5 Web Design Mistakes To Avoid
Would you like to ensure visitors to your website have the best possible experience? We’re pretty sure that you would!
Websites offer the ability to make life easier in so many ways for almost any business. However, a poorly designed or constructed website is destined to provide a frustrating rather than enlightening experience for anyone visiting it..
Below we have identified 5 of the most common mistakes made by web designers throughout the world. The good news is though that any Footprint Web Design customer will certainly not receive a finished website which falls foul of any of the following mistakes!!
No. 1 – Too Difficult To Read
The most innovative websites are nearly always very easy on the eye. No matter how informative you may believe your website is, if visitors cannot read the text when they arrive it is highly unlikely to be helpful!
Some web designs incorporate the most unusual font styles and sizes making reading a pain. Don’t make this mistake with yours, we certainly won’t.
No. 2 – A Poorly Organised Website
Do you read every word on a page or scan for useful information? The majority of people choose to scan so make sure that your website is organised accordingly.
Whilst some (poor) designers just put a block of text on the web page, always make sure that you do not neglect headings, sub-headings, bullets, keywords, paragraphs, etc wherever needed.
No. 3 – Ineffective Website Navigation
Following hot on the heals of number 2, effective navigation simply cannot be more important within a website. Users simply MUST be able to find their way around easily if they are likely to spend any length of time on your website.
No. 4 – Using an Unfriendly Screen Resolution
This one is thankfully a little more uncommon now but the days of visiting a website only to find that we have to scroll horizontally to view all of the content are sadly still not completely behind us.
This is an absolute no-no in modern web design. A good designer will develop websites that fit on most screen sizes.
No. 5 – Over Complicated Forms
Registration forms can be tricky but ask yourself, how much information do you actually need from your customer?
Only make registration fields mandatory if they have to be. Name, e-mail address, phone number on enquiry fields will nearly always be enough.
Further Information
Footprint specialise in creating bespoke websites, designed to help take your business to another level. If you’d like to speak to us regarding any of our services, give us a call on 01883 372488 or contact us via Facebook and we’ll be happy to talk you through your options.
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There Are No Short Cuts To An Effective Google Maps Listing
Google My Business can be a very powerful tool for any business with a focus on their local area. If you can achieve a first page ranking for any of your chosen terms on Google Maps, it is all but guaranteed that prospective customers will view your business before almost any other.
Please see below for a recent example:
However it is very important to ensure that your listing is created correctly without cutting any corners.
A Common Mistake
Through the ‘Google My Business’ dashboard, users have the ability to set their radius of service around their physical address. This option is designed to allow customers to see how far a business is prepared to travel in order to visit a customer.
However, some business owners choose to be a little too greedy and instead of setting a realistic and accurate radius, set their radius to its maximum in the hope of ranking across several locations. The reality of the situation is that this will not work and you will instead find that you are only likely to rank around the actual, physical location of your business.
Setting A Realistic Radius
Rather than trying to trick Google into giving you rankings across a broader area than you should be eligible for, you should instead use a radius setting which realistically and accurately highlights the catchment area of your business. If your business legitimately covers a huge service area, that is fine, however you should not expect to receive any cross-location ranking boost just because of it.
The reality is that if you want to rank across several locations, you need a physical site in each major city that’s actually utilised and occupied by your team.
Please Note – There is a ‘black hat’ practice which involves purchasing virtual addresses purely for the location pin. This is something that should not be attempted as it goes directly against Google’s quality guidelines.
Further Information
Footprint specialise in creating individually tailored web marketing solutions designed to help take your business to another level. If you’d like to speak to us regarding any of our services, give us a call on 01883 372488 or contact us via Facebook and we’ll be happy to talk you through your options.
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5 Facts To Prove the Importance of Mobile Marketing
The balance of power has been on the move for many years and in 2015, Google confirmed the following:
It’s Official: Google Says More Searches Now On Mobile Than On Desktop
Whilst this change has been anticipated for a number of years, confirmation from Google regarding a change in the browsing habits of internet users is huge news for businesses.
Google stated that “more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan.”
Whilst that statement does not officially include the UK, it is a fairly safe assumption that we will be included within this list.
For more on this story, please click here.
What Does This Mean For My Business?
With more and more customers using their mobile devices (either phones or tablets) to browse for products and services, taking the required steps to 
ensure that visitors to your website receive the optimum experience has never been more important.
Whilst a ‘non-mobile optimised’ website will still retain its desktop search rankings, there is every chance that it will not rank well on mobile search rankings. Although a few years ago, this would not have been an issue, with the shift in balance in browsing power, mobile marketing has become essential for all businesses, especially for small and mid-sized businesses.
For more on this story, please click here.
Still Have Doubts?
If you still have doubts regarding the popularity of mobile Vs desktop searching, the following facts may help to change your mind.
1. Accessing The Internet Has Never Been Easier
80% of all online adults now own a Smartphone & 47% own a Tablet.
Source = GlobalWebIndex’s 2015 Q3 report on trends for smartphones, tablets, smart TVs and wearables.
2. Mobile Internet Usage Is More Popular Than Ever
More Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan.
3. Mobile Usage Is Ideally Suited To Searching For Local Businesses
38% of mobile users search at least one time per month for a local business.
Source = BrightLocal Mobile Consumer Survey 2015
4. Mobile Internet Users Are Proactive Shoppers
70% of mobile searches lead to an online action within an hour (versus 1 month for 70% of PC users).
Source = Mobile Marketing Assoc. Mobile Marketing Forum 2010
5. Mobile Searches Also Lead To More ‘In-Shop’ Purchases
78% of Local Mobile searches result in offline purchases.
Source = ComScore, Neustar Localeze, 15 Miles, Local search study 2013
Further Information
Footprint specialise in creating bespoke websites, designed to help take your business to another level. If you’d like to speak to us regarding any of our services, give us a call on 01883 372488 or contact us via Facebook and we’ll be happy to talk you through your options.
