Are You Following These Three Basic Rules for Your Website?

Storefronts aren’t simply made of brick and mortar—they’re built with CSS and HTML. Today, the business cycle begins online. Recent studies suggest that 81% of consumers conduct research online before making big purchasing decisions. With prospective buyers making judgments about your products and services based on your website, is your site is reaching it’s full potential?

Wonder no more. We’ve complied a list of 3 essential things all effective websites do well:

Load Time

Businesses must not only account for today’s fast-paced lifestyle, but also a shrinking consumer attention span. The longer your website takes to load, the higher your site’s abandonment rate. Slower load times also translate to less page engagement, as it takes only seconds for a visitor to lose interest or deviate to another task.

Those extra seconds could cost you immensely. What makes a website’s load time falter? There are numerous variables at play and the culprit isn’t always so easy to spot. Sluggish performance could be blamed on your web host, mismanaged plugins and widgets, sizes and quantity of content or poorly written code, to name a few. The list is endless, which is why help from seasoned professionals is a worthwhile investment.

Mobile-Friendly

Mobile traffic equals real world traffic. Google’s 2014 study, Understanding Consumer Local Search Behavior, found that one in three consumers search online with their smartphones before visiting a store, and 50% visit a store within a day of said search. What are they looking for during these searches? Your website. 62% of companies with mobile-friendly websites report increases in sales, proving that accounting for mobile is one of the best decisions you can make.

From responsive to mobile-first and standalone mobile, there are numerous ways for your site’s layout to be fitted for an effective mobile user-experience. But a top-notch build only begins with the layout’s look. Understanding the way your site functions on a mobile device is just as important.

Effective Websites Are Updated Regularly

A website with fresh content will also give your visitors a reason to come back, which will increase the chances of closing a transaction and building an ongoing relationship. Search engines reward websites that continually update by moving them up the search ranks. But one of the biggest benefits gained by keeping your website current is measurable data. By updating regularly, you are able to track your website’s performance and visitor behavior based on the changes you implemented.

Is your website effectively dispensing information, swaying purchasing decisions and helping your customers? Let the professionals help. Appleton Creative is an award-winning, full-service advertising agency located in Orlando, Florida. Appleton works with local, national and international clients to provide marketing strategies through print, web, social media and video production – all in-house. At Appleton, we want to learn about your business, empower your marketing team and be your creative resource. Your marketing goals are worth a conversation: contact us at 407-246-0092 or info@appletoncreative.com.

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