How wonderful, Spring is back again. The chirping birds and blooming flowers, who doesn’t love this time of the year? Springtime is when everything is up for refreshment; the thorough “cleaning” begins. This year, along with tidying up your living and working environment, we encourage you to refresh, clean your web presence, your virtual salesman as well.
Freshening up your online presence is always a good idea. It will boost your visibility on search engines, as well as allow the opportunity to examine the constantly changing trends in web design and development. As we’re transitioning into fairer weather, take the opportunity to consider the following tips for the spring cleaning your website:
1. Flatten the design
Recently, flat web design is a really hot topic and is dominating the web. From UI, to the latest portfolio update, icons and even the top web design blogs are now using flat web design, which works very well for the SEO, marketing and digital industries. The trend has already been adopted by Google, Apple and Microsoft meaning that it is no fad and it will undoubtedly have a profound impact on the evolution of websites, programs and operating systems.
2. Make it responsive
Responsive web design is recommended by Google (hello, by GOOGLE!). It allows one website to provide a great user-experience across many devices and screen sizes; it also makes managing your SEO strategy easier and more efficient. This might not be a surprise for most of you, but many businesses do not yet have a mobile website. Hopefully these few key arguments below will light the fire and make them think again:
- Access to the Internet using a mobile phone more than doubled between 2010 and 2013, from 24% to 53%.
- Over 20% of Google searches are being performed on a mobile device.
- More than half of the local searches were performed on a mobile device.
- 61% of people have a better opinion of brands when they offer a good mobile experience
- 25.85% of all emails are opened on mobile phones, and 10.16% are opened on tablets.
Without a responsive website, you are losing customers and losing money. People buy more products online now than they do in stores. By not having a responsive web design, you are not providing to a large portion of your potential market.
3. Use infographics
Infographics are the smart new digital way of delivering ideas, knowledge and data quickly and efficiently. Great infographics get straight to the point, capture the user’s attention, explain often complex information using graphs, charts, icons, symbols, stylish illustrations and distilled copy making the information easier to understand.
Widespread across social media channels, infographics will link back to your site; this will help your SEO purposes, increase traffic and enhance your brand awareness.
4. Use modern, unique typography.
Goodbye Georgia, goodbye Times New Roman, goodbye Helvetica! Welcome to 2014 — the year where typography gets serious. When creating your company’s brand, it is important to consider the typography which allows readers to immediately identify your website and brand.
5. Simplify and focus on the content
Stripping away all the bells and whistles allows the content to shine and makes the design perform its actual role. Are there any redundant bits of text you can remove? Maybe the colour scheme is too bright? Or perhaps the site’s layout is getting too crowded?
Remember, it’s hard to notice these things once you’ve gotten used to them. It might be helpful to get feedback from people whose opinion you value. Ask them to browse all the way through your website and point out elements that do not seem valuable to the user experience. But don’t rely on such feedback on its own; find reputable online sources which will guide you through the process with accordance to the web standards.
6. Use video to deliver the message
Videos proved to be an effective way to communicate with an audience. According to BLOOMBERG L.P 2014, Videos provide a dynamic, interactive experience for site visitors. By using videos, e-businesses can highlight promotions, provide tutorials, and show customers how products operate. The engaging nature of video encourages users to spend more time on a page, thereby increasing stickiness and ad revenues. With proper SEO, videos can drive traffic to your website.
Happy Tidying!
Damian Budny is a Creative Thinker and Web Developer at Happy Creative, a full service marketing and creative agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk
