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11 Ways to Streamline Your Business During the Back-to-School Season

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It’s that time of the year. You’re done with the kids’ back-to-school shopping, and you’re excited to get back into the flow of your business at full steam. The summer rest has probably sparked a few exciting new goals that can help grow your business.

As a solopreneur or small business owner, your time is extremely valuable, especially since you want to be able to pursue other activities that are important to you in your free time. Streamlining your business is, therefore, essential to make sure you spend less money on mundane business activities and more time on what really matters.

Check out our tips on how you can streamline your business during the back-to-school period and enjoy more time spent on income-producing activities that will provide you with the unbound lifestyle you desire.

“Spring” Clean Your Office

Most people function best in a clean and tidy environment. Perhaps a tidy office is indicative of a tidy mind, which is fertile soil for creative ideas. Check out our post about office organization hacks HERE.

Set Some Goals

Unless you have a goal, you may not know what you’re working towards. The back-to-school period is the perfect time to set new 3-month, 6-month, 12-month, 3-year, and 5-year goals, complete with achievable and measurable milestones.

Create a Schedule

Most businesses benefit from adhering to a marketing program. Of course, at Unbound Web Design we’re all about flexibility and working when inspiration hits, but an editorial calendar is a great way to stay on track.

This is especially valuable for planning your marketing for the holiday season when you’re not in the office. Also, unless you’re marketing regularly, it will be hard to track your results in order to see what works and what doesn’t.                                                                                                                           

Unplug

So many entrepreneurs have become slaves to their gadgets. We have become reactive rather than proactive. Unplug for an hour each morning, and you will be surprised at how much your productivity increases.

Prioritize

Instead of lengthy to-do lists, focus on the three most urgent or most important tasks of the day.

Implement the 80:20 principle, by spending 80% of your time on the 20% of activities that bring the most value to your organization.

Set Boundaries

You will derive more work-life balance from setting boundaries between home life and work life. Even if you work from home, be sure to make some flexible rules which you stick to most often:

  • Set aside 15 minutes a day for personal phone calls or recreational social media.
  • Leave the office at the same time every day, even when you have a lot of work to do.
  • If you have to burn the midnight oil, take a two-hour break to enjoy dinner and some quality time with the family first.

Outsource

As business owners, we tend to take on more than we need to. By outsourcing some of your work, you can free up the time to focus on more important tasks or activities that will make you feel good. Try  to outsource the following types of tasks:

  • tedious tasks
  • time-consuming tasks
  • tasks you’re not good at

Reduce Staff Meetings

In recent years, research has shown that we waste too much time in meetings. Instead of insisting on a weekly staff meeting, consider having your meeting online, or sending out an email update. If you absolutely have to have a meeting, follow the meeting techniques of highly successful leaders.

Organize Your Finances

Handling your money better offers a wide range of benefits, so consider doing the following:

  • Find out what you get for your monthly bank charges. If you’re paying for a service. you’re not using, ask your banker to reduce your costs and reinvest your savings into things that enhance your business.
  • Pay smaller expenses in advance. Many smaller monthly fees can be paid in advance for the year in order to save money and a lot of time every month.
  • File your taxes electronically.

Invest in Knowledge

Since the kids are back to learning, it might be a good time for your own back-to-school knowledge tune-up. What can you learn that will enhance your business further or bring more value to your clients?

Sign up for an online course, join a community class or a MOOC. Many of them are free, so there’s no excuse not to invest a few hours a week into bettering yourself.

Streamline Your Website

Now that your business is streamlined, it may be a good time to see how you can streamline your website. Here are some factors to consider:

  • Streamline the sales funnel from your advertising through to your payment gateway and delivery.
  • Streamline the way clients interact with you by incorporating online chat or placing your contact details in a prominent spot.
  • Create an editorial calendar and consolidate your advertising, social media, blog posts and special offers.

Juggling a business as a solopreneur can be fun, especially when you have systems in place to allow the more mundane tasks to take care of themselves. Thankfully, technology gives us the luxury to free up some time to spend on more fulfilling activities.

