Holiday eCommerce Mistakes

The Holidays drive an absolutely absurd amount of traffic to major US retailers each year and with it, eCommerce purchases. But what happens if your retailer website has SEO and User Experience issues? What kinds of mistakes can a large company make that impact it’s ability to grow exponentially each Black Friday? Today, we will take a look at an eCommerce retail giant, Best Buy.

SEO Site Audit – BestBuy.Com

Best Buy is a multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in the United States. It offers a wide range of products, including electronics, appliances, and entertainment items, both online and through its brick-and-mortar stores. They also have an incredibly slow website…

Website Speed Issues

When I say slow, I mean like molasses. At least for the Crawler. Currently, they’re getting a 33 out of 100 for performance when using Google’s Page Speed Insights tool. This score, unacceptable in the eyes of Google, not only potentially impacts their ability to rank as well as they should but also their ability to get potential users to make purchases on their site. 

According to Google’s own internal testing data, for every second your site takes to load conversions can drop by 20%. Think about how much of an impact that could have on your sales.

But It Looks Like It Is Loading Fast…For Me?

Sometimes the Page Speed Insights tool will see websites load much slower than it seems to your own eyes. In this case, the crawler believes that the website takes ~9.3 seconds to load properly for a user. This is because so many files are loading in the background that piece together the entire site, that it causes the browser to go into overdrive trying to put it all together.

While a user may see it load faster, this slow speed for the crawler means it thinks the site probably gives the user a poor purchasing experience. This contextual understanding could negatively impact the ability for Best Buy to have the best possible rankings it could have, despite how big of an authority they are. 

So, What Causes This Slowdown?

JavaScript is complicated. While scripts help sites look beautiful and appear seamless in their flow, they make crawling and loading pages harder for Google and browsers. It takes a lot of energy to crawl through and properly understand how to put the page together, and often times, large files are used to build a site – while only part of the actual data in the file is needed.

In the above image we can see many warnings and errors that BestBuy.Com is receiving from Google’s Page Speed Insights tool. Much of this clearly shows the problems causing the slowdown on the website and what could be reworked or tooled to increase the speed and give both the user – and the bots – a better experience.

Words Are Important

One of the biggest mistakes we see time and time again among retailers is their inability to create unique, informative content about a product that isn’t just the boilerplate language given to them by the vendors and manufacturers they work with. Much of the time this language is missing valuable SEO that could help drive even more visibility and traffic.

Example: RokuTV

When a user looks for Roku TV on Google, in many cases they do not get Best Buy at the top of the search results because the website uses the same content created by the manufacturer for much of their on-page content. Missing from much of this content is the actual phrase, Roku TV. Because the manufacturer has created the copy, it instead frequently refers to it by the branded name, RokuTV. This is not how users typically search. Additionally, because they are using the same content as other retailers, it is harder for Google to understand which one of these retailers should rank for these searches.

A quick Google search shows that Target and Walmart are both using the exact same copy to describe the television – but they have purposely optimized their sites by splitting RokuTV into Roku TV. A smart SEO move. The closer you can get your site optimized, verbatim, to the keyword you are targeting, the better.

The Difference In Potential Search Volume Between RokuTV vs Roku TV

Ok…Why Does This Matter?

These SEO and User Experience missteps underline how critical it is to focus on the finer details of eCommerce. Overlooking something as basic as page load times or how customers search for products can lead to lost sales and diminished visibility. Even industry giants must pay attention to these aspects because, in the competitive world of online retail, the smallest missteps can have major consequences.

Grow Your eCommerce Sales

If you’re ready to identify and fix SEO mistakes holding your website back, or if you need help driving more traffic, leads, and sales for your business, contact Direct Online Marketing today for help in SEO services and eCommerce website design. Take advantage of a free site audit to uncover opportunities for growth and ensure your website is working as hard as you are to achieve your goals. Learn more about why Direct Online Marketing is the best digital marketing agency for B2B businesses, and Contact Us to get a free audit of your website!

The post What Is Wrong With My Website? – Holiday Edition appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Table of Contents

• Crawlers Struggle to See JavaScript Elements on Websites
• JavaScript Interferes with SEO
• Slow Page Load Times Due to JavaScript
• Poor Mobile Experience Due to JavaScript
• Optimize Your Site to Handle JavaScript for Better SEO
• Pre-render HTML to Avoid JavaScript Issues
• Code Basic Content in HTML, Not JavaScript
• Set Pages to Defer Loading JavaScript
• Test for JavaScript Problems with these Approaches
• Get a Google-eye View of Your Website
• Site Performance Tools to Reveal JavaScript
• Schedule Continual JavaScript Maintenance
• Experience the DOM Difference
• Key Takeaways

Crawlers Struggle to See JavaScript Elements on Websites

Imagine you’ve built a stunning site. It’s got captivating visuals, smooth animations, and interactive elements that make it a joy to use. There’s a potential hitch, though. All that fancy JavaScript might be hiding your website’s true value from search engines.

What’s the matter? Search engines rely on crawlers that scan your website’s code to understand and index its content. If those crawlers can’t see past the layers of JavaScript, your website’s hidden gem—the informative blog posts, detailed product descriptions, or compelling calls to action—might be invisible to the very audience you’re trying to reach.

Make Sure Your Site Is Visible

The core of the issue is this: JavaScript is great at making websites dynamic and engaging. It can also render content dynamically, meaning it’s built on the fly rather than existing as static text on the page. This dynamic approach can create a roadblock for search engine crawlers, essentially locking them out of the valuable content behind the JavaScript code. The result? Lower search engine rankings, reduced website traffic, and missed opportunities to connect with potential customers.

