2014 is upon us, and as with every New Year people assess their previous year and look towards the future.
As website design is a cutting-edge technology it evolves quickly and methods that worked last year may not be as effective now.
This is obviously a large area for discussion; however this article will provide three useful checks that will help you ensure that your website is ‘2014 compatible’.
1. Mobile compatibility
It varies between industries, but an estimated 30-50% of website traffic is now made using mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. It is important that websites are optimised for their smaller screen sizes by either being mobile responsive (where the elements adapt depending on screen size) or having a separate mobile website. You should check your website on a selection of devices to ensure that you can navigate it easily and make an enquiry or purchase.
If you find it frustrating, so will your customers!
2. The five second user test
There are so many websites on the Internet, and most businesses have lots of competitors. For this reason users can be very fickle and often look at a website for literally a few seconds before deciding on whether they should delve deeper or move on. It is a good idea to show someone independent your website for no more than five seconds, before asking them a few questions:
- What is your company name?
- What do you do?
- Where are you based?
- What does your website’s design say about your company?
If they do not know the answer to the first three points then perhaps your website should be updated as users could be clicking their back buttons.
Just to throw a spanner in the works, due to the way search engines work, it’s likely that people will not arrive at your home page. So does the same test work if users arrive on other pages?
3. Content is king
Gone are the days where websites are read like a book from top to bottom, these days users will scan a page and pick out the important elements. Your content should therefore be brief, clear and concise, and most importantly be aimed at the users themselves.
It is likely that in the first instance users will not care about your team members, or your ethos, but they will want to know how you can help them. Your website’s content should be providing users with solutions to problems that they may not even know they have.
We would suggest that you re-read your website but from your users’ point of view. Is your website telling users what is important to them, or what is important to you?
Again, just to complicate things slightly, this content should also be optimised for search engines…
This article covers just three generic points to get you on your way, in reality every website will be different and there are many more angles to cover. Please feel free to contact our web designers in Salisbury-based offices and we’ll happily discuss your website in more detail.
The Webbed Feet UK team would like to wish you and your business every success in 2014.
Happy New Year