27 Ways to Radically Improve your Website

www.losangeleswebstrategies.com

Why bother?
• Websites play an integral part in the
branding and marketing of every company
• It’s really easy to make small changes that
have a big impact
• Most SMBs neglect their websites, so it’s
easy to stand out from the competition!

Typography
• Make your copy scannable
• Break up text with sub-headings, bulleted
lists, highlighted words
• Optimize for F-shaped reading patterns

• Increase the font size to improve
readability
• Make sure your line height is sufficient
• Go to: pearsonified.com/typography/
Optimize your type settings

Best Practices
• Use no more than two different fonts for
your body copy
• Use web-safe fonts like Arial, Georgia,
Verdana, Lucida, and/or Tahoma
• Remove underlines on all non-hyperlinked
text (because you don’t want to
confuse/annoy visitors by creating faux
links)

Design
• Place your name and logo on every page
and make the logo a link to the homepage
• Use a consistent navigational structure
across all of your pages (sales/landing
pages excepted)

“Users form their expectations for your site
based on what's commonly done on most
other sites. If you deviate, your site will be
harder to use and users will leave.” – Jakob
Nielsen, usability expert
Don’t re-invent the wheel

Best Practices
• Improve your site’s photography
• Don’t use distorted or grainy images
• Avoid using stock photography whenever
possible; hire a local photographer or
enlist a creative colleague, family member

Content
• Include your company tagline next to your
logo on every page
• Make sure your homepage has a clear,
benefit-focused headline of what your
company offers (and to whom)

Copywriting (Basics)
• Use short, easy-to-understand words and
phrases
• Avoid long paragraphs and sentences
• Use the (free) Readability Test tool
(read-able.com) to check your site’s
readability; make sure it’s under grade 8

Calls to action (CTA)
• Make sure your site has calls to action
that are prominent, compelling, and
relevant
– Write CTAs that appeal to visitors’ self-
interest
– Position them in high-profile areas of your
site
– Ask for varying levels of commitment
– Make it easy for visitors to take action

Links
• Add links to your social media profiles, as
well as calls to action to
follow/friend/connect with your business
• Add an e-newsletter sign-up form
– “If you don't have a newsletter, then
publishing one is probably the single-
highest ROI action you can take to
improve your Internet presence.” – Jakob
Nielsen

Copywriting (Advanced)
• Apply the inverted pyramid structure to
your copy, starting with the
general/essential information and moving
into greater (non-essential) detail

Visual
• Put photos of your team on your about
page; people like doing business with real
people

About Page
• Pay special attention to your about page
• Include any conversion points (like an
opt-in form/newsletter sign-up) on your
about page

Usability

Usability
• Identify the top goals that users have
when they visit your site (e.g. getting
directions, learning about your products,
etc.); optimize your content and site
architecture accordingly

Links
• Use color to distinguish visited and
unvisited links; this sounds innocuous,
but it’s one of the few universally agreed
upon standards among usability experts

Contact Info
• Include your phone number and address
on your homepage (and every other page)

Search?
• Get rid of your search feature if it doesn’t
perform well (if you have fewer than 10
pages on your site, get rid of it
regardless)

Say no to PDFs
• Limit links to PDF documents; users don’t
like to toggle between web pages and
PDFs

Best Practices
• Get rid of any Flash elements
• Embed a Google map on your contact
page; include your exact address
• Make sure that each page on your website
has a unique and accurate title tag and
meta description
• Update your website with fresh content on
a regular basis

Finally…
• Make sure your site loads quickly!
• Get a mobile version of your site if you
are in an industry where mobile search is
common

Parting Words
• You don’t have to do these things all at
once
• Make incremental improvements over time
• Contact us at anytime if you need
assistance

We’d love to help.
• Just get in touch!
(213) 607-9100

27 Ways to Radically Improve your Website

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27 Ways to Radically Improve your Website