With all the different platforms for brands to promote themselves on today sometimes the humble website is forgotten and neglected. It’s important to remember, however, that your website is still your company’s storefront and needs to be maintained as such! We decided to write this blog series covering what to do when you update or redesign your website to help you understand the essential “do’s and don’ts” of modern website design.
If you decide to overhaul your website then there are a couple of things to bear in mind. One of the first things is, as with any content or marketing collateral, you should always write and design with your persona in mind, and not because you’re “keeping up with the Jones”. There is no point in fixing something that isn’t broken, it wastes time and can do more damage to your image than good.
Having said that there have been more than a couple of recent advances in web technology and there are certain things that are absolute necessities. It may be worth tweaking your website to make sure they’re included.
Responsive or Bust
Your website must be responsive. There’s no point in having great content if it’s painful to read it. Responsive design is the method of design that allows web pages to be displayed in their optimized form across all devises, so it doesn’t matter if your potential customers access your website from a smart phone, tablet, or lap/desktop. According to Google 52% of users said they’d be less likely to engage with a company if they had a negative mobile experience.
According to ShareThis 75% of Pins and 71% of tweets come from smartphones and tablets. Your mobile design should ensure easy sharing and show off how many people have already shared your content. Social reassurance that their sharing behavior is “correct” helps people feel secure in sharing content.
The Naked Truth
Content on mobile needs to be naked. That’s right - get it stripped down and natural. It’s not the Naked Chef anymore – but the naked content. It’s difficult to enjoy reading long articles on a small screen. Think Zen minimalism.
Simplify Calls to Action
Make sure that any contact details on your site are actionable. If someone is reading your content on their phone, they literally already have the phone in their hand. Make sure they don’t have to copy your phone number - let them click and call.
Similarly, condense any forms you have. Filling out online forms on a non-optimized mobile platform is about as comfortable as having teeth pulled or “the talk” with your parents. Be kind to your customers and keep your forms short!
What have we learned?
- Optimize your website for mobile platforms
- Make sure that your content is comfortable to read from any device
- Make sharing easy
For a consultation to talk about your web presence, drop us a line at info@penguinstrategies.com.
by The Penguin Team on October 16, 2014
As a leading B2B digital marketing agency, We help B2B Technology Companies, enterprise software, and hardware companies increase brand awareness, reach more qualified leads and close more customers. Penguin Strategies is a Diamond Partner of HubSpot.
