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33 Ways to Improve Your Website

33 Ways to Improve Your Website

Most of us wish life were simple (or at least simpler). Anyone who’s grappled with their tax return or a Gantt chart will understand where we're coming from. And websites and digital marketing can be just as complex.

So, we thought we'd give you a simple list of things you can do to improve your website.  (Doesn’t everyone need more things to do?) 

eCommerce Websites

  1. Make sure your product is no more than between 3 and 4 clicks from the Home Page
  2. Create a specific Sale category for all the products you want on Sale
  3. Put a “Sale” ‘banner’ on items which are in a Sale even if they are not listed in the Sale category
  4. Offer different ways to sort your products; price, colour, size, most recently viewed, etc.
  5. Offer a “View all” facility for the visitor who doesn’t want to wade through pages of products
  6. Use offers (3 for 2, Buy One Get One Free, Cheapest of 3 Free, etc.)
  7. Make sure you have related products listed against every product on your site
  8. Test video demonstrations of your products
  9. Run split-tested pages which sell your products at different prices (You can test: a reduced price, your normal price and an increased price.)
  10. If you’re selling below RRP show the saving in pounds and as a percentage
  11. Ask for your customer’s email address at the beginning of the checkout process
  12. Send an email to anyone who dropped out of the basket asking them to;
    1. Try again
    2. Consider an alternative product
  13. Once you’ve got yourself a customer make sure you keep emailing them!
  14. Use any appropriate logos to show that your website offers a safe shopping experience
  15. Offer upsells at the basket (e.g. batteries for toys or dishwasher powder for dishwashers, etc.)
  16. Use vouchers (10%, £5.00 off, Free Delivery, etc.)
  17. Offer multiple payment methods (VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, Amazon, etc.)
  18. Don't force customers to "Register" during the checkout process, offer a Guest facility.
  19. Use Google Shopping to show a picture of your products on Google's search results.

Lead Generation Websites

  1. Offer a free report in exchange for your visitor’s email address
  2. Test other giveaways like white papers, videos, consultancy time, eBooks, etc.
  3. Follow up your emails with more emails!
  4. Ask for additional contact information in your enquiry forms like; telephone number, postal address and contact your prospect using these approaches
  5. Use a telephone number that is unique to your website so you can track how many calls the website generates
  6. Consider using the above eCommerce techniques for your services (e.g. related services or offering upsells)
  7. Use Live Chat or Video Ask to help create a relationship with the visitor.

Improve Your Copy

  1. Test different opening titles/headlines
  2. Test different font colours
  3. Emphasise certain words with bold or italics (but never an underline as your visitor could confuse it with a hyperlink!)
  4. Break up your web pages with headings
  5. Use bullets and numbers
  6. Shorten your paragraphs and sentences
  7. Make sure your copy is easy to read by running it through this Readability Index Calculator. You’re looking for a Flesch-Kincaid Grade level of about 7 and a Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score of anything over 60
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Published by digitalROAR