4 Ways to Tell If You’re Doing On-Page SEO Well

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Is Your Website Healthy & Successful? There Are A Few Ways to Tell

A successful website requires much hard work and painstaking detail, but when it comes to choosing the activities you need to focus most of your attention on, you first need to find out which activities bring the best results.

There’s a slight twist when it comes to on-page SEO in the sense that you need to do it (or get it done) and you have to do it right. But how do you know you’re on-page SEO is really working?

There are many factors involved in on-page SEO, namely:

  • Google algorithms
  • website changes
  • competition factors
  • changes in user behavior
  • keyword rankings
  • traffic

These factors fluctuate all the time, and they are mostly out of your direct control.

When you’re wondering whether your on-page SEO is working, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Are your most important keywords ranked?

When building pages on your sites, each page should focus on one primary targeted keyword and several secondary keywords. You have to constantly work at your excellent search rankings to ensure that they remain at the top of the SERPs, as they will fluctuate all the time.

Track your rankings on a regular basis to see how your site is performing based on your target keywords. However, there’s more to successful on-page SEO than just rankings.

2. Are you getting any organic search traffic?

Organic search traffic is when someone types in a search using one of your targeted keywords, and then links to your website through the search results, rather than the paid ads at the top of the SERPs.

If you’re featured at the top of search results, the search engines obviously view your site as a valuable resource on the relevant topic. Organic traffic increases when:

  • your rankings improve
  • you use quality page titles and meta descriptions
  • you create more content

There may be some seasonal fluctuations in traffic, but by comparing traffic month-on-month and with the same period from the previous year, you will see whether you’re on track. Google Trends is another helpful tool for search data.

3. What is your bounce rate?

Your bounce rate is dependant on how long visitors stay on your site before leaving. It forms the link between the keywords used to target your audience, and the content and design of your landing page. Your page should be a natural progression that provides more information about the search terms that brought visitors to your site. Slow loading times, poor design and a lack of content are some of the reasons why visitors click out of your site.

Some pages will naturally have high bounce rates, such as event information pages, listings and so forth. Aim to have a lower bounce rate on your landing pages, homepage and service pages.

If your bounce rate is over 70%, you should consider getting professional help. Between 35-60% is typically a good average, but if you can improve the user experience or site content on your pages, be sure to do so. Anything less than 30% is usually good!

4. How is your conversion rate?

No two industries share the same online conversion rates, and every business has its own definition for conversion. For some, it might be a sale, for others, a newsletter sign up, or a free download. But most of us agree that a conversion is an action taken by a percentage of website visitors.

Most companies will be over the moon with a 5% conversion rate, while many will be satisfied a 3% conversion rate. However, if you are losing potential customers, it is time to speak to a professional about your conversion rate.

In many cases, sites receive thousands of visitors, but extremely low conversions. That often signals incorrect keyword usage and poor user experience. Either way, a professional can help you optimize in such a way to convert your visitors into qualified leads.

How is your on-page SEO faring? Are you happy with your results? Let’s discuss in comments below.

3 Reasons to Attend a WordCamp Conference Near You

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We love WordPress for many, many reasons. From the state-of-the-art software to the open support, endless amount of customization and affordable hosting costs – there’s just no reason not to love it. Now there’s something more to love: WordCamps.

Whether you’ve just started your first WordCamp site, or whether you’ve been a developer for a long time, we’d like to urge you to attend a WordCamp near you. Whatever you’d like to learn at your level of WordPress experience, you can learn it at WordCamp.

So, What’s a WordCamp?

WordCamps are informal, community-organized conferences based on WordPress. Put together by WordPress users; it’s the perfect place for both casual users and professional developers to connect, share ideas and collaborate in talks about all things WordPress.

Volunteer organizers, staff, and speakers facilitate WordCamps, which are attended by a good mix of users. In most cases, there are different “tracks,” which that there may be two or three talks that take place simultaneously, allowing you to attend the tracks that suit your level of experience.