JavaScript Interferes with SEO

JavaScript has become a cornerstone of modern web design, allowing developers to create interactive, dynamic websites that engage users. However, as essential as JavaScript is for enhancing user experience, it can also pose significant challenges for search engine optimization (SEO). 

If not managed properly, JavaScript can hide your best content from search engines, preventing it from being indexed and hurting your search rankings. You need to balance the benefits of JavaScript with effective SEO practices to ensure your content remains visible and accessible.

Slow Page Load Times Due to JavaScript

Consider an eCommerce site loaded with pictures, interactive carousels, and various scripts that make the shopping experience delightful. However, these same scripts can significantly slow down the page load times. Slow pages frustrate users and are penalized by search engines, which prefer fast-loading sites. 

Excessive JavaScript can bog down your site, harming both user experience and search rankings. You should especially keep in mind Google’s Core Web Vitals. These are elements of page performance that Google cares about because they want users to have good experiences when using Google to navigate the internet.

The health metrics that Google tracks include Largest Contentful Paint, which is a measure of how long it takes for the largest elements on a page to load. This is often an image or video. It’s a way to gauge how long it takes for a webpage to be enticing and user-friendly. And seconds are crucial. Think about it. When was the last time you waited around for 10 seconds for a webpage to load. You probably moved on. Potential customers will do the same.  

Poor Mobile Experience Due to JavaScript

Mobile users expect fast and smooth performance. A mobile user visiting your site may encounter sluggish performance due to heavy JavaScript. Slow load times and unresponsive pages can drive away users and hurt your SEO, as search engines prioritize mobile-friendly websites. Ensuring your site performs well on mobile devices is crucial for maintaining good search engine rankings.

Google is moving more and more toward prizing the mobile experience of a website over the desktop experience. In fact, here at DOM, we’ve been hearing that sites with a sufficiently poor mobile experience may not be indexed by Google at all. If the search giant doesn’t think your site will provide an industry-standard user experience—in terms of navigability and load speed on mobile—you may be shut out.

Get a Mobile Experience Consultation

Optimize Your Site to Handle JavaScript for Better SEO

If you think you might be losing out on search visibility due to JavaScript, you don’t have to chuck out your whole site and start over. There are changes you can make to get search engines to see you. 

Pre-render HTML to Avoid JavaScript Issues

One effective way to ensure search engines index your content is through server-side rendering (SSR). SSR involves pre-rendering HTML on the server side before sending it to the browser, ensuring that search engines see a fully loaded page. This approach can significantly improve the visibility of your content. Implementing SSR for key content areas ensures that important information is always accessible to search engines.

Think of SSR as a translator for crawlers. It essentially pre-renders the content with JavaScript on the server, creating a static version that search engines can easily understand and index.

Code Basic Content in HTML, Not JavaScript

Progressive enhancement is a strategy where the basic content and functionality of a website are built using HTML, ensuring that it’s accessible to all users, regardless of their browser capabilities. JavaScript is then layered on top to enhance the experience. This ensures that your core content remains visible and usable even if JavaScript fails to load. 

By building your site with a solid HTML foundation, you make sure that essential content is always accessible to search engines.

Set Pages to Defer Loading JavaScript

Lazy loading is a technique that defers the loading of non-essential JavaScript and media until they are needed. This can significantly improve page load times, making your site faster and more responsive. For instance, images and scripts can be loaded as the user scrolls down the page, rather than all at once. Implementing lazy loading can help improve user experience and SEO by reducing initial load times.

Again, search engines process HTML much more efficiently than JavaScript. So delaying when the JavaScript of a page loads means that the HTML will be first in the queue to show up to crawlers, and thus the central content of a page will be communicated quickly to the crawler and you’ll have a better chance of ranking well.

Get My No-obligation Consultation

Test for JavaScript Problems with these Approaches

You don’t have to be a developer to get a grasp on whether your site is being impacted by JavaScript. The tools and methods here let the non-coding among us look under the hood and understand what’s going on. 

Get a Google-eye View of Your Website

Google Search Console offers a suite of tools to help you understand how Google views your site. The URL Inspection tool, for example, allows you to see how Googlebot renders your pages. Regularly using this tool to monitor and test your important pages can help you identify and fix visibility issues caused by JavaScript.

Site Performance Tools to Reveal JavaScript

Tools like Google Lighthouse provide insights into your site’s performance, including page speed and other SEO factors. These tools can help you evaluate how JavaScript impacts your site’s load times and overall performance. By optimizing JavaScript and other resources, you can improve both user experience and search engine rankings.

Schedule Continual JavaScript Maintenance 

Balancing the use of JavaScript with effective SEO practices is crucial for ensuring that your best content remains visible and accessible to both users and search engines. Regularly auditing your site for potential JavaScript SEO issues and implementing best practices can help maintain a dynamic user experience without compromising search engine visibility.

Remember, a well-optimized website is like a well-lit shop window – it showcases your best products and entices potential customers to step inside. By ensuring search engines can see the true value of your content, you’re opening the door to a wider audience and boosting your website’s overall success.

Experience the DOM Difference

Ready to make sure your website’s content is easy for search engines to process?  Consider a consultation with the experts at Direct Online Marketing. 

We can help you choose the right approach and ensure that your website is making a good impression with your customers. DOM provides assistance in optimizing your site for search engines while maintaining a dynamic user experience. Our team can help you navigate the complexities of JavaScript and SEO.

