Most new business start ups are looking to save as much money as they can. Ideally, they want to minimise their risk and the best way to do this is start the business with as little cash outlay as possible.

One of the best ways they can trim their start up budget is with their website. The logic behind this is why should they spend thousands of dollars getting a website designed and built by a professional design agency when they can get a free WIX, Squarespace, Weebly or WordPress template?

Free websites are for the most part; great looking, easy to use and will suffice for your customers. The popularity of these free websites shows exactly how many business owners behave when it comes to their website.

But, this is where the real problems and issues begin because like anything provided free of charge, there are some nasty repercussions and this blog will highlight the serious nature and problems of getting a free website for your business.

Let me be perfectly clear about this….taking a DIY approach to your website is a really bad idea. Here’s why….

I have noticed the rising trend in the amount of phone calls I have been receiving lately from people saying things like: I got a free website template and I hate it or I have tried to update the website and can’t figure out what to do, or the website has been live for 12 months and I can’t find it on Google, or my website doesn’t work, its not bringing in the business I expected.

These complaints are common and they are all down to one thing; their free websites don’t perform as expected.

a) Lack of any sense of design.

These sites all look the same. There is nothing unique of different. A drop and drag approach to design is not enough to stand out in the digital space today. Your site needs personality, a creative flair to get the customers ringing. Plus these sites have little thought to the user experience or site architecture. It’s all about making things as easy as possible for the DIY web builders. This unfortunately, means that the sites are all homogenous, dangerously similar looking, and overwhelming lacking in any design flair.

b) How’s your image editing skills?

You need great looking photos, images and graphics on your website. The consumer expects this. If you use a free template and your photoshop and image editing skills are poor, your website will look really bad. To keep people on your website and enticing them to buy or inquire from it, will all depend on the user experience. Free DIY websites are notorious from really low customer conversion rates. This has the rapid flow on effect of a lack of sales leads, poor revenues and eventually closing the business OR looking at starting again. You can see the pattern emerging here. Lack of design combined with a less than satisfactory user experience can possible lead to radically reduced business leads. So the dollars you save at the beginning, could end up costing your dearly.

c) If you rely on Google, DIY websites are the death of your rankings.

These websites are infected with malware. I’m not just saying this lightly but we get heaps of calls from people that have had malware and viruses put into their website as they are very easy targets. Google detects this and this has nasty consequences for your SEO.

Also, if you try to DIY your website and implement all your ‘on page’ content, titles and descriptions, how do you know you are doing it correctly/ So many people can’t understand why their site is on page 10 of Google and when I look at their SEO attempts I see why. Put simply, it is very unlikely that a website built with a generic website template can ever hope to out perform a competitor’s website at on page 1 of Google, who have had their website professionally built with a strong focus on SEO.

The chances are next to nothing and if Google is important to the survival of your business, this point alone should be ringing alarm bells. Don’t try to implement your own SEO thinking that just because you could figure out how to launch your own site, that your SEO will be as easy. It won’t and you will end up in all sorts of issues with Google. If you don’t believe me try it out and see for yourself.

For Google to rank a website the coding must be pristine and all the on page SEO must be immaculate. Templates do not deliver this outcome.

In conclusion

You might like to try a DIY patio, or outdoor decking, but when it comes to your website and it’s digital marketing you have to leave it to the experts.

They tell me it’s so tough out there online where everyone is trying to outdo each other on Google and attract more customers.

It’s a battle and if you do not have the right equipment and tool from the beginning (the design, build and launch) of your website.

You will fall behind. No two ways around it.

Even if you have a website and it’s been live for a while make sure you implement these changes as they will help. If you find that this all sounds like mumbo jumbo, then call me and I will be glad to run things through with you. Remember, if you cannot be found on Google, you are losing business. According to StatCounter, Google owns about 93% of all Australian searches so it’s critical that your business is front and centre on page 1, even higher, if that can be achieved.

If SEO & Google rankings matters to your business then you need to follow these steps.