Why You Should Attend a WordCamp Near You

Everyone who has attended a WordCamp will give you a different reason why you should attend one, too, but we’ll try to keep it short.

1. Ticket Money Is Used for Good

Nobody profits from the money raised from ticket sales. Instead, it is all placed right back into funding for future WordCamp events, sponsoring local developers to continue their work on wordpress.org, donating to the WordPress Foundation or to fund a future WordCamp.

WordCamps are an affordable investment into your business. Tickets typically range between $25-200, but you will receive so much value in return, in addition to the networking opportunities.

2. It Is An Opportunity to Spend Time With the Community

WordPress is a community, and WordCamps give you an opportunity to connect with others. Not only will you meet great people, but you will be able to learn from others who can help you make the most of your site, and to achieve your goals. Whether you’re a WordPress user searching for a mentor, or a developer looking for clients, WordCamp is the place to find them.

3. You Can Get Real Help From Real People

Have you ever found yourself in a bind with your WordPress site? Online help is available and typically incredibly helpful, but sometimes one-on-one, live help just gets the job done quicker. WordCamp puts you in touch with people who can give you the feedback you need.

As you can see from the three reasons above, WordCamps are a great place to meet up with members of the WordPress community and learn about the many different aspects of the platform. No two WordCamps are the same, so we’d like to start by attending a WordCamp near you, but also to plug into events while you travel. That will provide an opportunity to connect with national and international speakers from around the world, increasing learning opportunities and giving you valuable insights into the world of WordPress.

Click here to find a WordCamp near you.

5 Reasons Site Speed is Crucial to Your Small Business

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Next to Content, Site Speed is the #2 SEO Factor to Focus On

When it comes to developing, designing, and launching a business website there are two major things that most business owners focus on: Content and visuals.

While those are very important, there are some crucial behind-the-scenes aspects of efficient website design that are often overlooked but are still very important to your small business.

One of those underappreciated SEO factors is site speed, and it is absolutely CRITICAL to your SEO, site ranking, and overall small business success.

Here’s why….

1. SEARCH ENGINES LOVE FAST SITES

This is a BIG one. All major search engines give preference points to sites that load faster than the industry accepted standard of 3 seconds.

Google has officially named site speed as one of the markers that their robots use to determine the appropriate site and page rankings when delivering search results.

Plus, it’s a basic user expectation, and search engines cater to the user, not the website:

47% of people expect your site to load in less than 2 seconds.
40% will abandon it entirely if it takes longer than 3 seconds.

(Source: BitCatcha)

2. FAST LOAD SPEEDS REDUCE BOUNCE RATE

Users are far more likely to stay and browse your website when it loads quickly, both from the search results and between pages. In fact, according to KissMetrics, 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

This means that there will be a significant reduction in your bounce rate when you can improve your site load speed to three seconds or less.

3. FAST WEBSITES ARE MORE TRUSTWORTHY

When your site loads quickly and without error, your users are more likely to trust your site and refer it to friends and family because it is providing a positive user experience.

79% of web shoppers who have trouble with website performance say they won’t return to the site to buy again and around 44% of them would tell a friend if they had a poor experience shopping online. (Source: KissMetrics)

But, there’s more that goes into a great user experience than just site speed, so pay attention to all the moving parts that go into your website. Don’t rush it, and always test it.

TIP: Ask friends and family to review your website frequently to make sure that it is always on point.

4. PAGE LOAD RESPONSE AFFECTS CONVERSION RATES

Slow sites are bad for business, it’s a proven fact. Whether you’re an active e-commerce site or are simply looking for people to download a free ebook or sign up for your mailing list, these are conversions and they are directly impacted by site speed.

Seriously.

A 1-second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions, according to a study done by KissMetrics.

That means that, if an e-commerce site is making $100,000 per day, a 1-second page delay could potentially cost you $2.5 million in lost sales every year.

(Source: KissMetrics)

That’s a huge drop in overall annual conversions and profitability because your site is a tiny bit slower than the competition.

