Your website’s main objective should be to provide visitors with content in the form of tips, articles and interviews. Content marketing sells!
This article talks about the four key “web design” elements which to equip your blog or website with, which builds the mechanism to attracting repeat traffic and clients.
1. Header (Logo + USP)
How do you convince your first-time visitors to stick to your blog/website?
How do you convince them that what you do is for the long-term and you’re not there to run away with their money?
How do you convince them that your content is good, even better than the average, and not just a copy-paste replica?
One answer: through your design. Your website design reflects that you are serious about your business, and that you’re in for the long haul.
You’ve probably seen websites with no headers, no logos, and no USP (Unique Selling Prepositions)
That’s why they do not stand out. That’s why they’re invisible.
You want your header to show your uniqueness. What it is that you talk about, provide or share with your audience (who’s the client you’re talking to, anyway?) – express that through your header (design and copy)
Check your competitors’ websites… does any header (logo/USP) inspire you? Why?
Could you create something similar (yourself or hire a designer)? Could you make it better, more compelling, more specific, less hype, and more believable?
Do it!
2. Eye-catching images
I love websites with hot content. I love websites with images even more! Particularly, those professional images that emphasize on the content… I love cartoons too. Think about how to make your website unique and different through cartoons. Make your readers laugh, regardless of the niche market.
Now, adding any cartoon, at random, won’t do the trick. You actually have to study your market, know your niche, and get your industry, before you sit down at the table and brainstorm for cartoons.
Team up with a skilled cartoonist, and take your website to the next level.
As for grabbing eye-catching photos, try Flickr.com and you’ll find plenty of hot images to select for your website. However, keep in mind the copyright. Not all pictures/photos are available for sharing. For some you’ll have to pay a royalty-fee in order to use them on your website. The same with cartoon licenses!
3. Comments
Each website should allow its visitors the option to get heard. WordPress for example gives its users access to all kinds of plugins. There are also premium plugins which enable bloggers to interact with their visitors, and get instant feedback whenever they post new articles, or release new products.
This puts your business on a whole new level, not just your website, and turns it into a lead-magnet and client-attraction center.
Get this! Websites who don’t give their readers a “voice” are built as a hobby, or for the sake of having an online presence.
There are plugins which are fully customizable so that your comments form fits your overall website design and layout.
Most “commenting” options out there are plug-and-play, very easy to use even by a 10-year-old kid.
4. Social Share Buttons
If you’ve been online for more than a few months, you’ve heard how Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and other similar websites are used by webmasters to generate traffic and attract clients.
Each one of these social websites has buttons for its members which you should add to your website/content, and increase your chances to be seen (and voted) by a wider audience and build a loyal following (aka “tribe”).
You might want to save some time, and find an automatic solution that adds these “social sharing” buttons to your website.
AddThis.com is a great example. With one plugin/HTML code you can add 300+ social sharing buttons to your website within minutes. Obviously you won’t want to enable all buttons, but only those that are vital to your content marketing such as the ones we’ve mentioned above.
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There you have it. Four simple web design elements to add to your website to ensure you get repeat traffic and clients. Way too many people complain that nothing works, or that they need to add a ton of plugins to make their website one-of-a-kind. That’s not true. Start with these 4 elements and you’ll be miles ahead of everybody else.
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