Key Takeaways

• Search engines struggle to index content hidden behind JavaScript, potentially reducing your site’s visibility and search rankings.
• Heavy use of JavaScript can slow page load times, negatively impacting user experience and SEO performance.
• Poor mobile performance due to excessive JavaScript can harm your site’s search engine rankings, as mobile-friendly websites are prioritized.
• Implementing server-side rendering (SSR) and progressive enhancement can help ensure essential content is accessible to search engines.
• Tools like Google Search Console and Google Lighthouse can help identify and address JavaScript-related SEO issues.

The post Don’t Let All That Nice JavaScript Hide Your Best Content appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

• Introduction
• AI’s Potential Benefits
• Why the Human Touch is Essential
• How to Use AI Responsibly in Website Creation
• Okay, I Can Do It, But Should I?

Should you use an AI to make your next website instead of hiring a web designer? It’s a good question for any marketing pro to ask. The promise of AI is that it will do the things we don’t want to do ourselves, either because we don’t know how, or because we don’t want to spend the time. 

You can’t paint like Vermeer, but if you could, would you ever recreate The Girl With a Pearl Earring with a pug instead of a person? 

Of course not, but ChatGPT can make it in 10 seconds. 

Making a website is a much bigger project than an image, obviously, but it’s perfectly reasonable to think that an AI tool exists that can make a website. 

We will tell you how you can use AI to make your website, but we’ll also answer a larger question… 

Should you? 

AI’s Potential Benefits

Platforms like Wix have tools that claim to generate entire websites for you with minimal input. These tools can provide a starting point, especially if you have limited web development experience, but it’s important to remember the limitations (and there are many). 

First, let’s talk about the benefits.

Speed and Efficiency

Building a website can be a tedious process. From wrangling with lines of code to meticulously aligning images, some tasks eat up time and energy. 

AI can be a lifesaver in this regard. 

Tools exist that automatically generate basic layouts and that could save hours spent on wireframing. Images are always hard to source if you don’t have a professional photographer on retainer, and AI-powered image libraries can tap into collections, finding photos and illustrations that feel fresh and relevant.

These automated functions save you from the more mundane aspects of web design. This frees up your time and mental bandwidth to focus on the big picture like honing your messaging, defining your brand voice, and making those strategic decisions that set your website apart.

Content Generation

We’ve all stared at a blank page, the blinking cursor mocking us as writer’s block sets in. AI isn’t a replacement for skilled copywriters, but it can be a helpful thought-starter. 

Tools like Copy.ai or Unbounce Smart Copy generate rough drafts, offer alternative phrasings, and they can help with translations for multilingual sites.  

Think of these AI helpers as tireless brainstorming partners. They may churn out some nonsensical phrases, but they also might throw out gems that inspire your own unique approach. It’s a way to supercharge the ideation process without sacrificing your brand’s authentic tone.

Data-Driven Insights

Your website isn’t a fixed object, a living document. AI thrives in data analysis, uncovering patterns and behaviors that a human eye might overlook. By tracking how visitors click on your site, where they linger, and where they drop off, AI can identify potential chokepoints or missed conversion opportunities.

AI acts as a tireless analyst, constantly poring over data. Its recommendations can lead to subtle website tweaks that dramatically improve user experience. Think better button placement, more intuitive navigation, or compelling calls to action – optimizations that translate directly into results.

Why the Human Touch is Essential

Creativity and Nuance

AI can mimic, but it struggles with true originality. It analyzes existing patterns and learns from them, but your business is unique. 

Can AI truly grasp the nuances of your brand voice or the subtleties of your industry? Your website needs to stand out, not blend in, and that requires a human understanding of messaging and differentiation. An AI might write passable copy, but it won’t capture that spark that makes your brand memorable.

Your website is the digital face of your business. Would you trust an AI to choose a spokesperson for your brand, or write an inspiring mission statement that resonates with your customers? 

Of course not. 

Genuine human connection relies on subtle communication cues and empathy – things that AI still doesn’t really do.

Ethical Considerations

Unchecked AI has the potential to cause real-world harm. 

Because every AI needs to be trained on existing material, the biases and prejudices (even good ones!) can sneak into its output. AI tools trained on massive datasets can end up regurgitating existing material without proper attribution, essentially leading to plagiarism.  

You need to keep a human in the loop to make sure your website content is original, ethical, and reflects your company’s values.

Companies have been rightfully criticized for content that promotes stereotypes or spreads misinformation. While some of this can be malicious, AI tools, without careful guidance, can amplify those issues unwittingly. A human editor needs to identify potential pitfalls and ensure that the output aligns with ethical standards and brand messaging.

Also, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the ethical implications of recreating an artist’s unique style without giving them credit. 

There has been significant blowback from creatives when brands use unexamined AI images instead of the work of a graphic designer or artist. You can avoid that by, again, keeping a human in the loop.

Strategic Alignment

AI doesn’t understand your target audience, business goals, or your overall marketing strategy. It can offer suggestions and analyze data, but it can’t make those high-level decisions about how your website should function, what it should prioritize, and how it should integrate into your larger marketing efforts. 

This kind of strategic vision is uniquely human.

Your website exists within the larger context of your marketing efforts and overall business strategy.  AI can spot bottlenecks and suggest improvements based on data, but it won’t understand the nuances of customer journeys, the competitive landscape, or long-term branding goals. 

Humans must interpret the data and align the website’s design and functionality with those objectives.

How to Use AI Responsibly in Website Creation

AI as an Assistant, Not a Replacement

Think of AI tools as powerful helpers, not as a substitute for a web team. Use them to speed up repetitive tasks like generating code snippets or finding suitable images. Leverage their data-crunching abilities to pinpoint areas where user experience could be improved. 

