1. Overhaul your imagery by focusing on authenticity

In 2019 there’s going to be a real trend for visuals that switch from stock images, to genuine photos. This focus on authenticity can help you in building visitor trust (a notoriously tricky challenge when it comes to the world of websites). If your web pages are graced with that image of the Shutterstock Receptionist (who literally works for everyone in the world), it’s time to make a change and introduce the real faces of your business to the world.

2. Be mobile ready

Google has long since emphasised how mobile websites are now essential for ranking within their search results. However, if you’ve been putting off a re-design to move to mobile, now is the time. Google is now effectively ‘marking down’ websites that don’t present a beautiful online experience for every device – desktop, tablet and mobile. If you’re not sure whether your website is already mobile-friendly, you can check using Google’s simple tool.

What’s more, beyond Google’s word of warning on the matter, it simply makes sense to provide a website that scales to your visitor’s device. After all, what good is a web presence if mobile visitors (who now account for 51% of all internet surfers [Smart Insights] can’t interact easily with your site?

3. Review and rewrite your copy by asking “WIIFM?”

How long have you featured the same words on your website? And how much thought was placed into them when they were written? Your copy should act as a sales person – it should be persuasive, speak in your visitors’ language and compel them to act with calls to action that feature throughout.

Finally, on your homepage, you should talk of benefits, not features or product specifications. To achieve this, you need to place yourself in your customers’ shoes and always ask “What’s In It For Me?” If what you’re speaking about doesn’t matter to your visitor by explaining what they’ll gain when purchasing your product or service, you simply won’t make the sale, gain an enquiry or get that brochure download.

4. Content – It’s always reined as King, but in 2017 it’s going to be judge, jury and executioner

Your blog should serve as an essential marketing tool – it should drive search engine visitors to your blog, demonstrate your expert insight and grow your social media audience. If you’re yet to make the most of your blog, 2019 is the year to finally tackle it (and if you’re already blogging, then the following tips will serve you just as well):

• Carefully consider what your target customers’ pain points are, and how your content can provide guidance, hints, tips and tricks as to how they can overcome them.
• Undertake keyword research using Google’s keyword planner to ensure you’re targeting the right terms.
• Check out your competitors and the ways in which they’re creating content that’s useful to their (and your) audience.
• Share your posts on social media and always reply to responses – whether on social media or in the blog comments

5. Be sociable

Social media is only becoming more important for business, and with 90% of marketers achieving a return on investment with just 6 hours a week (MediaKix), it makes sense to ensure that your social strategy is on-point, and this begins with your website.

• Add social share buttons to your blog.
• Enrich your content with shareable images that provide valuable information (such as infographics, graphs and useful tips).
• Use a tool such as Hootsuite to see how much social engagement your blog posts are receiving – from this you can create more content that your audience are showing interest in.
• Add a ‘Click to Tweet’ feature, allowing users to quickly and easily share short sections of your content.

Looking for a fab new website? Contact Newcastle Web Design today!
Email: hello@nclwebdesign.co.uk | Phone: 0191 603 1069

The post Make 2019 your best business year yet – with our five simple website tips appeared first on Newcastle Web Design.

In the past simply having a website was good enough and so many of us had simple landing pages built so people could find out basic information such as physical locations and opening hours. However, the way we use the internet has changed dramatically, and you might find your website is no longer converting visits into sales, won’t load properly for the ever-growing number of customers using their phones to access information, or it simply isn’t getting the traffic it deserves. If that’s the case, it sounds like your website needs a spring clean. Here are our top tips for sprucing up your website on a budget:

Rewrite your content: A recent study found that 70% of those who use online dating websites wouldn’t respond to somebody with bad spelling and grammar. It’s a rule that applies to businesses too, so take a look at the words on your website. It could be that poor phrasing, incorrect spelling and mixed messages are turning customers off.

Make sure your details are up to date: If the internet isn’t a major part of your business, there’s a good chance you haven’t touched your website since it launched. Over that time, you’ve probably moved, changed numbers or at least are using a different email address. Keeping that information up to date is essential to landing new customers.

Consider a redesign: This might sound drastic, but there’s no denying your website will be many peoples introduction to your business. Ugly, poorly designed websites present a bad image to your potential customers, and shouldn’t be accepted. There are countless companies offering affordable web design in the North East (including our good selves!), so don’t rule out a website overhaul. It may sound like a cliche, but investing in a good quality website really does pay for itself.

Don’t ignore SEO: If you want your website to be at the top of Google, it won’t come with luck – you need SEO. It might seem more art than science, but search engine optimisation is the only way your website will get found on Google. Do your research and target local keywords, not national ones. ‘Web design Newcastle’ is much more achievable than, say, ‘Web design’. Be smart, you can compete if you think carefully about your keywords.

Looking for a fab new website? Contact Newcastle Web Design today!
Email: hello@nclwebdesign.co.uk | Phone: 0191 603 1069

The post Is It Time To Give Your Website A Spring Clean? appeared first on Newcastle Web Design.

People use the internet for almost every aspect of their lives and having a website that trumps the competition is crucial. But just having a website won’t do the job. Businesses need an engaging website that attracts and impresses visitors and, crucially, converts them into customers.

Having developed hundreds of websites for growing small businesses, here are some of our top tips…

Visual Hierarchy

First impressions count as much with a website as when going for a job interview. You want to impress and engage your customer from the first moment they arrive and one way to do with is to use visual hierarchy. Simply put, our eyes pay attention to a website in a certain manner.

By understanding this, you can make the most important parts of the website be located in the right place. For instance, if you want customers to click on a call to action button, then the visual hierarchy suggests that the top left hand corner of the site is the best place for this.

Easy To Read

Another element of the appearance of the website is getting everything to work harmoniously. Using high quality info graphics, images and even HTML5 videos all add value to the website but they need to work together.

For instance, make sure all the colours work so use a contrasting shade for text compared to the background colour – cream text on a white background will look nearly invisible as will black text on a dark blue background.

Keep well designed fonts at a reasonable size so that people can read it easily and don’t use too many fonts as the effect will be chaotic. Two is often ideal, one for headers and one for paragraphs, with a third for special pointers.

Connect Insolvency does this perfectly. Dark blue text on a clean, white background ensures that the text is as easy to read as possible.

Mobile-Friendly

The recent fuss about being mobile friendly may have sounded like a temporary panic but there is a firm footing to the idea. More people last year used their smartphone to search for something on the internet than their PC or laptop… and this trend is growing.

Due to recent changes in Google’s search algorithm, if a website isn’t mobile-friendly, it won’t show up on search results for phone. This could potentially lose you traffic and custom.

Strong Content

There is a temptation to add lots of information onto every page but the best websites limit how much information they supply on each page, especially key landing pages. Provide small and relevant segments of information per page, keeping to around 200-300 words.

Make sure that the content is engaging too – you won’t gain points for your Search Engine Optimisation or SEO if the content is poorly written, stuffed with keywords and doesn’t really say anything. This includes elements such as meta-tags, alt tags and meta-descriptions, all of which act as indicators to search engines what the site is about.

Social Media

Don’t forget the importance of connecting your website to social media and having a presence on the main social channels. Linking your website to a Facebook page and/or a Twitter account and vice versa is an important way to drive traffic to your site and find new customers. Social media interaction also adds to your ranking on Google and other search engines so is a win-win proposition.

Need help redesigning your website? Get in touch now to see how we can help you and your business!

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