We recently did a webinar for Tourism Saskatchewan regarding website best practices and have posted the recording below. Your website is the most important marketing asset for attracting customers. Social platforms come and go, but your website will always be an asset you own. This webinar provides best practices for websites, shares affordable tools for building your presence, and outlines what costs to expect when working with website developers.
Top Takeaways: Website Best Practices
User’s top task is clear
Focus content of website on what is most important to the visitor. Avoid talking about yourself too much - Make it easy for customers to find information regarding your products/services, pricing, and how to contact you.
Homepage communicates who, what and why
Visitors will evaluate your company within five seconds of visiting the homepage. You must quickly relay who you are, what you provide, and why it matters. Keep it short so visitors can grasp it within a few seconds.
Contains call-to-action
Ensure you’re asking visitors to take action. Present an offer (e.g. coupon, download, guide, map, special deal) that requires the capture of their email or requires an inquiry. At the very least, make your contact information very prominent so people can easily contact you – Address, phone, email, and directions.
Simple design and content
A modern website has a simple user experience and can be skimmed easily. Use a mix of images and short content blocks – Use headings, lists, and paragraphs of only a few sentences. Don’t make people have to think – Serve info in bite sized chunks.
High quality images
Images will make or break a website. The web is a very visual medium so having low resolution images or poor photography will reflect negatively on your brand. Invest in a photographer or purchase pictures from stock image websites.
Prioritized navigation
Do not stuff your main navigation with too many categories. Draw attention to the most important categories (e.g. products, pricing, gallery, contact) and relegate utilitarian sections (careers, press, blog) to links in the footer.
Makes use of multimedia
Incorporate pictures, video, social media feeds, and downloads (maps, offers, coupons, guides, etc). Not all people consume web content the same way so ensure you’re meeting people’s needs by providing a variety of media.
Regularly reviewed and constructed soundly
Websites should be treated as an evolving entity. Websites need ongoing maintenance to ensure they operate in browsers and are not susceptible to breaking. Also, keep content fresh so search engines have a reason to keep visiting the site to keep it in rankings.
Mobile friendly
Most website visitors will be visiting your website on a mobile device so it’s critical that it displays properly and is easy to navigate. Make sure the website is “mobile responsive” so it adjusts its layout and content based on the device accessing it.