AI is a means to enhance productivity, not to outsource your core responsibilities.

It’s important to set the right expectations. AI can automate certain tasks, but it can’t replace the critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and strategic expertise that a human web developer brings. See AI as a tool that can augment your team’s abilities, not eliminate the need for human input.

Transparent Editing and Fact-Checking

Never take AI-generated output at face value. Rigorously edit any text for accuracy, tone, and originality. Fact-check against reliable sources, especially if AI is providing information or statistics. 

Be mindful of possible bias in the output, and be prepared to make significant revisions to ensure your content aligns with your brand and values.

Remember, AI models are trained on massive datasets, and those datasets can inadvertently contain misinformation or reflect social biases. 

It’s your responsibility to ensure that the final content on your website is factually correct, free from any harmful stereotypes, and aligns with your company’s values.

Staying Up-to-Date

AI is a relatively new industry and it’s changing really fast. 

You’ll need to continuously learn about the ethical considerations surrounding AI tools and the best practices for using them responsibly. Read industry blogs, follow relevant thought leaders, and stay informed about the latest tools and their capabilities. 

As the technology advances, so should your approach to using it wisely.

Staying informed is extremely important because ethical standards and legal regulations around AI usage are still being established. By proactively learning about these developments, you can keep your web development practices ahead of the curve.

Okay, I Can Do It, But Should I?

This is a question only you can answer. You know your business, your capabilities, your resources, your needs. A blog isn’t going to be able to tell you whether an AI can make your website, or be able to know whether or not you should use an AI. Every situation and every business is different. 

But to answer the question, you probably should not use an AI to design your website. It’s too fraught with danger to recommend anybody use an AI website generator. 

As we’ve demonstrated, you can use the tools out there to help you or your web team make a website. Every web designer is going to use some form of automation to help them make a website, even if they’re designing it themselves and creating it from the ground up. 

We already use AI in tons of different applications but we don’t think of them as traditional AI. 

The autocorrect that fixes your text messages? 

The spell check and grammar check that Word does on the documents you make? 

The SEO tools that give you insight into keywords? 

These are all using some form of artificial intelligence. 

So while you shouldn’t use AI to create a website, you can definitely use it to help you make a website, if you don’t really know how. An even better solution is to get your pals at DOM to help you make a website. 

We have designers, developers, SEO experts and writers who can make your vision of a website a reality. Contact us to schedule a consultation. 

Key Takeaways

• AI can assist in the website creation process, but not fully replace human expertise. AI excels at automating tasks, generating initial content, and analyzing website data. However, originality, strategic understanding, and ethical oversight remain vital human contributions.
• Websites must be unique and ethical. AI can sometimes replicate existing styles or perpetuate biases. Your website needs to stand out for its authentic messaging while ensuring content is original, bias-free, and aligned with your values.
• AI offers both speed and insight. Leverage AI to accelerate mundane design tasks or gain data-driven insights into user behavior. This frees up time for focusing on the big picture and strategy that differentiates your brand.
• Always maintain human oversight. Rigorously edit, fact-check, and refine any AI-generated output. Humans are responsible for ensuring the final website is accurate, aligns with branding, and reflects ethical principles.
• Stay informed about AI developments. As AI technology and regulations surrounding it evolve, continuous learning and proactive adaptation are essential for responsible use.
• The right approach depends on your unique circumstances. While it’s not recommended to solely rely on AI for website creation, thoughtful integration of AI tools can offer valuable assistance within your larger website development strategy.

The post Should I Use an AI to Make My Next Website? appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Many iconic companies are driven by innovation through art and design. One of my favorite examples – and personal sources of inspiration – is Walt Disney Animation Studios. They don’t just create films; they craft emotional journeys that etch themselves into your soul and exemplify how and why storytelling through design reigns supreme. 

While we don’t have the capabilities to sprinkle pixie dust to generate leads or drive sales, we’re fairly certain that a little imagination and creativity (and maybe a little faith and trust) can improve your marketing efforts and successfully win the hearts and minds of your target audience.

If you’ve ever wondered how graphic design and creative services can transform your business’s marketing efforts, we’re here to help! 

Grab your notebook as we prepare to explore the dynamic world of graphic design and how it can creatively impact your marketing campaigns. 

Why Settle for the Ordinary?

Picture this: you’re strolling down a crowded city street, and amidst a sea of bland, cookie-cutter displays, one stands out like a beacon of hope. 

It could be an advertisement on the side of a bus, a poster plastered to the storefront window, or maybe even a website you navigated to while adding that new pin to your digital inspiration board, but this is not just any design, it’s a work of art. 

With this, the graphic designer has successfully done their job. 

Their creation effectively grabs your attention, tugs at your emotions, and leaves an indelible mark in your memory. This is the power of graphic design. 

Why settle for dull and uninspiring when you can have eye-catching and unforgettable? Your business deserves to stand out, and graphic design is your secret weapon. Don’t settle for the ordinary and risk being left in the dust. 

First Impressions: The Make-or-Break Moment

Attention spans are shorter than ever. So short, that by the time you finish reading this sentence, you’ll have already decided whether to keep reading or move on to the next shiny thing that catches your eye. That’s the reality of the digital age we’re in.

This means that your business has nearly a fraction of a second to make a lasting impression. And where does this impression start? You guessed it: your visuals. 

Your logo, your website, and your marketing materials all play a pivotal role in that make-or-break moment.

Graphic design isn’t just about making things look pretty (though it certainly does that too). It’s about bringing your brand to life, resonating with your target audience, and communicating your unique value proposition through creative works of art. 