1. Research your keywords and write copy that reflects these.

People are searching using keywords. If for example, you are a cosmetic surgeon specialising in liposuction, make sure you have a dedicated landing page all about liposuction. Make sure you write very specific content around this that is not only factual but also a good read. Again, you don’t want to bore the pants of the reader. Remember they are not doctors and don’t want to read a whole lot of medical information. They are on your website to be sold to. They are there looking for a solution to their issue ( fat reduction) so make sure your copy addresses this. Make it a tad sales focused with information about why people should use your service and why you are simply the best in the business. Keep a copy at around 1000 words. It’s a bit of an ask and an effort to write, but Google really rewards good copy.

2. You need to write catchy title tags & meta-descriptions that correspond to the page content

The title tag and the description are what the public sees when they land on Google’s page. For this reason, it needs to be unique, relevant and sales are driven. Using the liposuction example, your description may read something like this: ‘ Need Liposuction Help? Call Dr XYZ Now.’

For the description, you can be a little more flamboyant and descriptive as you have around 25 words to really sell yourself. HINT: Look at what your competition is doing and write something different. Being creative here is a really good idea.

3. Make your on-page heads ( H1) easy to read

This is really a no brainer. The easier your headings are to read the more likely the consumer will stay on the page. Content needs to be broken with large headings. Reams of information, without appropriate headings to break up the information, are just going to increase your bounce rates and you will start to see people exiting your website very quickly.

4. Write for your customers

People often tell me when we discuss what to write on their website: ‘ all we need is to put our keywords down and everything will be fine’. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you think that you can help the SEO process by stuffing keywords into the copy, you are wrong. It will just annoy the reader and Google will not rank it. So the golden rule here is to write for the customer. Pretend they are reading a company brochure and write copy for it. Keyword stuffing is so 10 years ago.

When writing content, be informative, but be aware that the consumer is on this particular page because they have searched online for something and your page is the one they have landed on. For this reason, the copy should sell to them in a subtle way. Make sure you are always reminding them of why you are the best and only choice.

5. Forget duplicate content

Google will find out. This is not something worth risking. Google has the algorithms that can detect duplicate copy and if your website is guilty of this plagiarism watch out. Not much more to say about this except Google rewards new fresh content. If you are stuck for things to write get in touch with a web and SEO copywriter – even better call us as we have the best copywriters in the business.

6. You need internal links

Link relevant text within pages of your website. This adds structure and logic to the site and will help with your overall SEO strategy. Again, with the liposuction example; there may be an internal link from this main liposuction services landing page to an internal blog article you have written about post-operative liposuction exercises.

7. Images need alt tags

Google will not read images and alt tags about the images will tell Google what they are and help in the SEO process.

8. What’s your website’s URL structure like?

I have seen some real URL shockers. Ideally, you want to have the description of your service in the URL. This is all about website logic and having an SEO friendly URL structure that screams logic will be one of the best things you can do for your internet and SEO marketing. For the liposuction doctor, a good URL structure would be: www.drxyz.com.au/services/liposction Sydney

If your current content management system (CMS) doesn’t allow for this, then it’s seriously important to ditch the current CMS and get your website built on an SEO friendly CMS like WordPress. Why? Because WordPress creates really SEO friendly URL structures automatically.

If you are locked into a CMS because you are using a web agency that has built your website using their proprietary CMS systems – get rid of them fast. Trust me when I tell you this…WordPress is the best for SEO.

9. Make sure you have your Analytics set up

Why bother with SEO if you cannot measure the results. Analytics, if they are set up properly will allow you to see so much juicy information about your website. A number of visitors, how long they have stayed, which pages they have gone to, bounce rates etc etc. It’s such a useful tool that your SEO agency can make on-page amends based on the information they receive.

10. Register your site in Google WMT, Google My Business or Webmaster Tools

You have to do this. If you are unable to, speak to us as this is an essential step in the indexing process.

11. 301 Redirect old pages

So many people forget to do this and they wonder why their new site is no longer ranking. Basically, if you have an existing site and it’s been around for a while it would have built up some authority with Google. These old pages’ authority needs to be redirected to the new pages. That is, they need 301 redirects. This really important step is often overlooked or forgotten when new sites are launched. To maintain existing rankings and to pass the SEO juice from the old to the new, 301’s are mandatory. Ahrefs in their article 301 Redirects for SEO: Everything You Need to Know goes on to explain that a 301 redirect indicates the permanent moving of a web page from one location to another. And, is there evidence for that? Yes, Google (re)confirmed PageRank as a ranking signal last year.

