Saving money by doing DIY web design for your brand is smart, but you’re instantly losing your savings if you’re not keeping visitors on your website. The modern web surfer isn’t interested in your slow website or your 3000-word home page.
Outsourcing is certainly an option, but DIY brands may ask, “what do you think would help your visitors stay longer and more likely to buy from your website?” Well, the similarities between the modern Internet and fast food restaurants can give a crystal clear picture of what your audience expects from your website.
Join us at Tortuga Marketing as we show you how to make a delicious website that audiences won’t want to put down.
In web design, focus your home page with the Rule of One
You might be able to deliver tons of cool things, but web design with a single focus helps your audience know exactly what to expect from you.
Taco Bell didn’t become famous for its cinnamon twists and slushie drinks. You’ll go to Taco Bell for (americanized) Mexican fast food, Chick-Fil-A for juicy chicken sandwiches, and Ben & Jerry’s for creamy frozen treats. You know what to expect because these restaurants are loud and proud about what they do best.
Your home page is the perfect spot for showing off the thing you’re best at. In web design, don’t be shy about your killer product features! Show off what edges you above the competition as early in the page as possible. Then keep the main focus on that, and structure your CTA to get your audience closer to it. Also, don’t forget your meta description so people know what to expect before they get to your home page. Don’t leave any room for your audience to question what you’re offering.
On your home page, it’s likely that users are on the attention stage of the marketing sales funnel.
Here are some steps you can take to nail the attention stage of the marketing sales funnel and captivate your audience:
- Encourage trust on your landing page.
- Try to intrigue the audience within 5 seconds.
- Make the web design and content pop! It’s important to have eye-catching headlines.
- Fill the page with good surprises. Don’t just copy what everyone else is doing – show how you’re unique.
Keep the menu short and sweet
A streamlined menu is one that eases your visitors’ decisions. A messy menu leads to confusion, indecision, and parts of your website won’t even get significant traffic. Don’t have a messy menu.
To reduce purchase friction, fast food spots have been stripping their menus down for years. When customers have fewer routes to go down, you’re able to simplify your inventory and more of it actually turns into sales. In the case of your website, viewers can actually find and connect with your content. They spend less time searching for what they want, and more time browsing your valuable content.
Speed up your load times
A page that takes forever to load is one that’s a waste of time. It’s just another delay that keeps you from the thing you need and one more reason to look elsewhere. Similarly, your fast food experience is soured when the intercom operator takes forever to ask for your order. If the process continues slowly with a long caravan of cars ahead, you might pocket your cash and spend it at a different restaurant.
Keep your website viewers by simplifying the code that’s on your website. Cluttered web coding heavily extends load times, so aim to build your website with something like Elegant Themes’ DIVI. These are designed with optimized coding to give you better load times. You’ll see SEO benefits as a bonus, so you can hardly go wrong.
Your own website could also be showing 404 errors to many visitors, especially if you’re not checking in and fixing bugs as they come along. Fortunately, there are so many ways to fix 404 errors. As your website develops over time, URLs will change. It’s important to redirect your old URLs to their new versions, and consistently update the links your website is providing.
Learn to deliver value that’s hard to find anywhere else
In the end, all else will fail if you aren’t delivering strong, original value to the lives of your viewers. Visitors to your website should recognize that you’re giving them service they can’t find on another site. Whether that’s your unique perspective, a local advantage, or something you can do better than anyone Let’s be sure you’re getting the most out of your brand. Set up a chat with us at Tortuga Marketing so we can explore options to elevate your website.
