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Why you must have a responsive website?

WHY YOU MUST HAVE A RESPONSIVE WEBSITE?

source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianrashid/2017/06/13/5-essential-reasons-and-benefits-why-you-should-be-using-a-responsive-website-design-now/?sh=7eb4ab7817c9

With the stratospheric rise in the use of mobile devices. And the rise in the popularity of mobile phones; you’d be doing yourself a huge disservice if your website is not designed to respond and adjust to mobile and other devices.

One quick way of doing this would be to use a responsive website design. It’s quick and easy. But, what’s a responsive website? What does it look and/or feel like?

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Note: A responsive website is different from a mobile friendly website.

Basically, a mobile friendly website will look good on mobile devices. But might have glitches and be harder to navigate when viewed on devices with a higher resolution.

While a responsive website is a website design that allows your website to adapt to the size of any screen it is being viewed on.

So it could be viewed on say, a desktop, phone, or a tablet etc and users won’t ‘notice any difference’ in your site’s general appearance on their screen. 

In today’s article, we’d be looking at several benefits of using a responsive website. 

Increased Traffic From Mobile Users

Once upon a time businesses used to create two versions of one website. One for desktop users, and one strictly for mobile users. 

Many still do this today. But with ever increasing viewership from mobile users, having two separate versions of one website is a time consuming and high maintenance practice.

Nowadays, you can have just one responsive website that is ready for all devices. 

This ensures that people you retain your mobile viewers. And they might also remember to visit your website some other time whenever they are in search of services you offer.

Lower Cost And Website Maintenance

Another benefit of using a responsive website is: it offers you a lower maintenance cost as compared to running two versions of one website.

However, it is relatively expensive in the beginning. But the reduced cost of maintaining two separate websites does add up. 

Besides, it takes less time to setup. And it’s easier to maintain one responsive website than maintaining two versions of the same site.

It frees up more time for you to dedicate to other important areas of your business. And you could also offer tailored location-based offers to drive traffic to your website.

Need a place to start, you can access website design offers that are visually appealing and ready for all devices.

Provides a Seamless User Experience

This is by far one of the greatest benefits of having a responsive website. Unresponsive websites usually distort the way your website appears on devices like mobile, and tablet. 

Whereas desktop viewers might have no problem viewing your website, but the same cannot be said for mobile users.

Texts are jumbled, images do not align and users have to scroll through endless pages in search of the information they need. This makes it a pain for users to use your site smoothly and seamlessly.

So after such an experience like this, do you think such a user would come back to your website? I didn’t think so too.

To avoid scenarios like this, it’d be worthwhile to evaluate the quality of your website design. The benefits that will accrue to you at the long run, will outweigh whatever you’re going to spend on it in the beginning.

Adapts Easily To Any Screen Size

Another benefit of having a great responsive website ready for all devices is its adaptability to any screen size.

With a design like this, you’re way ahead of your competition. And it positions your website to seamlessly cater to newer devices with which users use to surf the internet e.g. smartwatches, IoT devices, etc. Your website can automatically adjust itself to suit each screen. And finally …

A Responsive Website Improves Your SEO Efforts

Responsive websites have a greater likelihood of ranking high in SERPs.

The ‘user focused’ experience, and high-quality content could increase your dwell time. Thereby making users stick around for the long run.

Google recommends a responsive website design pattern. Besides, it makes for a good user experience and improves your SEO efforts across all platforms.

In conclusion, having a responsive website can save you lots of money, maintenance time and also help you to convert and retain more clients in the long run.

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Why is Web Design Important?

WHY WEBSITE DESIGN IS IMPORTANT?

source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/04/04/digital-influence-web-designs-impact-on-marketing-strategy/?sh=1c6b15b65eb8

When strategizing an integrated marketing plan for your brand, the right web design is essential. The standard for web design is no longer just function or visibility; it’s all in the details that lead to how a user will engage with your brand. From layout to color, these critical elements work together to build a digital tool that, when strategically used, can improve online marketing campaigns significantly.

It is clear that a high-quality brand website is now an integral component of any effective digital marketing strategy, and that consumer standards for web design are higher than ever. According to a 2019 Gartner report, “88% of surveyed B2B customers report that the information they encountered during a recent successful purchase decision was high quality.”

And it seems that, no matter what the industry is, a website that is up to date, informative and aesthetically pleasing builds trust with potential clients and, therefore, can impact customer acquisition and conversion rates.

Digital Marketing Is More Important Than Ever

A well-crafted website can benefit a business in many tangible ways, including increased sales and leads. Effectively, a great website is its own campaign, constantly working to support the brand. What’s more is that in comparison to other marketing initiatives, a website is easily trackable, allowing brands to better understand consumer behavior and providing insight into what is and isn’t working. But how can a company get there?

Our digital agency is asked this question on an almost daily basis. Below, we’ll explore some of our implementations, best practices and ways in which website design can impact the marketing aspect of a brand.

Differentiation

It is important to differentiate from competitors. And when a website is outdated and clunky, that website will more than likely experience high bounce-back rates. It may seem tempting to build a website within a template and plug your business information in and be done, but it isn’t that simple.

In our experience, a custom website with a storytelling perspective and aligning visuals makes an impact with both the market and the consumer that won’t soon be forgotten.

User Experience

A well-designed website will create a journey for the user to engage, explore and interact with the brand. Building meaningful first impressions — from brand to consumer — impacts the bottom line and overall objectives for a brand.

