It's time to whip your website into shape. "Your top three products and services need to be on the front page," advises Tara Ingalls, founder of Tingalls Graphic Design. She also recommends the appropriate use of key words, which will help lead potential customers to your digital door. Think of what words customers might use if they were trying to find you.
"But don't use acronyms," says Tara. "They're easy to spell but they don't tell you anything." Instead, on the home page, using the H1 title tag, us a more comprehensive explanation of what your company is and does. Something like, "Welcome to Robert Johnson's luxury watch repair company, located on University Avenue in Middleton, Wisconsin."
Your contact information, including a physical address, should be clearly displayed, lending credibility to your company. Tara also suggests using photos, but making sure they are also titled with key words so Google can find you. Google doesn't know what a picture is unless you label it. Tara says embedded video, properly tagged, also will help draw people to your website, given that Google owns YouTube, the second largest search engine in the world.
The web designs that are hot now feature horizontal navigation, rotating graphics and long, skinny pages for mobile devices, according to Tara. Most importantly, she urges companies to use their logos on all of their communications so there is consistency on the web, on brochures, business cards, ads, etc. "People remember logos," says Tara.
If you choose to hire a pro to make your site easier to find on the Web, Tara recommends asking three critical questions: 1. What methods will you use?; 2. How will you benchmark progress?; 3 What will this cost?
For more information see Tingalls Graphic Design.