When potential customers land on your website, their first thought should be, “Wow, this looks amazing!” It may be subtle, but this subconscious thinking can, and will, directly impact click-through rates, engagement, lead generation, and even sales.

Storytelling with Design

Okay, so you’ve captured your audience’s attention. Now what? 

This is where the real magic of graphic design happens, as it tells your brand’s story. Think of it as a visual journey that your customers embark on when they interact with your marketing materials.

From the colors you choose to the fonts you use, every element in your design purposefully communicates something about your brand’s personality. 

Are you bold and adventurous? Choose vibrant colors and edgy fonts. Are you reliable and trustworthy? Opt for clean lines and classic typography. 

But make sure that everything on the design side is easily digestible. Your creative choices can just as easily be detrimental to your brand as they can be effective. When purposeful creative decisions are made and effectively communicate your messaging, the sky is the limit for your next creative piece. 

This is the “why” of graphic design that is so often overlooked and underappreciated. You can’t simply throw something together because it looks good. Shift your focus to the deeper-rooted elements that build on the storytelling aspects of your brand. 

But it’s not just about aesthetics; it’s about emotion. Graphic design has the power to evoke emotions, and emotions drive action. A well-crafted design can make your audience feel excited, inspired, or even nostalgic. 

When people feel that connection, they’re more likely to take the next step, whether by making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or sharing your content with their friends.

Standing Out in a Crowded World

Let’s face it, competition is fierce. No matter what industry you’re in, countless other businesses are vying for your customers’ attention. 

How do you stand out in this crowded world? The answer lies in the hands of your graphic designer.

Think about iconic brands like Apple, Nike, or Coca-Cola. What sets them apart? It’s not just their products; it’s their branding. It’s the unforgettable logos, the consistent color schemes, and the compelling visual stories they tell. When you see their designs, you instantly know who they are and what they stand for.

While your business may never have the same name recognition as these iconic brands, the possibility of achieving a similar level of differentiation through effective graphic design is in your realm of capabilities. 

Balancing Aesthetic with Functionality

Now, you might be thinking, “I get it, graphic design is important, but can’t I just slap together some visuals on my own?” 

Sure, you can. But remember, there’s more to graphic design than meets the eye, and your audience can just as easily decipher when and why something does or does not look good.

A skilled graphic designer isn’t just a pixel pusher; they’re a visual strategist. They know how to create designs that not only look good but also work effectively to achieve your marketing goals.

Graphic designers are like the architects of your brand’s visual identity. They plan, they design, and they execute with precision. They know how to balance aesthetics with functionality, ensuring that your design not only catches the eye but also delivers a seamless user experience.

Adapting to Change

In the fast-paced world of business, change is the only constant. 

Trends evolve, technology advances and consumer preferences shift. So, how do you keep your brand relevant and in tune with the times? 

You guessed it: graphic design.

Graphic designers are the trendsetters, the innovators, and the adaptors. They stay on the cutting edge of design trends and are always ready to pivot when necessary. Whether it’s incorporating the latest design techniques, optimizing for mobile devices, or crafting a killer social media graphic, they’ve got you covered.

Building Trust and Credibility

Trust and credibility are the cornerstones of any successful business. When consumers trust a brand, they’re more likely to choose it over competitors. So, how does graphic design fit into this equation? It’s all about creating a professional and consistent image.

Think of your design elements as your brand’s attire. Would you trust a lawyer in a Hawaiian shirt or a surgeon in ripped jeans? Probably not. Just like these professionals, your brand needs to dress the part. Consistent and professional design elements across all your marketing materials signal trustworthiness and competence.

A World of Possibilities

Now that we’ve established the importance of graphic design, let’s dive into the endless possibilities it offers for your marketing efforts. Let’s explore some exciting ways to take your brand to new heights.

Website Design

Is your website stuck in the past, with clunky navigation and outdated visuals? Responsive design, intuitive navigation, and visually compelling layouts ensure that users stay engaged and navigate through the site effortlessly. Web design that aligns with your brand helps establish credibility, encouraging top-of-funnel visitors to become paying customers.

Digital Ads

Paid ads for Google and social media campaigns (Meta, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.) can effectively raise awareness and act as a first impression for your brand through keywords to specially targeted audiences, helping to drive more leads and sales.

Social Media Graphics

In the age of scrolling feeds and fleeting attention spans, your social media graphics need to stand out more than ever. Engaging visuals can help to successfully increase your click-through rates, boost engagement, and drive more traffic to your website.

Branding

If your brand identity feels stale or doesn’t align with your current business goals, it might be time for a rebrand. A comprehensive brand refresh (or overhaul) can breathe new life into your business. 

Infographics

Infographics are a powerful tool for aesthetically explaining processes, presenting data, or telling a story. Incorporating infographics into presentation decks, websites, and social media posts are just a few ways design can effectively transform data in a visually appealing way. 

Email Marketing

Creative email designs can grab your subscribers’ attention and encourage them to click through to your website.

Print Collateral

Although print design has become almost obsolete in the digital age, business cards, brochures, and flyers are still valuable marketing tools for your business, and the design can make a lasting impression on your audience.

Video & Motion Graphics

Video marketing is booming, and your video and motion graphics should be top-notch. From advertisements and social videos to intros and other brand animations, graphic design enhances the visual appeal of your video content.

Event Graphics

Attending a trade show or hosting an online event (webinars, conferences, etc.)? Eye-catching banners, signage, ads, landing pages, and promotional materials can draw attendees to your booth or drive more registrations.

The ROI of Graphic Design

All of this probably sounds fantastic, but is graphic design worth the investment? Absolutely! 