12. Is your website mobile friendly?

Known as responsive web design, Google now ranks mobile sites higher than those that are not. Also, mobile sites make the browsing experience so much easier. So, if you want to keep customers happy and keep them coming back ( especially for eCommerce sites) make sure it’s built so it’s mobile compatible. Nothing affects shopping cart abandonment, bounce rates, and wasted opportunities more than a non-mobile website. You can test to see if your website is mobile-friendly here.

13. An XML sitemap is important

Have one of these in the footer of your site. This way it will be a lot easier for Google to crawl and index each page of your site.

14. Enhance page speeds for optimal performance

Ever been to a website that takes ages to load? Does your site take more than 3 seconds to appear? Are there large images on your website? Site speeds are critically important for those businesses wishing to keep clients on the site. So for this reason as well, Google will penalise sites that are too slow to load. There won’t be a penalty there will just be a preference to rank quicker loading sites. In many cases this is a simple fix – so whatever you do, do not let your website’s speed and load times affect your SEO rankings. Again, if unclear of what to do, let us know and we can run some site speed tests, work out the problems and fix them for you. You can check your website page speed here at Pingdom.

15. Lastly, pick the right SEO & web agency

The best thing that you can do is try to find an agency that can handle all your web design and SEO together. The best type of agency for this is a digital agency and the good ones are extremely hard to find. Make sure you pick wisely or else you will end up getting smashed by rip off con artists who like nothing better than to take your money without producing any results. Shop around speak to as many people as you can and at the end of the day the choices you make now will impact your business.

 

1) The use of large images above the fold.
You see this everywhere, the use of big, bold images spread across the top of the page. These really make a statement, have an impact, and are really the evolution of improving website conversion rates. That is, the website has to create a splash, be engaging and entice the browser to stay and eventually buy. This all came about due to the competitive nature of the online environment where web pages were all competing for the same buyer. The bigger and better the image they initially see, the more chance there is that they will buy from you.

2) Bigger and bolder typography

Typography is becoming grander with the passing of every year. As above with the images, the text has to be right in your face, with a very strong call to action. Again, the aim of most websites is to capture the customer, so like any signage, it must be very big, bold, and attention-grabbing. Reviewing next year is easy. Larger text with more visual images is on the cards It’s all going to be about who can scream the loudest online.

3) Long Page scrolls

This kind of snuck upon us and the evolution of this is due to many factors, one being the need to create a feeling of grandeur. The combination of vertical and horizontal scrolling has now meant that most websites now have so much more information on all pages, with lots more images. These all come together in what is termed parallax web design and my review of the future is that the standard, the static website will eventually die out. Single pages without any dynamic movement are just too boring for the standard web user – hence the growth in these types of sites. Basically, the better the user experience, the bigger the number of potential inbound sales leads.

4) Square page design

It is really only so much you can do on a screen and the 1 thing that remains a constant is the grid design. Whatever makes the conversion and sales funnels easier will tend to stick around. Hence the block style formats are here for the next year or so. It will be interesting to see how my review reads in say 6 months as technologies evolve.

5) Large Icons

The use of icons to represent everything is now the norm. Bullet points are dead. It’s now the use of an icon surrounded by massive images, large text, and the ever-present white space. This is now so popular that unfortunately, all websites are starting to look the same. I even want to throw in there the pictures of the staff profiles. In our website and SEO industry, it is mandatory to have images of staff writing on glass partitions with the odd post-it note, the bearded hipster with those dark-framed glasses in a meeting with a client as well as someone’s dog. I want to also add that the use of a company video is also really common nowadays. I know this has been around for a long time, but the level of production quality has really ramped up a notch or two. Now you have the business owners being professionally filmed in different scenarios; around the office, in meetings, on the go or again writing on that glass partition, and yes there is post-it notes. This is now so common that it is really becoming quite ridiculous and my review or prediction is that the public will see straight through this and simply ignore the video. Like with all popular fads, this will eventually flame out. Saying that website updates are fine if your site is old and has not been touched in years.

