The success of your online business depends on a number of factors including great products, excellent customer service, and most critically, a well-maintained website to help do aggressive marketing.
The first thing most shoppers do when they want to buy a product is to search online. A whopping 87% of shoppers begin product searches online.
Not having a vibrant website that can show your products when shoppers search online can, therefore, decrease the visibility of your products, and ultimately affect the success of your online business.
Your marketing strategy should begin with a functional and well-designed website that attracts customers.
In this blog post, I want to show you how to build an attractive website that your visitors will love.
Provide information your users need
When visitors enter your website, the first thing they want to find out is whether you are providing the solution they are looking/searching for. Your website should have the right content to convince your visitors even at a glance.
Your website should have detailed information about your business, contact, and all relevant information that describes your business and services and/or products. Make sure the tone of the content should be true and convincing.
Again, your information should include potential terms that people will likely use when they want to search for your products. For instance, if you sell kids’ clothing in New York, you need to be intentional about your choice of words by selecting keywords or key terms people looking for kids’ clothing would type in their search engines when they are searching for your products. Keywords such as quality kids’ clothing in New York, New York kids’ clothing, quality kids’ clothing, affordable kids’ clothing, baby clothing New York, etc could be some of the terms to consider when crafting the copy of your website.
Have a well-maintained blog
One good way people can discover your store is when a relevant post or article leads them to your site. You need to have a blog section on the website where you publish regular and relevant content related to your business. You need to position or pitch yourself as the go-to place when they are looking for well researched and/or relevant content in the area of your niche.
Remember the kids’ clothing shop we discussed above? You need to devote some time or hire a content team that can develop compelling content around the latest kids’ fashion trends, the best fabric for kids’ wear, etc.
You can use a multiple content approach involving text, images, videos, GIF, etc. to make your website very compelling and exciting to your users.
This will ensure that your business has a strong presence online and people can easily discover your business when they search for terms relevant or related to your business.
Use persuasive power of reviews
Credibility is a very important factor when it comes to the buying behaviour of shoppers and there is no better proof than showing them what previously shoppers have said about your products. Nearly 95% of shoppers read reviews about your shop or product before making a purchase.
Closing landing pages with reviews or placing a testimonial next to a “Buy Now” button are subtle ways you can incorporate this powerful persuasion element where it matters most. A tool such as the Kudobuzz Review app allows you to collect reviews along with photos and videos from channels like Facebook, Google, Yelp, Amazon, Etsy, etc, and also allows you to decide which reviews you want to display to your website visitors.
Ensure your website loads faster.
Nobody likes a slow site. Search engines including Google penalize websites that load slowly— but more worrying is the fact that users stop visiting websites that load slowly.
According to Google, the average mobile site takes 15 seconds to load, but more disturbingly, 53% of mobile users leave a site that takes longer than three seconds to load.
A tool like Google Page Speed Insights helps you to figure out how fast your site loads on desktop and mobile and additionally offers you a step-by-step breakdown of how to improve it.
Use large, concise headlines
Apart from the right information, your headlines should attract the eyeballs of your website visitors. Provide bold, concise headlines that state the central idea of the website in a complete thought.
According to one study that looked at web usability, headlines are consistently the most viewed items on a web page — even over images.
To make your headlines very attractive, you should select words carefully and use strong writing that entices your visitors to read. Your headlines should thus be short and sweet, and you should also choose simple keywords over complicated jargons. Also, turn your headline into a graphic, and more importantly, make sure to deliver on your headline’s promise.
Make it easy to navigate
People do not have time. If your visitors will have to spend an arduous amount of time to find what they are looking for, then it’s going to be a very unpleasant experience for them and they may give up along the way and exit your site.
To prevent this, make sure your website is properly laid out. Your visitors should be able to see and click on your products with minimal effort. It should be right there in front of them.
Also, make sure your business phone number, address and a clear Call to Action (CTA’s) are clearly visible throughout the site.
Connect Social Media pages to your site
Social media is now home to an estimated 3.8 billion active users. It’s therefore important that your website should have social media shareable buttons to help you connect to your social media community.
Doing this will help you to inform, advertise, collect reviews, or engage with your customers on a regular basis.
Make your website mobile-friendly
Mobile accounts for approximately half of all web traffic worldwide. As of the second quarter of 2020, mobile devices generated 51.53% of global website traffic. This gap between mobile and desktop usage will continue to widen since more people now opt for portable devices. You’ll, therefore, be losing a significant chunk of your customers if your website is not mobile-friendly. Your website should, therefore, be responsive to displays a version of your site that is optimised for their particular device, ensuring the best possible user experience.
In sum, attracting visitors to your website requires being intentional and making sure you offer the best user experience to your visitors. The above tips should set you on sail on your path attracting visitors to your site and ultimately increase sales.
