Is your Website Hurting your Business?

1. Is your Website Hurting your Business? Your business website has never been more critical to the ongoing success of your organisation? Century 21 customers are tech-savvy and more than likely to check your website before doing business with you. They want to be able to find the information they need quickly, without feeling like they’ve compromised their privacy or data security. So how does your website stand up? Is the design of your website helping or hurting your business? Not sure? This blog unpacks 5 crucial factors of good web design. Use it as a quick checklist to make sure your website is up to scratch. Let’s start with one of the most obvious (but often overlooked) features of a website. Site speed. 1. Speed Did you know that most people will abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load a page? A slow website is a bad experience for the user, and Google will penalise you in their search results for sluggish performance.

2. But your website does not have to be slow. Skilled web developers know exactly how to streamline a website for maximum site speed. Structurally you can expect from a reputable agency: ● Optimisation and compression of backend code. ● Strategic use of render blocking CSS and Javascript. ● Lightweight, responsive themes and plugins. ● Caching layers. ● Mobile-first approach. A good web developer will also have access to a range of support services including reliable hosting, image optimisation, and content delivery network (CDN)s. 2. Aesthetics On the world wide web, looks do matter. Your business website should be on-brand, uncluttered, and easy to use for anyone who visits. Clients, customers, and prospects will be judging the credibility of your business by how easily they can find your: ● Business address and contact details. ● Service o?erings (with prices). ● Customer reviews and testimonials. They’ll also be expecting a fresh design with balanced tones and contemporary images. After all, just think for a moment about how you feel when you visit a site with ugly colours and cheesy graphics that have been in use since the 90s. Your web-developer should be able to balance sleek aesthetics, with an innovative backend that works perfectly. 3. Search Is your website visible and ranking well on Google search? The design and structure of your website directly impacts how Google sees and organises your site. Bottom line: rank well on search, get more tra?c, more prospects, and more sales. An experienced and knowledgeable web developer will be able to:

3. ● Use schema and structured data to ensure your site is eligible for rich search results. ● Optimise the site for local search — ensuring your business ranks well according to your suburb, state, and geographic region. ● Develop a best-practice site structure and linking strategy that incorporates your products, categories, tags, blog posts, and static web pages. 4. Content What do you think when you visit a website whose last blog post was published 2 years ago, and has a pile of links that don’t work? Leave? Stay? Your website definitely needs well written, optimised content that educates and engages your customers. It is also critical that your content is: ● Accurate, properly researched, and tested after publishing. ● Up-to-date with working links to relevant web pages. ● Accessible to people with disabilities and language di?erences.

4. A sole-trader web designer is unlikely to have the time or resources to support an ongoing content plan. Whereas a well-rounded web development agency will have a team of qualified SEOs and content writers who can help you with your overall marketing strategies. 5. Safety Websites are being increasingly targeted by hackers and data thieves. It’s a terrible user experience if a site visitor gets a ‘site not secure’ message in their browser, but catastrophic if your biggest customer gets a virus or has their financial data compromised. A skilled web developer will build security into your site architecture, including website design, deployment, vulnerability testing, and monitoring. Quick examples include (see below) but there are plenty more: ● SSL certificates. ● Backend virus and malware scanning. ● Firewall and location blocking. It’s been a few years since you launched your website (especially if you collect customer data) it’s definitely worth having a security audit of your site. Is it time for a website review? Now you’re familiar with some of the basic factors of good web design we’ll ask again. Is the design of your website helping, or hurting your business? If you haven’t answered immediately with an all-caps YES, then get in touch right away with the professional team at iVersion. We are a full-service web development agency in the heart of Sydney — with the skills and resources to drive your business website to the very top. Reach out today on 1800 864 868 or info@iversion.com.au.