6) Responsive web design

Well, this review cannot be complete without the mention of mobile-friendly web design. All websites now need to be viewable on all handheld devices. This prediction will stay for the next years until they invent something else. Let’s look at what consumers are wearing, buying in years to come. I’m thinking wearables / Apple watches etc et – these will also dictate web design in the future. But these are a few years off at least.

7) Minimal design with strong conversion points

If you think about it all you need is your brand with a few reasons why people should contact you with a massive inquire now button and this is the trend emerging. Minimal design templates with big, clear ‘hot buttons’, are now what’s big online. This has all come about from free web templates as designed become more or less the same. The reason for this, it’s easier to customize these ‘same as’ templates by adding your logo and your own images. By making it easier for web owners to create their own free templates, they have in fact changed the web design landscape by making everything look far too similar. Again a recipe for branding disasters as all sites start to look the same. I mean, how are you going to tell 1 business from the other.

Vibrant personalities and uniqueness are the essential ingredients that make up a business. Websites unfortunately are not following this path. This review is sounding a bit negative but with the emergence of so many free website templates (which are too good to refuse by many small businesses), web styles are now too similar. This is the nature of web design. If someone has it, then the next person wants it, so on and so forth.

You need to establish trust

This is going to quickly put you out of business and the reasons are simple. Your shop looks untrustworthy, poorly stocked and uninviting. The same goes for website. If it looks untrustworthy, then users will simply look elsewhere.

In the online environment, you cannot afford to loose customers. Everyone who lands on your website is a potential sales and they must be encouraged to stay and engage with your site. If it looks dodgy or smells like it’s untrustworthy, you will be found out very quickly. This is suicide online. But, there are ways to avoid this and help improve customer conversion rates.

Quickly impress &engage

You have a couple of seconds. That’s all the time a potential shopper will spend on your website if they don’t immediately like what they see. First impressions in life count, and nothing is more true to this than your website. There are some quick wins to ensure that browsers will like what they see:

> Keep all images very clear and make sure they are not from the cheesy, standard photo libraries. These photos are such a turn off. People see them everywhere and if they are on your site it will reveal a layer of distrust. Why? Because you haven’t gone to the trouble or effort of getting real images.

> Make sure there are no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Go over your copy before posting it.

> Don’t copy from other websites or steal their images.

> Make the website easy to use. Try to make the contact or buy buttons easy to find

> Possibly the worst way to kill the trust factor, is not to have an address or a phone number – having only a PO Box is a bit dodgy, but I suppose it’s better than nothing. A physical address is so much better for establishing trust. If an eCommerce website has no address your customer may have some reservation buying from you in case they need to return the item.

Be as open and transparent about who you are and what you are selling. This is the key to creating trust will anyone who lands on your site.

Show them you’re trustworthy

Think about this scenario. A new user comes to your website for the first time and wants to buy from you or make an inquiry. However, before they do are allowed to do this transaction a nasty pop up window appears, demanding all sorts of private information. The user may or may not decide to provide this but if your website has clear and open details about who they are (address and phone number) then the transaction is more than likely to proceed.

Unless your website is a well known and trusted brand, why should anyone divulge their private information over to you. You must initially get their trust and only in this way will they be happy to give their information over to you. Again, any site visitor should be able to buy or engage with you as a guest without having to fill anything out. If they are given an option, this will build trust enormously.

A great way to enhance trust is to provide testimonials and reviews. Granted you are only going to show the best comments, but this is at least a step in the right direction.

Loud, over the top graphics will also scream dodgy as your customers will think that you are trying to over sell to them. Just like a pushy sales person, you do not want t website hitting you in the face with colourful buy now buttons, music or useless pop ups. If your website annoys the consumer, or hinders their buying process, you will have both shopping cart abandonment, lower conversion rates, higher bounce rates, less sales and eventually a dead website. Make it easy for the consumer, instill trust and you will find that your website will perform much better.

Keep up to date

If you have a sale or promotion on your website and this is found to be untrue, all I can say is watch out. Bad PR or publicity can spread very quickly via the social media sites and this can kill off your reputation very quickly. The best way around this is to keep your website very current and up to date. If someone calls you up and tells you that they say a product is 30% off – you MUST honor this.

