Originally posted on http://www.mkels.com/web-development/web-design-ideas-thatll-cause-an-internet-traffic-jam.html

 

Millions of small businesses are operating in the United States today. Small businesses make up 99% of all businesses domestically.

While small businesses can be different in the ways they operate and what they’re selling, do you know what most of them have in common?

They have websites that aren’t getting enough traffic.

Tons of business owners invest in web design services only to find that they can’t get anybody to land or stay on their site. Therein lies the difference between web design and great web design.

Anybody can build a website. Few people can build a website that accounts for modern expectations, search engine behavior and other factors instrumental in attracting an audience.

Here are ideas to keep in mind for your site’s next pass which will help your traffic flourish…

1. Double Down on Your Website’s Look

How your website looks isn’t as important as how well it functions. That being said, aesthetics matter in an internet landscape where many websites look stunning.

We get that it’s hard to craft an aesthetically pleasing site if you don’t know the first thing about uses of colors and other design principals. Therein lies the value of hiring a great web design agency that can worry about that stuff on your behalf.

Can’t afford an agency’s help? Try performing some DIY aesthetic tweaks via inspiration that you pull from online mood boards and other inspirational sources.

2. Think About What You’re Trying to Do Before Doing Anything

You can’t design something without a blueprint on where you want to go. Unfortunately, millions of business owners do exactly that.

Entrepreneurs discover that there are easy website building tools out there which let them design sites for free. They then go buck wild throwing bells and whistles onto a template they think people won’t be able to get enough of.

Don’t go down that path. Plan out on paper what you need your website to do. Then, meticulously get rid of anything on your site that doesn’t move your visitors towards that end.

3. Start Getting Comfortable With Keyword Research

Implementing keyword research into your web design can have a massive impact on the amount of traffic that you’re able to attract.

For the uninitiated, keyword research relates to a practice called search engine optimization (SEO) which analyzes what people are searching for through tools like Google and integrates those search terms into websites.

With a good SEO strategy, your website will surface higher in search engine result pages which will lead to a more organic (free) traffic funneling through to your site.

4. Cross-Promote With Your Other Web Platforms

Cross-promotion is a free and effective design inclusion that too few people consider when building their website.

Cross-promotion is simple: If you have a YouTube Channel, make sure that all of your video’s descriptions shout out your website. On your website, share links to your YouTube videos to send your traffic in that direction.

Repeat this strategy with your other social channels (Pinterest, Twitter, etc.) and you’ll see your collective media ecosystem boosting your audience’s engagement and your search engine rankings rise.

5. Learn How to Write for the Web

Inexperienced web designers write content on their sites in a way that users don’t appreciate and search engines can’t scan.

Can you describe the process you go through when deciding when to use H1, H2 and H3 tags in your web writing? Do you have a limit on how much content can be written under each one of your headers? What is the maximum amount of sentences you allow in one of your paragraphs?

If you haven’t given any of those questions thought, you need to pause your designing and get educated.

Resources like The Yahoo! Style Guide are great tools that can get you on the right track.

6. Design for Mobile First

We’re sure that you’ve heard people tell you about the importance of mobile-friendly websites. Still, given the importance of taking a mobile-first approach to your design, we will tell you again!

Most of the developed world is browsing the internet on their phones. If you’ve created a great desktop website and a sub-par mobile one, you’re probably losing over 75% of your potential customers.

The age of desktop-centric web design is over. Now, you need to focus the vast majority of your design efforts on ensuring an outstanding mobile browsing experience.

7. Make Your Headlines Enticing

When people search for things online, they usually type a question into Google, Google serves that person results and the person then clicks on one result they think will best solve their problem.

How does a person come to the determination of which web result might best solve their problem? A big factor is a page’s headline.

If the headline for your webpage is “Great Fish Tank Suggestions” and another person’s is “4 Expert Fish Tank Suggestions That You Need to Read”, you will have a hard time getting people to choose your site over their alternatives.

Implement Our Advice Into Your Web Design Today and Start Seeing the Difference

Some tips that we’ve hit you with can be implemented into your web design strategy today. If you took the time to work with just one or two of them, we think you’d see traffic bumps in just a few weeks.

Bottom line: Our tips are only helpful if you use them! Start leveraging them as soon as possible or discuss them with your web design agency. Believe us when we say that you’ll be glad you did.

For more of the latest information on all things design and development, keep reading additional content on our blog!