1. Responsive Design: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and adapts to various screen sizes.
2. Clear Navigation: Organize your menu and navigation in a logical and user-friendly manner.
3. Intuitive Layout: Arrange content logically to guide visitors through the website smoothly.
4. Fast Loading Times: Optimize images, code, and server performance for quick loading.
5. Consistent Branding: Maintain a cohesive visual style, including colors, fonts, and imagery.
6. Whitespace Usage: Use whitespace to make content easy to read and reduce visual clutter.
7. Readable Fonts: Choose legible fonts and font sizes for all devices.
8. Contrast: Ensure sufficient contrast between text and background for readability.
9. Limited Fonts: Stick to a couple of fonts for a clean and professional look.
10. Avoid Clutter: Keep the design simple and avoid overcrowding with too many elements.
11. Favicon: Create a distinctive favicon for your website.
12. Visual Hierarchy: Highlight important content using font size, color, and placement.
13. Call to Action (CTA): Use clear and compelling CTAs to guide user actions.
14. Whitespace Usage: Use whitespace to make content easy to read and reduce visual clutter.
15. Feedback and Confirmation: Provide feedback for user actions (e.g., form submissions).
16. Readable Colors: Choose color combinations that are pleasing and accessible.
17. Consistent Layout: Maintain a consistent layout across different pages.
18. Browser Compatibility: Test your website on various browsers to ensure compatibility.
19. Interactive Elements: Include interactive features like sliders, accordions, and tabs.
20. Mobile-First Design: Prioritize the mobile experience in your design process.
21. Error Pages: Create custom error pages that guide users back to the site.
22. Accessibility: Ensure your website is accessible to users with disabilities (WCAG guidelines).
23. Optimize Images: Compress images to improve loading times without sacrificing quality.
24. Video Optimization: Host videos externally to avoid slowing down your website.
25. Browser Cache: Leverage browser caching to improve load times for returning visitors.
26. High-Quality Content: Create well-researched, engaging, and relevant content.
27. Clear Headings: Use descriptive headings to break up content and aid skimming.
28. Bullet Points and Lists: Present information in a scannable format.
29. Correct Grammar and Spelling: Proofread all content to maintain professionalism.
30. Visual Content: Incorporate images, infographics, and videos to enhance content.
31. Easy-to-Read Text: Keep paragraphs short and use subheadings to structure content.
32. Captivating Headlines: Craft headlines that grab attention and convey the main message.
33. Internal Linking: Link to relevant pages within your website for better navigation.
34. External Linking: Link to reputable external sources to provide additional value.
35. Shareable Content: Create content that users would want to share on social media.
36. Consistent Voice: Maintain a consistent tone and style throughout your content.
37. Content Updates: Regularly update and refresh outdated content.
38. Authoritative Content: Establish your expertise in your industry through informative content.
39. User-Generated Content: Incorporate reviews, testimonials, and user stories.
40. Storytelling: Tell engaging stories to connect with your audience emotionally.
41. Localization: If applicable, offer content in different languages for a wider audience.
42. FAQ Section: Address common user questions in a dedicated FAQ section.
43. Case Studies: Showcase successful client projects to demonstrate your skills.
44. Evergreen Content: Create content that remains relevant and valuable over time.
45. Content Calendar: Plan and schedule your content updates in advance.
46. Keyword Research: Identify relevant keywords and phrases for your industry.
47. On-Page SEO: Optimize meta titles, descriptions, and headings with keywords.
48. Quality Backlinks: Build high-quality backlinks from reputable websites.
49. Fast Loading Speed: Improve loading times to satisfy both users and search engines.
50. Sitemap: Create an XML sitemap to help search engines index your website.
51. Mobile-Friendly Design: Ensure your site is mobile-responsive for improved rankings.
52. Structured Data: Implement schema markup to enhance search engine results.
53. Image Optimization: Use descriptive alt text and compress images for faster loading.
54. SSL Certificate: Secure your website with HTTPS for improved rankings.
55. Local SEO: Optimize for local search by including location-based keywords.
56. Content-Length: Create comprehensive, in-depth content for better search visibility.
57. Canonical URLs: Use canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues.
58. Social Sharing: Encourage social sharing to increase your website’s visibility.
59. Regular Blogging: Maintain an active blog with relevant and useful articles.
60. Analytics Integration: Set up Google Analytics to track website performance.
61. Hosting Quality: Choose a reliable and fast web hosting provider.
