5 easy ways to improve your website today
This post will help you make your website better. It doesn't take long to read, and it's things you can do right now.
Everyone’s got a website. But most of us are caught in a cycle of ‘update and forget’. We get a new site designed and built on average every three to five years. And in between times, most of us just update the content every now and then. But your website is supposed to capture a visitor's attention for long enough to make them consider engaging with your business. And if it's not, then your business is suffering as a result.
1. Cut the clutter
The key to success in communications is clarity, something that’s easily lost in a busy website layout. But website clutter is visual noise, getting in the way of your message being understood.
What can I do today?
Review three of the key pages, focussing on the key content of the page, and ensure everything else isn’t competing. That means removing all those options and buttons and bits and bobs cluttering up the place, and being really ruthless about what you want visitors to focus on. If you’re able, create two versions – the original and the cleaned up version, and review them side by side.
Apple's homepage - a lesson in de-cluttering
2. Remove that slider!
Sliders are a terrible way of presenting homepage content. Yes, they were very popular for a long time, but many people don't realise that in user tests they’re repeatedly proven to trigger what's known as "ad blindness". Translation: people just don’t see them. The primary purpose they served – if we’re brutally honest – was to satisfy a variety of stakeholders that their content was in pride of place on the homepage. And if you don’t believe me, take a look at ConversionXL’s excellent round-up of why sliders are terrible.
What can I do today?
Identify one clear, concise message that will engage your key audience(s), get a really nice visual created around it, and use it to replace the slider.
3. Punch up your copy
People don’t read a lot online, so you have to have copy that’s able to engage someone who just scans the page. To find out how to improve your content check out our guide to writing better web copy.
What can I do today?
Review five key pages, and identify whether they are bloated with excess content. Then draft new, shorter, simpler content for any that need it. It doesn’t have to be finished, polished and perfect, just make a start, and review again tomorrow.
4. Optimise your images
There are a number of issues with images that can really drag your site down. No images at all; heavy use of clichéd stock photography; large images that hog bandwidth when they should have been resized to fit the purpose; pixelated, tatty-looking photos that have been resized a million times… the list goes on. But there are plenty of places to find good, free stock images, or better still you might want to invest some time in creating your own with one of these excellent tools. Interesting images can really make the difference between engaging someone's interest, and losing them to click-off.
What can I do today?
Take a glance through your site and notice whether the images are engaging and enjoyable, or dull and tired. Start building a library of better alternatives, starting with the free stock image libraries. Add images to pages that don’t have any, and remove and replace dull or clichéd ones.
5. Check your signposting
Visitors need visual clues on where you want them to look, and easy suggestions on what to do next. They don’t want to have to think about it. Use iconography where appropriate to signpost certain content and actions, to save lazy users (i.e. everyone!) from having to read much. And the biggest visual signposts – your calls to action (CTAs) – should be the focus of the most of your energy. Give users an easy button to click, and very often they will.
Netflix: can you guess where they want you to click?
What can I do today?
Take a look at your key pages and ensure there’s one clear CTA to move people past every point in your site where they could be expected to stop or click off.
So that’s it – five easy things you can look at today, to make your website just that bit closer to the best it can be.