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As 2014 is about to go into the history books, it is time to prep your website design in 2015. For Houston-based companies on the internet, this means it’s time to build a plan to get the most out of your website’s design, performance and develop an internet marketing plan for the upcoming year. Here are some website design ideas for you to consider.
So, let’s get right at it.
Is Your Site Still Designed for Success?
First, take a long hard look at your site, but not from your perspective – the business owner – but rather view it as a prospective customer.
Is the layout and look of your site welcoming and engaging? Does your site have a compelling call to action for visitors? If the images on your site scream 1999, it’s time to update. If your landing page is cluttered with too much content, too many links and does not have a logical flow, it’s time to address that.
Website Design Site Speed
Speed counts! As the ability of the internet to handle ever growing massive amounts of data, so have the expectations of those surfing the net. The internet user of today expects fast page load time and that it’s done right the first time. They expect that your site renders great no matter what browsers they are using or even devices they use to access your site. In the days of dial up connections, internet users would wait minutes for pages to download.
Today, Google measures how fast it can return search result in hundredths of a second. The New York Times reported in 2012 that “People will visit a web site less often if it is slower than a close competitor by more than 250 milliseconds (a millisecond is a thousandth of a second).” Yes, we are all in a hurry – apparently. If your pages aren’t downloading within a few seconds it’s time to take a look at the coding, hardware and connection that your site relies on.
Unfortunately, site speed isn’t an easy fix most of the time, however. There is one thing you can do before calling a professional. That’s to make sure your image sizes are adjusted to fit in the website design place holders. Scaling the image to fit perfectly, believe it or not, can significantly impact your website’s speed. You can test your page speed using Google’s tool. Now…that’s a very useful website design idea to consider.
Review & Use Your Site’s Analytics!!! Really!!!
No matter how great a website design is performing, always review its analytical data on a regular basis and make adjustments accordingly. What is analytic software? It’s software that collects data on visitors and your website performance. With that data in hand, you better determine what is and isn’t working well on your site.
For example, if you are a Houston based business and you want to sell to the Houston metro area, but 85% of your visitors are from outside Houston or outside of Texas, then you need to look at why you attracting visitors from outside of your target business zone.
There are numerous possibilities but more often than not it tends to be due poor content and key words selection. Photos not properly tagged for search engine can also be detrimental to your site’s ability to attract the type of customer that you are seeking. Perhaps the photos on your site are pulling visitors from across the globe and that is what they are looking for, but your service or goods are not ready for international sales or not practical to ship internationally either. So make sure your content and photo data are designed to help your site come up in local search results. Select keywords that not only talk about your products but also promote the geographical area you want customers from.
Tie Your Site to Local Events to Build Traffic and Customers
By connecting your business with events that are going on in Houston, you can get a bounce/piggy back on search results from local event and really stake out that you are a business for Houstonians.
So just can you do this? For example, target the Rodeo. The Rodeo is by far THE event in Houston and it is the biggest event of its kind in the world. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors not just from Houston but from around the world. In 2013 the Rodeo attracted almost 1.1 million visitors and was estimated to generate an annual aggregate gross sales increase of $475,403,000. So get in on the heritage, excitement and size of the Rodeo. Create a sale, promotion or event around Rodeo that makes sense or is a logical extension for your business.
Houston is also a sports town. With a MLS team, an NFL team, an NBA team and a MLB team, something is always in season. Moreover, there are three NCAA Division I universities in Houston and add to that the legions of Texas Longhorn and Texas Aggie fans and you have some great opportunities to tap into sports excitement. Create offers that link your business to the game. You don’t need to be the official anything of any team to have a sale in celebration of a win, a team or the start of the season.
Recap
- Is the layout and look of your site welcoming and engaging?
- Benchmark your site’s speed to make sure its pages load lightening fast
- On an established schedule, review and act on your site’s analytics
- Celebrate Houston – Link your sales, promotions and events around the energy of the “Energy Capital of the World”
If your Houston website design team isn’t sitting down with you before the end of the year to help you prepare for the coming year and reviewing your site’s performance or if you are interested in learning more about how to maximize your site’s revenue generation capabilities, contact us. We welcome the opportunity to talk.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