Use the latest technologies

Simply put, you need to have a mobile friendly website. Without this your brands credibility can be affected and in turn so can the whole trust factor. Make sure that your website is viewable on all devices as well as the most common internet browsers. If customers see that you have taken the time to make their life easier they will respect you for this.

Web templates are nearly OK

Free website templates are very popular now – after all why not get something if it’s for free? But the danger of this is that you start to look like everyone else. Having your own unique personality online will boost trust. Following the herd and using the same style template is going to destroy trust and can hurt your brand. Your customer base wants to spend their money or engage the services of a business that have an ethos, a set of core values that you can see immediately on their website. If it’s a standard boring ‘same as’ style cookie cutter template, why should they firstly give you the business and why should they trust you?

You have to ask yourself this important question; does my website portray trust or is it simply the same as every other site? Remember, establishing a brand and trust is all about a unique selling point and this MUST be conveyed on your website.

Reasons why you need to think about a website overhaul

Your website has flash animation.

Flash banner and flash welcome intros were really popular 10 years ago. I remember the client’s used to love all those flashy images coming in and out on the home page. How times have changed. Firstly, most browsers do not read flash and secondly nor does Google. I will add to this that most people who are browsing on their hand held’s will not tolerate any type of flash.

If you want to have movement on your website and at the same time be Google compliant, think HTML 5. You get the wow factor as well as the rankings.

Have you forgotten about social media?

Social media is a must-have and if your website predates more than 5 years ago, chances are that it does not have any social media links. People like to learn more about you and your business. It’s just the way things are these days and social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are perfect platforms to satisfy this desire for more information. Make sure your web developer has included your social media links on all pages of your site. A point to note here is that you must be active with your posts, tweets and blogs – no point in having links there if you are not active.

Responsive web design

I have written about this more than once and for those that do not have a mobile responsive website, then this article is going to make an impact. Why? Because you should act on this point immediately. If you do not have a mobile website then you are:

• going to lose customers who do not want to squint if they are viewing a desktop version of your site on their iPhone.
• You are going to not rank as high on the search engines – Google places a higher priority on ranking mobile site.
• You are helping your competition.
• Simply put, getting a responsive website is a no-brainer and if there is 1 thing you should take away from this blog is that you need your website to be mobile.

Long load times and hard to navigate

These are really 2 separate points but I will group them as 1 under the heading of ‘user experience’. That is, what type of experience is the user having when they land on your website. Are they bouncing off it straight away without looking deeper, or are they actually buying from you and engaging with the site? If your bounce rates are high (you can check this in Analytics), then you need to look at your customer experience. Obviously, they do not like what they see – hence they are exiting the website. Ideally, you need to provide your customers with the best user experience if you expect them to buy from you. Just like any retail shop or restaurant if the patrons don’t like the atmosphere they will never come back. The same goes for your website. Quick load times and a great looking website will drastically improve the user experience.

Your website is not optimised for SEO

An extremely common problem with old websites is that they were probably done by a design agency that had no clue about SEO. Also, Google has made that many algorithmic changes that old websites would be non-compliant. This would affect rankings and overall sales and inquiry rates. Let’s say your website was built 8 years ago with flash animation, little content and little attention paid to ‘on page’ compliance ‘must haves’ like titles. This would have an enormous negative impact on SEO and this is probably why your Google rankings are terrible. Simply put – if you want to get a better online ranking, get a website overhaul.

Also read: Can bad web design harm your SEO efforts?

You have thin content on your pages

Boring uninformative websites are going to kill your conversion rates and your lead generation. Websites should be used as a marketing tool and if you are not providing your customers with the information they need, then they will look elsewhere. Add content, keep your customers informed and make sure that your new website has an easy to use WordPress CMS to allow you to get in there and do this.

Proprietary, outdated CMS systems

This is a huge problem and afflicts many businesses that have decided to use a web agency and in turn, have been stuck using their CMS. The issue here is that some CMS systems are very cumbersome, hard to use and make life really difficult for you. By this I mean, any changes you need to make are an absolute nightmare – you have to keep on going back to your web developer for every minute change. This is costly and will waste a lot of your time. Make sure your new website has an open-source CMS like; WordPress, Drupal, Joomla or Magento. Believe me, when I tell you this, moving forward life will be so much easier if your website is built on an open-source CMS.