5. UPDATING QUICK WEBSITES IS EASIER

Have you ever tried to update plugins or blog articles on a site that takes forever to load, update, or refresh? It’s mind-numbingly frustrating, right?

So, make sure your website is blazing fast and you’ll reap all sorts of ridiculous benefits, SEO and otherwise.

Is your site a little sluggish? Check your current speed grade here! We offer website maintenance and update services that will help you keep your site lightning fast and in good standing with all major search engines.

Here are a couple of examples of site speed improvements that we’ve performed for clients:

Before & After Site Speed Adjustments for ChrisBlevinsWatercolors.com Before & After Site Speed Adjustments for AshleyTurner.org

Let us know if we can help you boost your website load speed today!

Project Highlight: System Envy Website Redesign

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Industry: Training and Consulting

Company: System Envy

Type of Work: Website Design Updates

System Envy offers a wide range of unique plug-and-play marketing automation and business basic systems that help entrepreneurs manage their work-life balance and get ahead in the industry.

The Challenge
We last worked with Kerry at System Envy in early 2016 to create a brand new website to help promote her coaching and marketing automation business. Now, one year later, the growth and development of her business have put the website out of sync with her brand and it required a little bit of an update.

The Unbound Solution
We utilized the power of the WordPress Genesis theme to completely update the System Envy site to be more in line with the branding and potential growth.

The Results
The final website is light and bright and ready for a long history of growth with the System Envy brand!

View It Now

6 Simple Website Hacks for Online Marketing Success

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So, you’ve got a great website and a strong business model, but you’d love to see a lot more traffic coming to your site. As a small business owner, promoting and maintaining your business, a website, and your product or service can be a full-time job. However, there are a few simple ways to hack your website to help work smarter instead of harder.

While most marketing tasks are complex and can require quite a bit of your time, there are a few things you can complete in less than 5 minutes to make your time more effective.

5-Minute Tricks for Online Marketing Success

The next time you’re overwhelmed by your online marketing task list, take a minute to do just a few of these things to increase your online marketing success.

1. Make Your Headlines Matter

Statistics have shown that, while 8 out of 10 people read headlines, only 2 out of 10 will go on to read the rest.

Try the Portent’s Content Idea Generator http://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker, which will help you generate great headlines for your content, based on your keyword. It’s a really cool tool!

Or, our personal favorite is the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer. This tool grades your headline and lets you know, in detail, what is good and what is bad to help steer you towards a viral headline.

2. Create Your Own Images

While quality stock photo sites are a dime-a-dozen these days, custom branded photos go the distance. Instead of sharing someone else’s images, create your own.

In fact, the Edgerank Checker revealed research that showed how created posts were so much more effective in areas of engagement, organic reach, and viral search, compared to shared posts.

Instead, use the other brand’s thoughts as a starting place for your own, unique content.

3. Repurpose Your Old Posts

When you don’t have time to write a new blog post, simply repurpose and share an old one via your social media channels.

Most people probably won’t remember seeing it the first time and those that have seen it won’t mind seeing it again if it’s quality, valuable content.

While this may seem like the lazy marketer’s option, it offers a range of significant benefits. From continuing to develop social proof (likes, shares, tweets, +1s) to extend your reach, you’re bound to get more comments, shares, and discussion on a post that already has comments.

People are more likely to participate when there’s already a buzz.

4. Add Oomph to Your Most Popular Page

Check out your Google Analytics to find the most popular page on your site, and add a call-to-action to it. This is one of the most effective strategies, and it takes only 5 minutes to implement.

Be sure that the CTA or link you’re adding is highly relevant to the page content. There’s nothing worse than an off-the-wall plug that doesn’t make sense for the reader.

5. Include an Outbound Link (or three)

Show that you’re not pulling your information out of thin air by including a link to relevant information on your site, this includes pages and articles.

People will take you more seriously when you include a link to an authoritative page or something that is written by someone who is an expert in the field.

6. Leverage Time-Saving Tools

There are many new tools that make your job as an online marketer easier. Hootsuite and IFTTT are two of the coolest tools for social sharing. Take advantage of these tools and enjoy the results.