User experience has become an essential investment for a brand, with users expecting an authentic and intuitive website that reflects the brand’s vision, perspective and service level. Ensure the ideal user experience through strategic plans such as user testing and A/B testing, which are critical to determining the success of a website.

SEO

SEO is utilized for a website to appear in chronological order, from most engaged, in a search engine. Good SEO practices include linking your website with keywords that apply to what your target market is searching. It is very important to incorporate SEO into website design for users to properly interact with a website.

Best SEO practices include researching what links and keywords should be implemented into a website, continuously updating these links to stay relevant and consciously, actively positioning content to increase visibility in search results. 

Conversion

Monitoring conversion rates when analyzing metrics of how a website is performing is critical to offering the ideal customer experience (CX). Because a conversion rate is correlated directly to how a user engages with the website, it is a hugely important factor for a company to leverage in making marketing decisions.

Web design, when properly strategized for conversion, directly impacts conversion rates. While the idea of a website template solution seems simple and low cost, this can cause a huge negative impact on the user experience of a website and overall conversion rate.

If a user is exploring a website and is not able to locate the information they are looking for as a result of a poorly placed call-to-action button or unclear navigation, it’s likely they will quickly leave and go on to another website — maybe even a competitor’s website. 

Brand Influence

By nurturing a consistent relationship with customers and users, a brand begins to build influence, which, in turn, becomes brand loyalty. Brand loyalty and trust occur when your consumer is loyal to your brand, not simply the products.

Many variables impact this influence, and increasingly, the presence of digital marketing is facilitating these connections via a digital ecosystem. Brand influence is an integral part of building a brand — especially marketing to millennials and Gen Z. These generations are looking for brands they can relate to and feel good about being associated with.

If your customers are converted into advocates, this will help immensely with launching new products, keeping retention up and impacting the overall bottom line, particularly through online community engagement.

Understanding that an increasing number of consumers will engage with brands online before making a purchase, it’s clear that an integrated website marketing strategy is essential to reach and convert leads both on and offline.

With a solid digital foundation in place, anchored by a well-strategized website, a company can effectively leverage positive brand image to increase sales, build PR, generate a robust social media presence and create a top-down marketing campaign across all media.

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Why Every Business Needs A Website

WHY WEBSITE IS IMPORTANT FOR EVERY BUSINESS

source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2020/02/03/why-every-business-needs-a-website/?sh=703647c36e75

A business’s online presence, regardless of industry, can have a massive impact on its success. In this day and age, some businesses still don’t realize that a majority of their customers will visit their website before making a purchase.

Having a strong online presence, particularly a website, can be make or break for generating more revenue. Yes, the quality of your website impacts results, but the purpose of this article to stress the importance of making sure you have a website.

I’ve helped numerous companies of varying sizes create their digital presences. In some cases, organizations are hesitant to get online because they feel they are not tech-savvy enough and don’t understand how to manage a website. Other times, companies are concerned about the price.

The good news is that there’s a solution out there that will work for you. If you still need convincing, here are the top reasons it’s important for your business to have a website:

Credibility

One of the main reasons you should have a website for your business is to increase your organization’s credibility. Chances are there are several providers offering a similar service to yours. One way you can stand out is by having a website that looks good and clearly communicates quality information to your consumers.

Without a website, people may question your legitimacy as a business. Having a website is an opportunity to make a great first impression and give people comfort that you’re a real business.

Brand

Showcasing your brand to your prospective customers is one of the most important things that you can do. By clearly establishing who you are, what you represent and what you stand for, you increase the chances of your customers buying from you.

This is also something that can set you apart from your competitors. Without a website, it can be incredibly challenging to do this because people can’t easily find quality and reliable information on your business.

Leads

Perhaps one of the most intriguing reasons to have a website for your business is because it can increase your chances of getting leads.

Once people find you online, become interested in your product or service and want to know more, they’ll know how to contact you thanks to the information on your website, which gives you the opportunity to increase your sales. Even though websites have a cost, when used correctly, they have a positive ROI.

Organic Traffic 

Once you’re online and have an SEO-optimized website, you have a chance of showing up in Google search results. This means that when people are searching for a product or service, there is a chance your website will show up in the results. This gives you the opportunity to drastically increase your customer base.

Saving You Time + Customer Service

Many businesses get calls from prospects or existing customers asking simple questions about location and hours of operation. If you miss a call, the customer is left unhappy. Calls can also distract your staff from focusing on the most important parts of your business. A website can reduce these calls and increase internal productivity. At the same time, it helps customers find useful information without needing to call, which ultimately provides an all-around better user experience.

Updates And Announcements

Since your website is on 24/7, it’s easy to post updates and announcements to your customers. It’s a way to keep them up to date on everything that you’re doing. When something is particularly relevant to them, it increases the chance of you being able to upsell them.

Digital Marketing

If you plan on leveraging digital marketing to increase your leads and grow your business, you’ll likely want to drive traffic to a website or landing page. To do this effectively, leverage historic traffic that has been going to your website so you can target the most qualified customers and get the best ROI on your ad spend. This is something that can’t be set up retroactively, so it is best to get your website running early even if you’re not planning on running ads at the moment.

Websites have become essential to business today. I strongly recommend creating one if you haven’t done so already. You can improve it over time, but the key is to start.