It is off-brand? What does it say about your business? Does your website make you cringe?

Your business has evolved, moved on and changed. You have taken it in a different direction, added new staff, implemented new products and overall your model has changed. The question here is; has your website changed as well? Does it clearly reflect your personality, brand and ethos? What does your current website tell your customers about you and your business? Does it reflect poorly?

If so, then it’s time to pick up the phone and get in touch with a web design or digital marketing agency that can address all of these issues. Luckily at hopping mad designs, we can look at your website, branding as well as SEO as an entire project and tie them together nicely.

If you are sick and tired of looking at your old, non-performing website – please call us here at Hopping Mad Designs on 02 9360 8514. We will turn things around for you very quickly.

Lisa Wagner from Doolan Wagner Family Lawyers called Hopping Mad looking for a website and advice about internet marketing or SEO. She decided to proceed and after about six weeks, Lisa’s brand was created and her website for her legal services was designed. Whilst all this was happening, we started the SEO campaign in the background. Currently Lisa’s SEO ranking are doing fantastic and she is receiving enquiries all the time. As a new business, she relies heavily on her website so the enquiries generated by her site are essential. It is her most important marketing tool. Without it working properly, it will be hard to grow the business.
The SEO and content marketing strategy we planned and executed for Doolan Wagner has paid off. The business is growing from strength to strength, with a great looking website delivering results (and customers) and page rankings that continue to climb.

Following is Lisa’s testimonial:

I first met Steven Waldberg, Jo Basile and the Hopping Mad team in September 2014.

Hopping Mad were the highest organically ranked SEO and website design group on Google so I figured they knew their stuff.

I asked Hopping Mad to help create a new professional business for me reflecting my particular values in what is a highly competitive Sydney market.

Hopping Mad delivered.

Jo and her design team did a fantastic job with the artwork – we have received countless compliments about how “fresh” and “clean” our site is. A truly pleasurable user experience.

Steven has remained available, and “hands on” in his approach providing measurable outcomes and not making any promises that he can’t deliver on. There are no lock in contracts – Steven backs himself – that sold me.

Choosing any service provider is fraught. I had engaged 2 other SEO website companies over the previous 5 years and they pale in comparison. Useless, doing nothing more than overpromising and under delivering.

Hopping Mad stand out from the crowd. They are attentive and Sydney based and really good to deal with. We’re edging onto page one of Google and that is only in a matter of months. A lot of hard work has been involved and Steven has remained enthusiastic every step of the way. Take the leap of faith and employ these guys. I have no hesitation in recommending Steven and his team and am happy to verify this recommendation personally.

Hopping Mad will really help you create your business.

The mobile phone and handheld device market has exploded over the past 15 years.

Consumers, everywhere you look; on trains, buses at the airport or at work are on their phones and what they are searching for should be of paramount concern to your business.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, this number is set to increase exponentially at a rate now of 22.5 % per year. So what does this mean for your business, website and how are you going to engage this mobile audience now that the majority of searches are conducted via their phones.

The answer is really quite simple. It is called responsive website design.

That is a desktop version of your website that automatically resizes based on the device you are viewing it from. The question that all business owners should now be asking themselves is ‘ is my website responsive’? If the answer is no then it is vital that you start thinking about making it responsive as the ramifications of leaving it till next year or putting it in the too-hard basket is too significant for your business.

Essentially, if your website is not immediately viewable on a handheld device in a responsive format then your customers are simply going to exit and look elsewhere. If they are on their phones and looking for a product or service Australian consumers have come to expect a viewable experience that’s obvious, clear, accessible, and really straightforward. If you put even the slightest hurdle or roadblock in their way the ramifications are enormous. Lost business, reduced brand credibility (imagine Qantas, Virgin or David Jones websites were not responsive). Clients would desert them in huge numbers. Great for the competition but not so good for your business. This is the main reason why you now need to consider responsive sites as an integral part of your marketing mix and online communications.

