The better your website is the more chance you have of attracting new, and retaining existing, customers. Creating a great first impression, or user experience is essential.
Make it easy for someone to get to your website and do what they need to do. With many of your potential customers, you may only get one chance.
123 Reg have produced a really simple guide; read the full version on their website or have a scan of the main points below.
Branding
- Make your logo visible so people know who you are
- Add a favicon
- Cut down on colours; less is often more
- Cut down on fonts
- Make your website consistent. All of it.
Messaging
- Make your headline clear and sticky
- Image sliders are the lazy marketers’ friend. Remove them.
- Get to the point
Credibility
- Get rid of generic stock photos
- Provide social proof
Readability
- Break up the content; people haven’t got time to read excessive amounts of text
- Make use of bullet points
- Increase white space to give your content space to breath
Layout
- Optimise layouts for natural scanning patterns
- Relocate your social media icons to your footer
Navigation
- Reduce the items on the menu
- Make navigation labels specific so people don’t need to guess
- Fix those broken links
Search engine optimisation
- Optimise your title tags and meta descriptions
- Optimise your images
- Speed up your website
Conversions
- Make your call-to-action (CTA) buttons obvious and clear
- Make links look like links
- Optimise your forms
Engagement
- Turn those social media counters on
- Make it obvious how your customers can get help