Attracting and retaining website visitors, Part I

What can be done to my website pages to help attract quality traffic?

There are many ways a website can fall short in delivering on expectations. When it does, you miss out on potential viewers – and potential clients. So, for your business to be as successful as it can be, it’s critical that your website is, too.

There are a few important components to effective website design that will help ensure your website is doing what it’s supposed to do; and thus getting your business the attention it deserves.

  • Content is King! – The readable content on your website is the number one factor that helps search engines know how to categorize your website. Your web developer can help you construct your site using rich, compelling content, strong messaging, and well thought-out SEO tags.
    Note that if you have had a website for some time, it’s important to recognize that your service offering may have changed over time.  So it’s a fair question; does your site accurately describe your company’s purpose and service offering?
  • Keep it Fresh – It is well known that search engines do not like stagnant sites. Regularly updating your site with new content will help. A great way to do this is in the form of a blog, or regular posting of useful articles and advice. Another idea, depending upon your type of business, is to regularly post a ‘spotlight’ on your home page of a new project or completed job.
  • Mobile Friendly (Responsive) – It is imperative that your website can be viewed and navigated easily on all devices and website browsers; i.e. desktop computer, laptop, tablet, and mobile phone. If it can’t, you will lose customers – in poor search engine results and in frustrated visitors. Read more about the importance of responsive website design.
  • Call to Action (CTA) – Every page on your site should have a CTA message; i.e. a prompt to do something next.  This could be a “Learn More” button or “Request Estimate” prompt leading to another page to do that thing. It’s all about keeping visitors on your site, and ultimately contacting you for service.
  • Website Security – Having an SSL certificate is a no-brainer and minimum requirement for security. Does your site have an SSL installed (URL begins with https://)?  If not, search engines will penalize you and visitors will leave your site when they see the “not secure” message in the browser window.
  • Video Content – Good web pages have a variety of content including text, images and video.  Your site will have better SEO results if it includes an assortment of media types.
  • WordPress – consider switching your website over to a platform like WordPress which will enable you to make some of the content changes yourself and give you the ability to “Keep it Fresh” whenever you want.

If your site falls short on any of these items, you may be missing out on ways to attract new clients. Contact DtownWeb for a consultation about how to improve your website’s effectiveness.

Check out ‘Attracting and retaining website visitors – Part II’ for more insights about driving traffic to your website.