When you’re hunting for the right web designer in Port Macquarie, make sure they do the following:
- Understand your target audience and analyse their online behaviour
- Prioritise UX to boost engagement and maximise conversions
- Set-up strategies for ongoing success after launch day
We’ll explain why it’s crucial to find an expert who uses these practices to design a high-impact website for your business – not just a brochure. Web design without strategy won’t do your business any favours – even if the pages look pretty.
It comes down to this. More business owners have jumped on the website bandwagon, but too many fail to make the connection between website traffic and potential revenue. Out of the millions of small business websites, 70% lack a CTA (call to action) on their homepage.
In other words, missing out on a simple and effective way to turn browsers into buyers!
What’s the point of having a website if it’s not getting you customers?
Your website is more than just an online brochure — it’s your digital secret weapon.
A Port Macquarie web designer must follow 3 best-practices to build a website that backs up your business:
Understand your target audience and analyse their online behaviour
Your website should be backed by a deep understanding of who your customers are, the pain points they’re facing, and the messaging they’ll be most responsive to. Any web designer worth their salt should be gathering as much of this data as possible – then use it to build your website strategically.
But many business owners and low-quality web designers still ignore the value of a customer-centric website. If your web designer takes the latest web design trend and slaps it onto your site, without researching what your customers are into, you’ll end up with a fashionable website that fails to connect with the people who use your services. At the same time, business owners who orient a new website around their own personal preferences are shooting themselves in the foot.
You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘know your customer’ a bunch of times before. KYC marketing is cliche, but that’s because it’s the cornerstone of small business success – 80% of customers prefer to buy from businesses offering a personalised experience.
A Port Macquarie web designer should ask you about your ‘customer personas’, and guide you through the exercise of creating them.
Customer personas are characters based on the groups that use your services the most. Your new website should be built to target these personas in order to increase sales leads and maximise conversions. Customer personas use demographic factors such as age, gender, occupation, and location, as well as psychographic factors such as personality, interests, hobbies, values.
Let’s say you’re a financial adviser, and your target audience is a wealthy couple approaching retirement. They have high-paying jobs, more conservative political views, and enjoy lavish overseas trips. A professional colour scheme (black, white, with one other colour), photos of stunning holiday destinations, and messaging focused on financial freedom and peaceful living is going to win this target audience. Hopefully it goes without saying that memes and other ‘millennial’ content won’t be effective…
SEO: what every Port Macquarie web designer claims to do.
Optimising your website for search engine ranking involves finding the search terms and keywords used by your target audience, then using those keywords in relevant and informative website content.
To separate the wheat from the chaff among web designers in Port Macquarie, you should ask how their SEO strategies work – and request evidence that the process has been effective for other websites they’ve designed.
There’s a lot more to website SEO than just keywords, give us a call if you’d like to find out more.
Prioritise UX to boost engagement and maximise conversions
UX means ‘user experience’, and it’s a crucial part of web design for business success.
Think of your website as a pathway, starting with the homepage and ending with a CTA (usually linking visitors to your Contact Us page). You want your digital pathway to take visitors on a compelling journey that provides the information they were looking for, then directs them to get in touch, make a booking, or purchase a product.
With each click, the visitor should gain valuable insights that they can’t find anywhere else. They’ll recognise your business as an industry leader based on the useful information they’ve found.
A website that fails to optimise UX runs the risk of losing revenue opportunities – and losing customers altogether. Remember the CTA statistic we mentioned earlier? That’s a classic example of the consequences of poor UX. There’s no point paying top dollar for a fashionable web designer in Port Macquarie if there’s no UX strategy behind each page.
Here’s some effective UX methods that drive your online success:
Optimise for mobile
When over half of online traffic comes from mobile, there’s no excuse for not optimising your website for smartphone users. What’s more, 85% of adults reckon a website should work as well, or even better, when accessed on mobile.
Ensuring that your website offers a seamless and enjoyable experience on mobile means your business can tap into the growing percentage of users who spend with their smartphone.
Use clever links
Highlight testimonials
Testimonials can generate 62% more revenue for your business, and customers who interact with testimonials are 58% more likely to buy.
If your business has received high praise from past customers, boost your brand’s trustworthiness online by featuring recent testimonials on your site – especially your landing page.
Here at Phiranno Designs, we’re fluent in UX. Our websites are created to strategically promote your services and deliver a seamless experience that turns browsers into buyers. Find out more about our Port Macquarie web design services. 3. Set-up strategies for future success
By understanding the value of your website as a marketing tool, businesses create a wealth of opportunities for success by leveraging their online presence. A web designer in Port Macquarie who places your business goals at the centre of web development will show you how to use your website for ongoing efforts to achieve your business goals.
Here’s 2 ways to continuously achieve business goals with your website:
Monitor online interactions
Customer interactions are crucial to increase UX personalisation, but also to gain insights and feedback for future improvements to your business and your website.
A top-tier web designer will perform in-depth website audits. A website audit is a full-scale analysis of your website performance that examines your SEO, page functionality, traffic, site security, and user engagement. By conducting an audit before your web design project, then scheduling routine audits post-launch, your web designer can advise you on the most effective strategies to immediately improve your website.
If you want to monitor your performance yourself, ask your web designer about tracking analytics. An expert web developer can show you how to analyse key metrics such as traffic sources, bounce rate, click-through rate, and time spent on each page. Knowledge of these metrics means you know exactly how you can improve your website, rather than blindly making changes and hoping for the best.
Create and maintain a blog
A blog is the perfect way for white collar businesses to build brand awareness and establish themselves as an industry leader. Your Port Macquarie web designer should help you create a blog page and show you how to upload regular content and share it across your social media channels or mailing list.
B2B buyers read at least 13 pieces of content before making a buying decision. As well as establishing your industry expertise and acquiring new customers, regular blogs are a great way to boost your website’s SEO. Regular blog posts keep your website fresh and relevant, and Google wants to give users the latest information.
Long-form articles rank well on Google because they tend to offer the most valuable content. The average #1 ranked article is 2500 words long.
Conclusion: turn your website into a digital secret weapon for your business
By harnessing the power of your website, business owners can build brand awareness, maximise customer acquisition, and tap into a wealth of revenue from your online audience. Even with flashy web design that looks the part, your website must be backed by knowledge of the target audience, seamless UX, and ongoing marketing strategies to be a digital asset for your business.
But in order to unlock the potential of your online presence, you need a web designer in Port Macquarie who puts your business goals front-and-centre throughout the web development process – and beyond launch day.
We’ve helped many Port Macquarie businesses to take their business further with effective web design and development. Talk to us today to find out how we can help you.
