color of one button can have an impact on your website how much more of an impact could the rest of the site be having?
It’s important to constantly change and measure the impact that each part of your site has on the site visitors. When testing these things sometimes something as simple as a color change can make a big difference.
3. Company Logo and Web Design Header
Your logo should be something your site visitors will remember and should tell something about your product. You’ve got seconds to brand your business and get your site visitors to stick around. Your logo needs to be custom designed not some cookie-cutter design.
While your logo is telling something about your business your header should be doing the same. Most people will only stay on a site for 3 seconds. This means you’ve got 3 seconds to convince them to stick around a little longer. If your header does not pop out at them chances are their gone. If your header doesn’t pop spend a couple hundred bucks and get someone to design a header that will. Done correctly you should be able to make your money back by the end of the day.
4. Put Your Phone Number in the Header
I’m not sure at what point people decided it was a good idea to make people look for your contact information but I can tell you now they’re wrong. Every click you force your site visitor to make is one click closer to them leaving.
Stick your phone number in the header and make it large and easy to read. Even if people aren’t going to call you the fact that it’s there builds confidence in your site and product.
5. Don’t Make Me Think
Custom web designs should be designed in such a way that it does not make your site visitor have to think. Every time you force me to think the chances of my leaving is increased. Don’t make me look and have to figure out that your contact information is not on the contact page but on the about us page.
That your navigation is not at the top of the page but at the bottom of the page and that I can click on the pretty pictures to look around the site. I don’t want to think nor do I want to have to fill out 50 forms to purchase your product.
I do not want to spend all day on your custom web designed site no matter how pretty the site is and I do not want to have to give you information that is not absolutely Vidal in the purchasing of this product. Make it simple, easy to use, quick to load and don’t try to get information you don’t need.
This is custom web design done correctly.
[...] did a post the other day on custom web design and thought I’d take a moment today and add a little to [...]
web page design…
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