Do you have more time-saving online marketing tips? We’d love to hear from you!

4 Tips to Prep Your Website for Festival Season Traffic

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Most business owners dread holidays, whether it is a one-day holiday or the 4th of July. Sometimes those holidays can drag by ever so slowly, especially when you go into them unprepared and most of the stress can be attributed to the frenetic activity and the rush to get it all done in time to enjoy the festive activities. But, how would you feel if we told you that you could plan well enough to ensure that your business can survive without you for a few weeks, while you enjoy some R&R?  Well, you can.

It all starts with assessing the most important tasks that need to continue flowing while you’re away. By being a step ahead, you can help prevent any issues while you’re away.

#1 – “Service” Your Tech

Now is a perfect time to have a look at all your systems. Check for problems, implement updates and ensure it is all in great working order. Do avoid doing any major system upgrades now to avoid issues over the holiday season. If you’re hoping to upgrade systems, leave it until January.

#2 – Beef Up Your Site’s Security

A lot more money moves through cyber-space in the weeks leading up to a holiday and cybercriminals are well aware of that fact, which is why you must ensure that your customers’ details are kept safe, or else it could have devastating consequences for your business.

You can beef up your security by reminding staff of your company’s cyber security policies, by changing passwords, and by updating your anti-virus software.

#3 – Create a Backup Plan

With the increased amount of data going through your system at this time of the year, it is crucial to ensure that your backup system works as it should.

Backups will ensure that, even if your system crashes, you will still have access to all your clients’ details and order data.

#4 – Give Your Website Some TLC

Your website is probably the most important tool in your business. With a blog going out every couple of days or even once a week over the holiday period, you can stay at the top of your target audience’s minds. What better time to prepare and schedule a few posts now to go out while you’re away? But that’s not the only thing you should prepare with regards to your site:

  • update the software
  • update the plugins
  • consider adding a temporary holiday theme
  • include holiday operating hours
  • add out of office replies to your email accounts
  • schedule holiday wishes via your social media channels
  • prepare phone greetings for when the business is closed

The holiday season does not have to be a complicated time for your business. With careful preparation, you can make a success of it and gather valuable data that can be used in marketing and product development for years to come.

Are you just too darn busy to handle the maintenance and updates yourself?

We can help you with that, too!

Check out our current website maintenance and upgrade options.

5 Signs You Should Invest In a Pro Web Designer

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We’re going to let you in on a little secret: All web designers are terrible when they start out, but practice makes perfect. We, too, had plenty of room for improvement when we started out. As best practices continue to evolve, the best web designers rise to the top, leaving the rest behind.

However, if you need a website for your business, you want something professional. You want to know that you are getting your money’s worth.

How do you know whether you should invest in a pro web designer?

Basic websites go for cheap. You can get a simple site for $150, but is a cheap and simple template-based site really what you want? Probably not!

Cheap designers also don’t offer a copywriting solution, which is the number one cause of delays, and one of the main reasons why a website does not deliver the results clients expect. A pro website designer values the importance of professionally written digital content to your success and will put you in touch with a content writer right from the start.

Some designers are so focused on creating attractive sites that they don’t pay attention to functionality. Have you ever visited a beautifully designed website that failed to convey important information? It happens to me almost daily.

Does your site look the same as it did three or five years ago? Perhaps it’s time for you to consider investing in a pro web designer. Search engines and web technology evolves at a rapid rate, and it’s important for the success of your site to stay on the cutting edge.

Here are some signs that it’s time to invest in a pro web designer:

1.  Your Site is Keyword Stuffed

When search engine optimization first became popular, people would replace every second word of their web content with a keyword to ensure that they reached the top of search results pages. Today, we know that practice as keyword spam – a black hat SEO technique that hurts your search rankings.

These days, SEO is as important as always, but the way in which it is done really matters. Speak to your pro website designer about the importance of professional digital copywriting.