As a small business owner or even part of a large marketing team, it is more than likely that the responsibility of managing the company websites falls squarely on your shoulders, so it’s important to understand the fundamentals of responsive website design and how it can impact your business.

What is Responsive Web Design?

Basically, it is what it says it is. It quickly responds to the size of the screen you are viewing the site on. It makes the viewing experience much more pleasurable, by automatically adjusting images, content, page layout, restructured navigational elements to fit snugly on the screen. Which theoretically should drive more new business and sales based on the fluidity of the sales process. Ideally, you want to make the customer experience and journey on your website as easy and pleasurable as possible. This will only benefit you by bringing in more sales and inquiries.

Related Article: How to Increase the Sales Conversion Rate of My Website?

It’s really a no brainer; just make it easy for the consumer to buy from you and they will. A great example of what I’m talking about is looking at this blog on your desktop and then try your mobile. You will clearly see what I mean. Smashing Magazine explains the meaning of responsive websites further by telling us that Responsive Web design is the approach that suggests that design and development should respond to the user’s behaviour and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation.

Mobile Versus Responsive Websites

It is important you know the difference between the two. I have already explained the responsive site, but a mobile website is completely different. Many people think they are one and the same when in fact they are not. So how are they different?

1)     a mobile site has a completely different URL structure that begins with an m. So for example we would have the URL m.hoppingmad.com.au where a responsive URL is exactly the same as the desktop.

2)     Having a separate URL for your mobile site means that there are new hosting fees

3)     Because you have a new site this will have an impact on your search engine rankings on Google as this is a new site and independent of your main (probably already established) URL.

4)     Responsive design generally follows the look and feel of the desktop version which is great from a branding perspective but with a mobile site, you can have a completely different design. This has its advantages as you can focus on key areas of the business and radically reduce the size of the website ( to make it easier for the mobile consumer who does not want to read loads of information), to only a few key pages. Again I am on the fence about this but if I would have to weigh up all the pros and cons I would go with the responsive version.

SEO and Responsive Web Design

Watch out because this year Google is going to come down hard on sites that are not responsive.

On the 21st of April 2015, Google will be adding mobile-friendly factors into its organic search ranking algorithm.

–        We have already seen Google highlight mobile-friendly sites next to meta-descriptions and they will now use this when determining to rank a website, depending on the device the search is made from.

–        Google said that on April 21, 2015, Google’s mobile ranking factors will not only label your site as mobile-friendly but will also use that to determine if your site should rank higher in the search results. Google said this algorithmic change will have a “significant impact” in the mobile search results, impacting all languages worldwide.” View article here: Rolling out the mobile-friendly update

–        The quality of the user experience is now at the forefront of successful search engines. Google developers recently stated, “users will find it easier to get relevant, high-quality search results that are optimized for their devices.”

–        The mobile-friendly ranking algorithm will crawl websites on a page-by-page basis as opposed to the traditional site-wide crawl and indexing process. Gary Illyes from Google’s Webmaster trends analysis team advised, “this algorithm is run on a page-by-page basis. So if you have 10 web pages on your website and 5 of them are mobile-friendly and 5 are not, then only pages that are mobile-friendly will benefit.” You can read more about this in the article by Search Engine Land here.

–        This algorithm will also analyse how well a website responds to tablet, notebooks and different types of mobile phone devices. Developing a responsive website will ensure users do have a positive experience on your site regardless of which device they are searching from.

–       Websites that do not evolve in sync with the constantly evolving technological world will inevitably fall behind.

Advantages of responsive web design

Responsive web design benefits web designers, developers, businesses of all sizes and, most importantly, consumers in the following ways:

Lots more mobile traffic

According to Statista, the number of smartphone subscriptions worldwide today surpasses six billion. Furthermore, it is forecast to further grow by several hundred million in the next few years. So just imagine how much extra business you can get from this mobile audience addicted to shopping and browsing on their mobile phones. Plus, with the current COVID situation where people are shopping from home, you need to make this experience as simple as possible, and responsive web design is the key to enhancing the shopping experience. 

Faster mobile development at reduced costs

Making one complete responsive website is cheaper than making a desktop version and a separate mobile version. Plus, it’s much quicker. 