Consider this: a well-designed website can increase conversion rates, a compelling social media graphic can drive engagement, and a memorable logo can boost brand recognition. 

All of these factors contribute to your bottom line. So, yes, graphic design is not just a creative endeavor; it’s a strategic one that directly impacts your profitability.

The Collaborative Creative Process

Now that you’re convinced of the power of graphic design, you’re ready to take your marketing efforts to the next level. 

But how do you go about it? It all starts with a collaborative creative process.

• Discovery: The journey begins with a deep dive into your business. What are your goals, values, and target audience? A graphic designer needs to understand your brand inside and out before creating any deliverables.
• Ideation: This is where the creative juices start flowing. Brainstorming, sketching, and experimenting with different design concepts are all part of the process that leads to the design you’ll be presented.
• Design: Here’s where the magic happens. The chosen concept transforms into a visual masterpiece. The designer blends colors, fonts, imagery, and layout in an aesthetically appealing conceptual creation.
• Feedback and Revisions: Collaboration is key, and your input is invaluable. Provide feedback on the initial design, and the designer will make revisions until it’s perfect.
• Finalization: Once the design is polished to perfection, it’s time to put it to work. Whether it’s for your website, social media, or print materials, the final design is prepared for deployment.
• Measurement and Optimization: The journey doesn’t end with deployment. Regularly measure the performance of your designs and make adjustments as needed to optimize results, continuing to test new concepts and ideas.

The Future of Graphic Design

It’s abundantly clear that the world of graphic design will continue to evolve. Technology will always play an increasingly significant role, with new advancements presenting exciting opportunities that may not have been possible in the past. 

Additionally, the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has already begun to transform the design processes and the digital marketing field. 

With this, ethical design practices will gain prominence as well. Consumers are increasingly conscious of the environmental and social impact of the brands they support, and designers will need to adapt by prioritizing ethical design choices.

Graphic design is more than just aesthetics; it’s the secret sauce that makes your brand unforgettable, your messaging irresistible, and your business thrive. 

So, get ready to embrace the power of graphic design, and watch your business take flight in the competitive skies of the digital world.

Get a free one-on-one creative consultation to learn more about how web design and development can help your business grow.

Let’s Build Something Great Together

Read more about how our website design and development services can help your business make impressions that matter.

• https://www.directom.com/10-website-examples-to-spark-inspiration-for-your-next-web-design-project/ 

• https://www.directom.com/how-are-digital-graphics-used-to-advertise/ 
• https://www.directom.com/how-ai-imagery-shaped-the-look-of-our-latest-webinar/ 
• https://www.directom.com/rebranding-guide/ 
• https://www.directom.com/ai-creative/ 

The post How Graphic Design Can Elevate Your Digital Marketing Efforts appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

There are so many different kinds of websites in the world today and so many ways to mess them up that it makes some of us downright wistful for the days of Geocities and Tripod, when everything made sense, everybody had a website about everything, and we were all equally bad at making them. 

Table of Contents

• Mistake 1: Lack of Clarity
• Mistake 2: Not Enough Content (or Too Much)
• Mistake 3: No Call To Action
• Mistake 4: Non-Responsive Design
• Mistake 5: Sloooooow Loading Speed
• Mistake 6: Inconsistent Design
• Mistake 7: Bad Site Organization
• Mistake 8: Ugly or Outdated Design Choices
• Mistake 9: Too Many Technical Mistakes
• Mistake 10: Experimental or Unconventional Elements
• Save Yourself (and Your Conversions) With DOM

Let’s make sure you’re not messing up your website by going through a few of the scariest and most common mistakes we see around the web and some ways to avoid them. 

Mistake 1: Lack of Clarity

A website without clarity is like a dimly lit room where you can barely make out the shapes around you. You know there’s something there—a purpose, a reason—but it’s not immediately clear. That’s what a website with a lack of clarity feels like to a visitor. It’s an eerie ambiguity that leaves people confused, frustrated, and likely to exit faster than a haunted house. 

For CMOs and marketing professionals, a lack of clarity on a website is akin to turning away potential customers at the door. Every visitor who leaves because they can’t quickly understand what you offer is a lost opportunity for engagement, conversion, and revenue. The absence of a clear message can dilute brand identity and make marketing efforts less effective. 

The Antidote: A Guiding Light

So, how do you banish this ghostly presence? It’s really quite simple: there should be a very clear declaration above the fold that describes exactly what you do. You would be surprised how many websites don’t do this one simple trick. In addition to that, you should have a value proposition: a concise statement that explains the tangible benefits that customers will get from your products or services. It should answer the question, “Why should I choose you?” straightforwardly.

Steps to Achieve Clarity:

• Identify Your Unique Selling Points: What sets you apart from the competition? It could be your innovative approach, exceptional customer service, or unbeatable prices.
• Craft a Clear Value Proposition: Use simple, jargon-free language. Your value proposition should be easily understood in less than 5 seconds.
• Place It Prominently: Your value proposition should be one of the first things a visitor sees on your homepage. Consider placing it above the fold for maximum visibility.
• Support with Visuals: A picture is worth a thousand words. Use high-quality images or short videos that align with and support your value proposition.
• Test and Refine: Use A/B testing to try out different phrasings and placements for your value proposition. Analyze visitor behavior and conversion rates to determine what works best.

Mistake 2: Not Enough Content (or Too Much)

Imagine a Halloween party where the snack table is either overflowing with candy corn or almost empty. In the first scenario, you’re overwhelmed by the sheer volume. In the second, you’re left wanting more. This is the Candy Corn Dilemma in web content—either inundating your visitors with an overwhelming amount of information or leaving them starved for details.