2. Your Site is Light on Content

Just like best web practices, the modern consumer has evolved. People now value informative websites that answer their questions, and that’s what they look for on your website before they bother getting in touch.

Search engines also favor valuable content. According to American Express, posting one informative post of 700-1000 words per week is most likely to boost your rankings.

3. Your Site is Built on Custom Code

One of the main reasons why people loathe updating their sites is because it is built on custom code. Manual coding takes a tremendous amount of time, which makes it difficult to implement big changes.

You’re going to have to update at some point, so consider investing in a pro web designer and a WordPress site that runs on Genesis.

4. Your Site Still Uses Flash

Videos and animation slow down the page load time. Nobody has time to wait for a site to load, so make this a priority.

Likewise, flash-based websites are consistently being downgraded in the search rankings, because flash doesn’t work on most mobile devices.

Why should that matter? Because more than half of all internet searches are done via mobile device.

5. Your Site is Not Mobile-Friendly

In order to meet the latest design practices, your site must be responsive. If your site is still outdated and not mobile-friendly, you are missing out on a huge potential market.

In addition to the above design-related factors, your site graphics should integrate well with the design and content, and your website should flow logically. Calls to action should be used in all the important places to help navigate your visitors into becoming buyers. The best websites combine beautiful design with excellent functionality that speaks to its visitors through quality images and effective digital content

3 Steps to a Successful Small Business Website using WordPress

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A Small Business Website is Important. Make Sure It’s Done Right

A successful website is the backbone of a successful business. WordPress makes it easy to create, manage and run a successful website, as it offers an easy and useful content management system.

Unlike a cheap static site, WordPress was developed to help you reach out to your audience, and with a plethora awesome plugins to choose from, you can completely customize your site to meet your needs.

A successful site combines:

  1. Functional yet stylish design
  2. Regular updates
  3. The right target audience

Here are my top tips for using WordPress to run a successful website.

1. Functional, Beautiful Design

Your website is the online face of your company. If you want to portray a professional image, you should have your WordPress site professionally designed. Your design should reflect your company culture and vision.

A professional design ensures that your content is laid out in such a way that it guides a visitor towards the most important information on your site. The images and typography connect with your audience on an emotional level, which makes them more likely to follow through on your calls to action.

Using a Genesis child theme with your WordPress site enables you to customize it to showcase your individual style. Genesis is a powerhouse platform which adds even more customization options, along with being a fantastic tool to ensure your site meets the latest web standards.

2. Regular Updates Made Easy

Search engines love WordPress sites due to the clean code, and we love it because it helps us better manage time. WordPress allows you to schedule your posts for future dates. That means that you can write posts when you feel inspired, and schedule them for a time and date when most of your audience will be online.

You can even make it easy for readers to access more information by displaying a “latest posts” widget on your homepage and a “similar posts” widget on the post pages.

Other widgets can help you to add new content on a regular basis from your social media pages, thus letting the search engines know that your site is alive and well.

3. Reaching Out to the Right Audience

There are many sites that promise to help you reach a massive audience. However, if you fail to reach the correct audience (people who actually want to buy what you are selling), it will be a waste of time and money. Before you post anything on your site, it’s important to first determine who your target audience is. Your website’s design and content should be aimed at your audience.

Search engine optimization is the number one technique we use to drive traffic from unknown sources to our sites. Making a success of your SEO involves knowing who your audience is, and finding the right keywords to attract them.

There are many ways to share your content, the most popular being:

  • Social Sharing
  • Email
  • RSS Feeds
  • Newsletters

Once you have attracted the right audience, you want to find good ways to stay in their minds and for them to share your content with their friends. You can also encourage your readers to share your content if they find it helpful, valuable and interesting. It can easily be done by installing some of these plugins:

Now that you understand how these three elements work in harmony to help you achieve web success, you are off to a great start. How can we help you make the most of your small business website?

4 Common Website Design Mistakes & How To Avoid Them

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Does your website deliver on the goals you had when you first developed it?