And, with lower maintenance fees as you are paying for one website rather than two, it’s a no-brainer to have a responsive website. But, again, a one size fits all is the best solution for your business needs.

Quicker load times

Mobile users, in particular, have short attention spans. They are on the go and want to find what they are looking for very quickly. Neil Patel tells us that a 1-second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversion.

Suppose your website has not been optimised responsively for mobile phones. In that case, this may affect download times, and you can expect to have higher bounce rates from customers that land on your website and exit it without delving deeper into other pages. Website page speeds are critical to your SEO rankings and the whole customer experience, so anything you can do to help improve load times should be high on your marketing bucket list.

For other advantages click here.

Responsive website design is now the norm for all sites that are being designed and developed currently – this trend is here to stay and will only grow further.

What are the Advantages of a Mobile Responsive Website?

The advantages to your business or company of having a responsive site are huge – in fact, there are so many of them I will try to list as many as I can think of.

1) You don’t annoy the new user base (that is the demographic aged 15-65) who basically consider their mobile devices as an extension of their body. By annoying I mean, they do not have to squint and navigate their way around a desktop site that is far too big for their screen. Essentially, they will just move on to another site that is far easier to browse on.

Related post: How to Increase the Sales Conversion Rate of My Website?

2) If you are selling a product online you make the whole eCommerce shopping experience so much easier by having the website developed specifically for this mobile market – if these guys can tap away happily, they will be more inclined to open their wallets and spend their money with you. The harder you make this experience, the more likelihood there will be shopping cart abandonment. PayPal tells us that Smartphones and tablets are everyday tools. In 2019, 73% of Aussies shopped on their mobile, and 55% of them did so every week. 20% of mobile shoppers abandoned a purchase because the experience wasn’t mobile-friendly. With these statistics in mind, it’s imperative that you make the eCommerce shopping experience as seamless as possible if you are going to capture a slice of this mobile ready-to-buy audience.

3) It will make SEO or search engine optimisation easier because all website URLS’ are the same, therefore you only need to optimise 1 website and this will transfer across all platforms. No matter the device, Samsung, Apple or whatever, a responsive design makes it far easier for Google to crawl the site, index it and in turn rank it. However, before you start jumping for joy and thinking that you are going to be on page 1 of Google for as soon as we build the site make sure you speak with us about our SEO services.

4) You will save vast amounts of money and time on any website changes that you need to be done. Why? Cause you only have to make 1 amend on the desktop version and this will transfer across all the other platforms. One amend and it’s done. Rather than do one for the desktop and one for the tablets and one for the mobile, this nifty technology does it in 1 go.

5) As stated above you will find that your customers will be happier which will result in higher conversions and lower bounce rates. This means more money in your bank account.

6) Your company looks more contemporary. It will make it appear more up to date with the latest technologies and this, in turn, will see your brand value skyrocket. Old outdated websites that look like they were built in the ’90s could be harming your image online. Think about this for a minute. Why would I shop with you, if your website looks horrible when a much more pleasurable experience is waiting for me 1 click away.

7) Blitz your competitors, blow them away and dominate your online space by being responsive. All you need to do is check your rivals website on your iPhone and if it looks unresponsive then go ahead and grab the advantage.

Steal their customers, plunder the market, divert all those juicy big new sales to your site and watch your profits rise. Your website is your showroom to the world. If you can make it as attractive as possible in the online environment, then you are going to smash your competition. This is 100% certainty.

8) If you have a current site that is not responsive and you want to take the plunge, this will force you into looking at your website from an entirely new perspective and may get you to look at your online marketing as a whole. Like a home renovation, you might only look at adding a deck out the back, but you end up remodelling the entire house. This is perfect for businesses that have been stagnant and somewhat lazy with their website, internet marketing, blogging, copy and social media. If it compels businesses to make positive changes in their approach to their business, through this one bit of new technology, then it’s a good thing. For example, I have seen businesses come into my office and want a small change to their website and after a 1-hour meeting, they have decided to re-evaluate their whole online position. In a way, it opens their eyes to the many great possibilities online.

OK where to from here…..if all this sounds like something you are after and you want to take the next step please contact the team at HMD and we will show you exactly what we can do for your website and bottom line.