Creating a successful web site or blog on the internet isn’t as easy as it used to be. With more people now on the internet than ever before, and WordPress making it so easy for anyone to start a site… you simply need to put in more effort than ever to stand out from the crowd. It’s not just about creating the best content, it’s about starting from the foundation and moving up — while making sure every aspect of your site is awesome.
10 Tips for Making Your Site Stand Out from the Crowd
In this post we are going to look at ten different ways you can set yourself on the path for success, by making sure your site has what it takes to stand out from the crowd!
A Quality Web Host
One of the first things you’ll need to consider is the type of web host your website is will be hosted on. Choosing a quality web host from the very beginning is very important. This is essentially where your website will be published and is the only way that your target audience will be able to reach you. If your website is constantly down, runs extremely slow, or has very poor security protection you may want to consider switching providers.
A Good Domain Name
Your domain name is extremely important. It is how your customers will access your website. Choosing a name that is too complex in nature or unrelated to your products and/or services could result in the loss of a lot of potential customers. The FatCow blog gives great tips on how to choose the perfect domain name for your site. A great way to get started is to simply register your personal name as a domain, if someone else hasn’t already.
A Memorable Logo
Part of branding your company means creating a company logo or slogan that is easy for your target audience to remember. It also separates you from your competitors. If you already have a company logo, make sure that you have it placed in a location where it can be seen by all visitors. This provides a lasting memory for your target audience. Just think about all of the amazing logos in the world today (like Apple), that don’t even have a name attached to it, but still… everyone know’s who and what it is.
A Good Choice of Colors
Aesthetics are important when trying to stand out and should be considered when designing your company website. When choosing colors you want to stick with colors that are either soothing to look at or that coincide with your company colors. Refer to this color guide to learn what colors emit different emotions.
Simplicity
As you begin working on the aesthetics of your website be sure that you keep it simple. Adding too many graphics, large pictures, and other features to the site not only make it take much longer to load, but it can also be very distracting to the website visitor which is never good for business as they’ll just move on to the next site. “Ugly sites” like Drudge Report, Google and Craigslist are the kings of simplicity, and look how famous and rich they are today!
Easy Layout
When creating and searching through a website, always keep the user in mind. As you begin laying out the various web pages and information, it is important that it is easy to comprehend. Remember, a confused user will quickly lose patience and move on to another site. Whether you are creating a web site or blog, start with a base template and work out from there — always remember to keep it simple.
Compelling Content
Whether your content will simply consist of a few informational pages about your company and products/services or it is going to consist of a blog and additional resources, the content you provide within your site should be compelling. You want to grab the reader’s attention from the beginning giving them instant access to what your business is all about and why it benefits them. One of my best posts has been the one about how I made over $ 800,000 in just 4 months with one of my sites. How can you create this same type of compelling content for your site?
SEO Friendly
While you might believe this is an old concept, search engine optimization or SEO is still very relevant when it comes to website creation. Ensure that you’ve utilized keywords that your target audience would search for to improve your chances of being seen on the first few pages of a search engine. When creating a site with WordPress, many of the built in features and plugins will make this process a breeze.
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Social Media
Social MediaThe millennial shopper loves to share the good news about a company, product, or service through social media outlets. Having social sharing features on your website such as icons, users can easily find you on other platforms and share the information with others who could use your products or services. In addition to sharing buttons, there are plenty of other ways to get attention and social traffic back to your blog as well.
Easily Accessible
Last but certainly not least you want to make sure that the website you create is easily accessible on various platforms. Should your user search your site on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, they should be able to do so without complication. If you don’t already have a mobile friendly site, this is something you want to work on so that you don’t miss out on the potential website traffic
That pretty much sums it up. Your website or blog needs to incorporate aesthetics along with practicality in order to attract the attention of your target audience and to stand out from the crowd. If you are not knowledgeable in web design, working with a developer is ideal to ensure that you’ve encompassed all the above discussed features as well as other important components. After launching your site with these improvements, you should begin to see a hike in visitor stats.
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