62. CDN Usage: Use a content delivery network to speed up content delivery.
63. Gzip Compression: Enable Gzip compression to reduce file sizes for faster loading.
64. Minify CSS and JavaScript: Reduce code size by removing unnecessary spaces and characters.
65. Lazy Loading: Load images and content as users scroll to improve initial load times.
66. Caching Plugins: Use caching plugins to store static versions of pages for quicker access.
67. Optimize Database: Clean up and optimize your website’s database regularly.
68. Server Response Time: Ensure your server responds quickly to user requests.
69. Resource Cleanup: Remove unused plugins, themes, and files.
70. External Scripts: Limit the use of external scripts that can slow down your site.
71. Regular Backups: Back up your website regularly to prevent data loss.
72. Security Plugins: Use security plugins to protect against common threats.
73. Strong Passwords: Use complex passwords for all user accounts.
74. Two-Factor Authentication: Implement 2FA for added login security.
75. Regular Updates: Keep your website’s CMS, themes, and plugins up to date.
76. Secure Forms: Use SSL and reCAPTCHA to secure form submissions.
77. Privacy Policy: Create a clear and comprehensive privacy policy.
78. Terms of Use: Develop terms of use to outline user responsibilities.
79. Cookie Consent: Display a cookie consent banner in compliance with regulations.
80. User Data Handling: Follow GDPR or relevant data protection laws when handling user data.
81. Clear Value Proposition: Communicate your unique value to visitors.
82. A/B Testing: Experiment with different elements to optimize conversion rates.
83. Heatmaps and Analytics: Use heatmaps and analytics to analyze user behavior.
84. Simplify Forms: Reduce the number of form fields to increase conversions.
85. Trust Signals: Display trust badges, reviews, and testimonials.
86. Progress Indicators: Show users where they are in multi-step processes.
87. Exit Intent Popups: Use popups to capture leads before users leave.
88. Limited Time Offers: Create urgency to encourage immediate action.
89. Social Proof: Showcase the number of subscribers, followers, or customers.
90. User-Friendly Checkout: Streamline the checkout process to reduce cart abandonment.
91. Personalization: Tailor content based on user preferences and behavior.
92. Social Sharing Buttons: Allow users to easily share your content on social media.
93. Social Media Feeds: Display your social media feeds to encourage engagement.
94. Follow Buttons: Provide links to your social media profiles for increased followers.
95. Social Proof: Display user-generated content and testimonials from social media.
96. Comment Sections: Allow users to engage by commenting on your content.
97. Forums or Discussion Boards: Create a platform for users to discuss relevant topics.
98. User Profiles: Enable users to create profiles for a sense of community.
99. Newsletter Sign-Up: Gather emails for direct communication with users.
100. Interactive Quizzes: Create engaging quizzes related to your industry or content.
➡️ 20 Effective Strategies to Boost Your Search Engine Rankings
➡️ Five Things Your Website Management Company Should Help With
Over and above everything we do in web design and web development, the call to action is by far the most important. Others would point to search engine optimization. This of course is important, as you need to get them to your website. BUT, if f they get to your site and you have no clear call to action, your site will flounder.
So what is a call to action? Dictionary.com defines it as: “the implicit or explicit suggestion contained in a marketer’s content in an advertising banner or Web site copy”. In the early day of the internet, this was usually, a “Click Here” link. We have gotten away from that a bit, though click here is still pretty common and clients often still like to use the phrase. Now good call to actions can be in the form of a graphical element, (button, banner, graphic), a link, or other ways to get visitors to take the desired next step. This could be to make a purchase (if this is a product) , call you (as with service providers), or click on a link to be contacted or to get you to the page they need you to see.
Now, in this particular case, the call to action is designed to get visitors to fill out a form for a free review. The program which is guaranteed to save restaurants money is a good one, but if no one signs up, no one reaps the benefit and the company fails. My design team came up with a great strategy, where your eye is drawn to the call to action. The main graphical element, which will be a jquey fade between 4 slides will end with a powerful message urging them to fill out the form and pointing them below to the form. Below the image fade is a quick explanation of the program, which is actually a “challenge”. To the right of that is the actual form. Now even the header image background in the explanation is actually an arrow pointing you to the form. So all the elements work in concert to get the visitor to the call to action. (When this launches, I will add a link here to illustrate my point).
