So here’s the thing: small businesses need to provide their users with a relevant online experience if they want to continue to attract and engage their audiences online. Do you know why? This is because the average website user is busy and easily distracted. This is why business owners must incorporate modern website design principles into their websites. You may wonder, what key objective does this achieve? Well, first, it creates a good user experience and keeps the website ahead of the competition while connecting them directly to their customer base through social media channels such as Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Without mincing words, it is common for small business owners to get confused because they need a website that generates leads and sales, but have little or no experience in web design and business. If you’re not a web design professional, that’s okay. In fact, most small business owners are not, which is why they work with a professional web development company like Slinky Web Design. Every small business website should include several important elements in its web design strategy, and it’s helpful to familiarise yourself with the dos and don’ts. This will ensure that the website you create is suitable for your business.
There is a whole lot of planning that goes into building a new website, whether for personal branding or for your business. First, you must consider things like what the right target audience for your project would be interested in and how to attract that interest. But you also have to make other necessary technical decisions about the project. One such decision is which content management system (CMS) to opt for. There are a lot of CMS platforms around. WordPress takes the largest share of the market as the most popular CMS platform. For context, over 2 million websites – more than 60% of the world’s total websites – are powered by WordPress. The other CMS platforms, including Drupal, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, and Joomla, have to fight amongst themselves for the remaining 40% market share. Isn’t that huge? You are probably wondering why WordPress is such a popular choice for website owners. You’ll learn about the reasons in this article. Let’s start by understanding what a CMS platform is all about. What is a Content Management System? Some people see a Content Management System as a platform used for publishing, organizing, and editing text and media on websites. While this definition is correct, it is a limited description. This is because a CMS is a lot more than that in reality.
As we live in the internet age, it is a safe assumption that your bridal business has a website. How effective that website is in attracting visitors, who in turn become prospects and, ultimately, clients, will depend on many factors. The first will be how much traffic the website gets via organic means, such as SEO or paid traffic programs, such as Pay Per Click on Google or Facebook, for example. Once traffic reaches your website, it is a matter of how well it has been designed. A well-designed website will keep visitors there for a reasonable amount of time, will also be easy to navigate, and will ultimately have clear calls to action, such as telephoning your business or entering details such as a name and an email address. Conversely, a poorly designed website causes visitors to leave almost immediately and confusion due to no clear navigational menus. It will also have unclear or no calls to action and possibly malfunction due to a technical or coding issue. This last problem can be the death knell for a website’s performance and in particular, its ranking on Google. The tragedy is that technical issues and other problems can so easily be avoided if only website maintenance was in place. What Is Website Maintenance? Whilst the specific tasks will differ from other things that require maintenance, such as a car, a computer, or machinery, the definition of website maintenance is similar. That is, website maintenance is a series of tasks and processes that keep websites running smoothly, perform optimally, and avoid problems that might cause the website not to function properly. The key to website maintenance is that it should be done regularly, mainly because updates to many of the tools and software which allow the website to operate as it should, are often updated. Prime examples are the core platform for the website such as WordPress and plugins that provide additional functionality.
Landscaping business owners may have heard the term ‘landing page’ when discussing their current website or a new website a web design agency has been asked to create. Whichever of those two scenarios apply to you, it is important, not only that your website has one or more landing pages, but that they are effective. If you have never heard of the term landing page before, they are a simple, single page on a website that visitors land on from another website or search engine. What can be troublesome is getting them to perform, and that will come down to how well each of the five web design tips below is implemented when your landing page is created. But, before we outline them here is a quick summary of why a landing page is beneficial to your landscaping business. #1 – Encourages visitors to provide email addresses or telephone numbers and permission for you to contact them. #2 – Can spur visitors to click through to another page within your website. #3 – Can provoke visitors to decide they wish to make a purchase. #4 – Can encourage visitors to take actions such as leaving a review or feedback. #5 – Can induce visitors to recommend your website and the services offered therein to others. Quite an impressive list of benefits, however, they will only accrue if your landing pages are designed properly and that means following the five landing page design tips that follow. #1 – Write Outstanding Headlines Unquestionably the most important element of any landing page. If the headline does not grab the attention or curiosity of visitors they will click away immediately. You should spend time ensuring that the headline of each landing page is the best it can be. You should also be split-testing your headlines to see which retain the most visitors and have the most actions taken.
WordPress is the #1 CMS used to build websites for several reasons, including its ease of use and the vast array of themes that can be used to make every website built using WordPress unique. However, most users find the most helpful element of WordPress to be plugins. Plugins are an app or software that can be added to a WordPress website that provides additional features and functionality. They can add this functionality either in the back end to make building and managing the WordPress site easier, or they can add it to the front end to benefit visitors to that website. One slight problem, although some might say this is positive, is that there are so many plugins to choose from, and not all of them have the high levels of reliability that you want for your website. Thankfully, a core number of plugins have proved themselves, and today are some of the most installed plugins on WordPress, with many web designers considering them essential when designing a WordPress website. To ensure you are aware of them, we have outlined fifteen essential plugins below, briefly explaining what each of them does. Note they are not necessarily in order of importance. #1 – Rank Math SEO If you want to rank on Google and see organic traffic coming to your website, SEO is a must. However, if, like most website owners, you are not an SEO expert, it can be daunting. Thankfully, Yoast SEO can help, enabling you to optimise content and web pages with suggestions and actions to take. Get → RankMath #2 – Jetpack This multi-function plugin provides WordPress website owners with tools to create content, enhance the security of their website, and, importantly, improve its performance. It also offers ways to customise your website and enhance its functionality to help it load quickly. Get → Jetpack