Too much content can lead to cognitive overload, making it difficult for visitors to absorb key messages or take desired actions. On the flip side, too little content can result in a lack of engagement and a missed opportunity to establish authority and trust. Both scenarios can lead to lower conversion rates and a weaker ROI for your marketing campaigns. When you don’t have enough content, you go against one of the cornerstones of good SEO: give the search engines plenty of content to serve to organic users. When you have too much, you’re breaking a UX law: don’t overwhelm your audience. 

The Antidote: Striking the Sweet Spot

The goal is to find the right balance, offering enough content to guide the visitor through the buyer’s journey or to educate them, or whatever your goal is, without overwhelming them.

Steps to Strike the Balance:

• Identify Key Information: Determine the essential details that a visitor needs to understand your product or service. This could include features, benefits, pricing, and customer testimonials.
• Organize Thoughtfully: Use headings, bullet points, and short paragraphs to make the content easily scannable. A well-structured page guides the eye and makes information digestible.
• Use Multimedia: Videos, infographics, and interactive elements can convey complex information in an easily understandable format. They also break up text and add visual interest.
• Implement Analytics: Use tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar to track metrics like time-on-page and bounce rate. This data will give you insights into whether your content is engaging or overwhelming.
• Iterate Based on Feedback: Conduct user surveys or use heatmapping tools to understand how visitors interact with your content. Use this feedback for continuous improvement.

Mistake 3: No Call To Action

A website without a call to action is like a road trip with no map, GPS, or even road signs to guide you. You might enjoy the scenery for a while, but eventually, you’ll want to reach a destination. It leaves visitors wandering through your content without a clear path to follow, leading to missed opportunities for everybody. 

A missing CTA is a critical oversight, like having a store without a checkout counter. Visitors may browse, but they’re unlikely to take the next step in the customer journey, whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or requesting more information. The result? Stagnant conversion rates and a less effective marketing funnel.

The Antidote: Signposts for Success

The solution is to incorporate clear, compelling CTAs that guide visitors toward a specific action. These are your signposts, leading people down the path you want them to take.

Steps to Create Effective CTAs:

• Define the Objective: Before crafting a CTA, know what action you want the visitor to take. Is it to read a related article, fill out a contact form, or make a purchase?
• Be Clear and Specific: Vague phrases like “Click Here” are less effective than specific ones like “Download Your Free Guide Now.”
• Make It Stand Out: Use contrasting colors, larger fonts, or strategic placement to make your CTA catch the eye.
• Add a Sense of Urgency: Phrases like “Limited Time Offer” or “Only a Few Spots Left” can encourage immediate action.
• Test and Optimize: Use A/B testing to try out different CTA designs and placements. Analyze the results to find what drives the most clicks and conversions.

Mistake 4: Non-Responsive Design

According to Statista, 58% of all web traffic is on mobile, and that number promises to get higher. Since so many office workers and business people use their computers and their big, wide screens to look at their own websites, it’s really easy for them to overlook the mobile experience. No mobile experience means lower engagement, reduced SEO rankings, and, ultimately, fewer conversions.

The Antidote: Adaptability is Key

The remedy is a responsive design, one that adapts and restructures itself depending on the device it’s viewed on. This ensures a consistent user experience, crucial for keeping potential customers engaged and moving through the sales funnel.

Steps to Implement a Responsive Design:

• Audit Your Current Design: Use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see how your site performs on different devices.
• Prioritize Essential Elements: Identify the most crucial information and features that must be accessible on all devices. Make sure these are prominently displayed in your responsive design.
• Use Fluid Grids and Flexible Images: These automatically adjust to fit varying screen sizes, ensuring that your site looks good and functions well, no matter the device.
• Test Extensively: Don’t just test on one or two devices. Use a variety of smartphones, tablets, and desktops to ensure universal adaptability.
• Monitor and Update: Technology and user behavior are always changing. Regularly review analytics to ensure that your responsive design continues to meet your audience’s needs.

Mistake 5: Sloooooow Loading Speed

Is your website a zombie, moving at a snail’s pace, inching closer but never quite reaching some juicy, delicious brains? That’s what a slow-loading website feels like. They’re waiting for something to happen, but it takes so long that they lose interest and move on. 

Slow loading speed is a conversion killer. Google says that even a 1-second slow down in site loading can decapitate the top 27% of your website’s conversions. This means higher bounce rates, lower SEO rankings, and a tarnished brand image. 

The Antidote: Turbocharge Your Website

The solution is to optimize your website for speed, ensuring that pages load quickly and efficiently across all devices.

Steps to Boost Loading Speed:

• Compress Images: Large image files are one of the main culprits behind slow loading times. Use tools to compress images without sacrificing quality.
• Minimize Code: Eliminate unnecessary code elements. Tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights can identify areas for improvement.
• Leverage Browser Caching: This allows frequently accessed resources to be stored in the user’s browser, reducing load times for subsequent visits.
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): CDNs distribute the load, saving bandwidth and speeding up access for your users.
• Regularly Monitor Performance: Use speed testing tools to regularly check your website’s performance and make necessary adjustments.

Mistake 6: Inconsistent Design

Inconsistent design elements can create a jarring experience for visitors. One moment they’re navigating through a sleek, modern interface, and the next, they’re faced with outdated graphics and mismatched fonts. This inconsistency not only confuses users but also undermines the credibility of your brand.

For us marketers, inconsistent design is more than just an aesthetic issue; it erodes trust and can lead to lower conversion rates. A cohesive design is an extension of your brand’s identity, and inconsistencies can make your business appear disorganized or unreliable.