Many small business owners decide to create their own websites in order to have more control over the creative process, simply to be disappointed by mediocre results. Perhaps you envisaged millions of visitors, only to see a trickle. Maybe visitors click away to competitors’ sites before they can learn more about your value proposition. Either way, it is not helping you to achieve your goals.

In most cases, you might look at your marketing strategy, your SEO, or your content. While all of those elements are important, web design also matters.

Why It’s Important to Avoid These 4 Web Design Mistakes

Good web design is an investment that pays dividends, because:

  • a good first impression will ensure that visitors stick around for longer.
  • a quality web design builds trust.
  • it guides visitors towards the important elements of your sales funnel.

Quality web design is a marriage of beauty and usability. There’s more to web design than just the appearance. How visitors interact with your site is what matters most. Yet, usability and aesthetics often interact during the design process. Read on to find out how you can make your web design work for you.

4 Website Design Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

Let’s take a look at the most common website design mistakes people make, and how you can avoid them.

Website Design Mistake #1: Slow Loading Website

How often have you abandoned a website because it takes longer than 2 seconds to load? That’s right. In today’s world, we’ve come to expect instant gratification.

According to Kissmetrics page abandonment increases by 25% when a page takes 4 seconds to load.

Incorporate performance in your design by avoiding all the unnecessary bells and whistles. If people are abandoning your site because it takes too long to load, they won’t see the fancy JavaScript animations, so rather avoid the gimmicks and receive more visitors.

Website Design Mistake #2: Inconsistency & Clutter

We can’t stress the importance of consistency in design enough. In my previous post, we mentioned how consistency builds trust. When it comes to consistency on your website, it not only looks neat and creates trust, but it creates a sense of professionalism.

Inconsistency creates clutter – not only on your website but also in life. Remove any unnecessary content, design elements, and images to improve the content hierarchy, focus, and flow and to provide guidance to your visitors.

You can create clarity and consistency by…

  • Keeping your site simple and by avoiding sudden changes to your color scheme.
  • Leaving sufficient white space around elements to allow your design (and visitors) to breathe.
  • Organizing your content into coherent group-pages, sub-pages, and archives, especially if you cover different topics.

Website Design Mistake #3: Hard-to-Read Content

Gone are the days when consumers used to be excited by all the free information available on the internet. Today, consumers value their time above most commodities. Instead of large chunks of text, provide them with only the information they need, and make it easy to read.

Writing for the web differs vastly from writing a book. Digital copywriters employ a different style that appeals to the characteristics of the online reader. They also use their skills ensure that your content is noticed by the search engines.

Here are suggestions from a digital copywriter on how to create effective web copy:

Organize Content Into Pages

Apart from being a great tool for SEO, having multiple pages ensures that your content is neatly organized by topic. This eliminates confusion for the reader and is easier on the eyes. Now nobody has to read information that is irrelevant to their search.

Add Graphic Elements

Images and icons are great visual elements to break up an all-text web page. Use one visual element, quote, or link per every 300 words of text.

Use Short Paragraphs

The texting era has made us resistant to reading large blocks of text. Adding space between paragraphs gives the eyes a break and helps the reader process the content better.

Use Headings

Most readers skim the text on your website, so make it easier for them by including headings, and sticking to one idea per paragraph. Headers are also a great on-page SEO tool.

Website Design Mistake #4: Unresponsive Website Design

We’ve said it a thousand times, and we’ll say it again: You NEED a responsive design if you want to be in business.

According to Comscore, two out of every three minutes spent online, happen on mobile devices. Yet, nearly a third of all new WordPress websites choose to forego a responsive theme. This shocking figure has caused Matt Mullenweg (founder of WordPress) to make responsiveness a requirement for all new themes.

Why should your site be responsive?

  1. Without it, you’re losing out on the huge global audience of mobile users.
  2.  It will display better across all devices.
  3.  You’ll get more visitors, which should result in improved conversions.

Have you made any of these website design mistakes?

It takes years of training to become proficient at quality website design. Technology and search engine algorithms are always changing. The best way to avoid these website design mistakes is to hire a professional to create your website design.