Need a Better Website? 6 Fixes to Make Now

Your website is only as good as its latest redesign. If you haven’t already made these six simple fixes, it’s time for another.

1. Make It Mobile-Friendly

Web design experts and content marketing gurus have been beating the mobile-friendly drum for years. If you’ve tuned them out until now, it’s time to tune in and learn how to make a mobile-responsive website that looks great on any screen size.

You don’t have to be a web design expert, or even know how to write code beyond basic HTML, to create an awesome mobile site. Many DIY website builders, including WordPress, are mobile-friendly by default.

Image Source: Pixabay

2. Cut the Clutter

Mobile-friendly websites tend to be simpler and less cluttered by design, but there’s still plenty of opportunity to give your visitors a headache. Resist it at every turn, focusing instead on the handful of elements your visitors need to see.

According to web development professionals, the most effective websites are elegant and uncrowded“The less you try to do with your website, the more you’re likely to do well.

3. Stay Away from Autoplay

Do you enjoy autoplay videos?

No? Then don’t subject your visitors to them. And definitely don’t use pop-up videos — lots of visitors have pop-up blockers anyway, and those who don’t are sure to be infuriated by your audacity. By all means, include engaging video content on your website. Just leave the decision to play them up to each visitor.

4. Make It Easy to Get in Touch

Unless your site exists for purely disinterested, unselfish, and/or informational purposes, it needs a contact form. Don’t worry about creeps: you’ll get plenty of spam, which you’ll hopefully minimize with good spam-blocking tools, and you don’t have to list your home address or phone number anywhere on your site. (Though a general location, preferably with a map feature, and email address go a long way toward establishing your legitimacy.)

5. Guide Visitors Through the Page

Centerless webpages are so 2004. They definitely don’t fly in the mobile-first era. Wrap a narrative into a mix of variably sized text, headers, white space (lots of it), images, videos, and graphical elements to entice visitors to keep scrolling through each page. The longer they stick around, the more likely they are to buy something (or at least use the contact form to get in touch).

6. Add Internal Search to Larger Sites

If your website has more than a dozen internal pages, including blog posts, consider adding an internal search feature. Visitors’ attention spans are minuscule — literally just a few seconds — and a simple search bar is a low-stakes way to encourage them to stick around. Make sure it’s prominently but unobtrusively displayed; the upper right works best. If you sell anything on your site, a search bar is mandatory.