12 THINGS A WELL DESIGNED WEBSITE WILL DO FOR YOUR COMPANY
A new year is just around the corner … I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to start fresh in 2019 … I have so many amazing projects waiting to grace my desk … a few new websites launching in the beginning of the year … and I’m super excited about them!!
If you had a rough 2018 and didn’t get the clients you hoped for, I strongly suggest giving your website a good, hard look … a bad website can handicap your business in awful ways …
A WELL DESIGNED WEBSITE IS AN INVESTMENT YOU CAN’T AFFORD NOT TO MAKE
… I’ve listed 12 things a GREAT website will do for your company … if it’s done CORRECTLY ;)
A GREAT WEBSITE MEANS BEAUTY AND BRAINS …
It takes both working together to create a successful online experience for your clients and a return on your investment.
We’ll start with:
A HIGH BOUNCE RATE MEANS PEOPLE CLICK IN AND CLICK OUT IMMEDIATELY!
A ‘bounce rate’ is measured by how many people come in to your website and ‘click’ out of it on the page they came in on. These days it’s not guaranteed that a visitor will come in on your homepage … so having a pretty homepage and not worrying about the rest of the pages can and will hurt you. It’s important to make a visually STUNNING website so that people feel inclined to stay … it’s also very important to have ‘call to action’ visuals so that people click around and visit multiple pages of your website … you want to create an EXPERIENCE for your visitor … you also want to avoid a lot of ‘link outs’ that take people away from your website … a knowledgable website designer will know how to keep your visitors ON your website and will make them want to visit other pages of your website organically.
One of the biggest reasons people have a high bounce rate aside from their website being ugly?? A bad mobile experience. Have you visited your website on your phone lately???
PRETTY AND WELL DESIGNED THINGS COST MORE!
If you want to raise your prices you need to look the part. Sure, your reputation will play a role - but if you have HIGH PRICES and your website is sh*t … well, your competition who have lower prices and badass websites will probably win when you are being compared. Amazing branding, a gorgeous website, a well thought out social media feed … these are the components to ‘looking the part’ of a vendor who books the high end weddings and events …
THE BEST WEDDING VENDORS DON’T WANT TO LOOK LIKE FOOLS!
If you want to have other high end vendors refer you work, you can’t put them in a position to be embarrassed … the best way for people to refer you business?? Give them your website domain so they can check you out. If your website is bad, then it can be embarrassing for a wedding coordinator or venue to send their clients to you! Having a website that supports the amazingness you create for your clients is vital to keeping those referrals coming your way …
THESE DAYS 55% OR MORE OF YOUR WEBSITE TRAFFIC WILL BE ON A HANDHELD DEVICE!
When if the last time you looked at your website on your phone? It is super important that you be your own critic and check it out … are the images tiny? pixelated? stretched? Does your navigation work well? is it mobile optimized? Is it easy to scroll through and click on pretty stuff? Are there call to actions? Be aware that over 55% of your traffic will most likely be on a device … way more if you have a high Instagram following … in fact, go NOW and look … don’t wait!!
IF A POTENTIAL CLIENT FINDS YOU ON INSTAGRAM AND CLICKS TO YOUR WEBSITE - IS THE MESSAGE THE SAME?
These days people will send potential clients to their Instagram feed in replace of a website … it’s where they can control what ‘look’ and ‘vibe’ they are putting out there … in fact, some business owners don’t even have websites because they use Instagram. I don’t agree with that, because Instagram isn’t a space YOU OWN … you are borrowing that space ;) In my opinion, you should be putting effort into something you do own: YOUR WEBSITE … if your Instagram feed is crazy different from your Instagram feed, it could cause big problems for you … keep your message consistent across all your platforms so that people know and recognize that you care about your brand and ‘business voice’ …
LET YOUR WEBSITE DO THE JOB OF SELLING YOU - SO PEOPLE INQUIRE
Your website, if used correctly, will make people drool … will make them WANT to contact you … will showcase your best work and put your brand IN THEIR FACE in all the right ways … once they contact you, the control is yours to sell yourself and make what they just saw online have a personality and a voice … and then you can close the deal. This also goes along with a bounce rate … people won’t contact you via your website if they ‘click in’ - hate what they see - and ‘click out’ - so give them a place to feel cozy and comfy and stay awhile … so they can form an attachment to what you offer.
WE ALL KNOW THAT PEOPLE WILL CLICK FROM YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TO YOUR WEBSITE - IT WORKS THE OTHER WAY TOO
If people come to your website and are loving what they see, they will want to find you on social media too … that is one of the first things I do when I visit a website I love - I look for the Instagram icon, click, and check them out there too! Having a website that makes people have all the heart-eyes can boost the traffic to your social media pages and help gain some followers!
AN UGLY WEBSITE WILL CAST A SHADOW ON THAT LOGO YOU PAID GOOD MONEY FOR!
Recently rebrand?? Have a new and current logo you can’t wait to showoff? Well, it’s time for your website to match it …. fonts, design, style, vibe, photos … everything plays a role in supporting your logo and making sure it all works well together. When I’m designing a website for a client I take their logo into the inspiration … buttons are created to support it, style, flow … a logo isn’t just something you throw up anywhere, it leads the style for it all.
Have a sh*tty and dated logo?? Be sure and redesign that when you have your website redesigned!
THERE IS NOBODY MORE SENSITIVE TO DATED MATERIAL THAN A HIGH-END BRIDE
Nothing is worse to me than ‘dated’ material on a website. And I’m not a planning bride … a planning bride will be even more sensitive to dated sh*t … and if you’re reading this blog, chances are you are in the wedding or event industry … haha … You should be redesigning your website every 3 years - no matter what. Don’t get comfy, don’t let things get stale - ask yourself now: when was the last time your website was redone?? Been awhile??
REMINDS VENDORS YOU WORKED WITH BEFORE THAT YOU EXIST
When I design a website I’m all over social media celebrating … when you have a website designed you’re most likely asking for photos and announcing it too! It’s a huge PR plug to launch a new website! If done correctly it will launch a surge of traffic to your website - a mix of potential clients and vendors - who want to see what the new look is like! This all causes excitement and it also reminds people that you are a badass who they want to work with!
CONFIDENCE IS THE STRONGEST TOOL A BUSINESS OWNER HAS
After my clients have their website launch, the boost they get across the board is crazy cool … inquiries, social media growth, styled shoot participation invitations, website traffic, excitement grows … it’s like a rebirth … they have a tool in their toolkit that they are excited to use … and what does that do??? BOOSTS CONFIDENCE. Confidence is an amazing thing and a killer website that you want people to visit makes you naturally work a lot harder and smarter.
THERE ARE SPECIFIC THINGS A BRIDE OR CLIENT PLANNING AN EVENT WILL ALWAYS GOOGLE
When I optimize websites, I am taking into consideration ALL THE KNOWLEDGE I gained from 8 years as a wedding and fashion blogger … I read analytics for a living and I know what people do and what they don’t do … and I take that and I put it into the websites I design … SEO isn’t everything … but it is a part of it … what’s most important??? UEO: user experience optimization … and that is the strategy you want working for you when you have your website redesigned ;)
