Website design is a catch-all term that can mean many things. Design today is more about function that simply “looking cool”. And capturing leads from people surfing the web is what inbound marketing is all about. So, it’s important that your website is organized in such a way that allows people to quickly qualify what you’re offering them in your content (and subsequently your products/services).
—And this qualifies the prospect for YOU. And we all want quality prospects.
1. Make EXCEPTIONAL use of your page titles.
This is the most important aspect of your pages SEO, so this means its the most important thing for getting your reader to the correct page. Use key words that describe the point that you’re trying to get across. Make sure that they are relevant enough that you will want to repeat them in your content – this is how Google validates that your content is appropriate and not spam.
2. Feature Sliders
This is the common practice of putting your most interesting content or offers in rotating banners at the top of your web page. I highly recommend this, but:
- make sure that you use a navigation function so people can scroll back and forth at will.
- Make sure to link your slides to the action page – meaning where they buy your product or service.
3. Get to the point
State the purpose of your content clearly in the heading and 1st paragraph. This doesn’t make it just reader-friendly, but SEO friendly as well as your meta description will be derived from this (unless you make custom meta tags – which I recommend doing with the Yoast plugin).
4. Break up your content with headings, sub headings, bulleted copy, quotes and captions.
80% of people, on average, will not read your body copy, but will skim these. HOWEVER, a strong prospect, intrigued by these items and therefore interested in your product or service will then drill down to your body copy in order to make a decision on moving forward or not.
And finally…
5. Make use of APPROPRIATE photos and art.
- Imagery helps make a page most visually appealing and we all know a “picture can say 1000 words” – just make sure its saying the RIGHT 1000 words.
- Stock photos are perfectly fine IF they help illustrate your point and contribute to your company’s branding (a low quality or meaningless photo will hurt your reader’s opinion of how they feel about your company).
- Even more useful are charts and infographics that clearly assist the reader in understanding the concept.
- In all cases, make sure that you use keyword laden Alt Tags to help in your SEO efforts.
There you have it. 5 Easy tips to make your website more reader-friendly which will sift out appropriate traffic and help you retain top prospects.
By Barry Edwards, Edwards Communications