The Antidote: Cohesion and Consistency

The key to solving this problem is to establish a consistent design language across your website.

Steps to Ensure Design Consistency:

• Create a Style Guide: Document your design choices, including fonts, colors, and layout styles. This guide serves as a reference for anyone who works on your website.
• Standardize UI Elements: Buttons, forms, and other user interface elements should have a consistent design and behavior across all pages.
• Consistent Navigation: The menu structure should be the same on every page to make navigation intuitive.
• Uniform Imagery: Use a consistent style for all images and graphics. This includes the use of filters, angles, and lighting.
• Regular Audits: Periodically review your website to ensure that all elements adhere to your style guide. Make adjustments as needed.

Mistake 7: Bad Site Organization

Navigating a poorly organized website can feel like wandering through a labyrinth. Visitors encounter dead ends, hidden information, and a lack of clear pathways. This complexity frustrates users and often leads them to abandon the site altogether. How’s that bounce rate? Probably not very good. 

A poorly organized site is a missed opportunity. Visitors who can’t find what they’re looking for are less likely to convert, impacting your bottom line. Additionally, bad site organization can negatively affect SEO, as search engines may struggle to index your content properly.

The Antidote: A Well-Planned Blueprint

The solution lies in creating a logical, intuitive site structure that guides visitors effortlessly from one section to another.

Steps to Improve Site Organization:

• Conduct User Research: Understand your target audience’s needs and preferences. Use this information to inform your site structure.
• Create a Sitemap: Outline the hierarchy of your website, detailing how each page connects to others. This serves as the blueprint for your site organization.
• Implement Clear Navigation: Use straightforward menu labels and a consistent navigation structure. Consider adding breadcrumbs to help users track their location within the site.
• Optimize for SEO: Use descriptive URLs, proper tagging, and well-structured HTML to make your site more accessible to search engines.
• Test Usability: Conduct usability tests to identify any bottlenecks or confusing elements in your site structure. Make adjustments based on user feedback.

Mistake 8: Ugly or Outdated Design Choices

An outdated or unattractive design can make your website look like a room that hasn’t been cleaned in years, complete with cobwebs in the corners. This not only detracts from the user experience but also sends a message that your brand may be similarly outdated or neglectful. 

For businesses, an outdated design can have serious repercussions. It diminishes the credibility of your brand and can make visitors question the quality of your products or services. In a world where first impressions are often made online, an unappealing website is a significant disadvantage.

The Antidote: A Fresh Coat of Paint

Refreshing your website’s design can be like giving a room a fresh coat of paint. It brightens the space, makes it more inviting, and shows that you take pride in your presentation.

Steps to Update Your Design:

• Assess Current Trends: Research current web design trends to understand what modern users expect. This can include flat design, minimalism, or the use of specific color schemes.
• Consult Your Brand Guidelines: Ensure that any design changes align with your existing brand identity, including colors, fonts, and logos.
• Focus on User Experience: Make design choices that enhance usability. This can include larger text, more white space, and intuitive navigation.
• Implement Visual Hierarchy: Use size, color, and layout to guide the visitor’s eye to the most important elements on the page.
• Get Feedback: Before finalizing any changes, get feedback from stakeholders and target users to ensure the new design meets business objectives and user needs.

Mistake 9: Too Many Technical Mistakes

Technical errors on a website are like a flashlight that flickers and dies when you need it most. They disrupt the user experience, causing frustration and confusion. Broken links, outdated plugins, and 404 errors are common culprits that can make your website difficult to navigate. Make no mistake: Google will find those technical errors, too, and your rankings will tank faster than the Titanic.

The Antidote: Regular Maintenance

Just as you’d regularly replace the batteries in a flashlight, your website needs ongoing maintenance to function smoothly.

Steps to Avoid Technical Mistakes:

• Conduct Regular Audits: Use tools to scan for broken links, missing meta descriptions, and other technical issues.
• Update Plugins and Software: Outdated software can lead to security vulnerabilities and compatibility issues. Keep everything up to date.
• Optimize for Mobile: Ensure that your website is fully functional on mobile devices. Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test can help identify issues.
• Improve Site Security: Use HTTPS and regularly update security protocols to protect user data and improve search rankings.
• Monitor Site Speed: Slow load times can be due to technical issues like unoptimized images or excessive code. Use speed testing tools to identify and fix problems.

Mistake 10: Experimental or Unconventional Elements

Are you an artist? Are you trying something new and, this is the important part, are you unafraid of putting your users off? There’s a good argument for making interesting or unexpected web design choices. For instance, is your name Jeff Bridges, and are you a movie star? Do people coming to your website expect an unconventional experience? If that’s the case, then go wild and follow your heart. If not, then what are you doing?

For marketing professionals, unconventional design choices can be a gamble. While they might attract attention, they can also confuse or alienate your audience, leading to lower engagement and conversion rates. Unless your brand is built on being avant-garde or experimental, it’s usually best to stick with proven design principles.

SEO Note: this also applies to the language you use. Sure, you can call the donuts you sell “Dough-Knots” but unless you use the old-fashioned and obvious word for what you sell, too, kiss that organic traffic goodbye. 

The Antidote: Calculated Creativity

Innovation and creativity are not inherently bad; they just need to be applied thoughtfully. The key is to introduce new elements in a way that enhances, rather than detracts from, the user experience.

Steps to Balance Creativity and Usability:

• Know Your Audience: If your target demographic appreciates creativity and is more tolerant of unconventional elements, you have more leeway.
• Test Small Changes: Before overhauling your entire site with a new experimental feature, test it on a smaller scale to gauge user reaction.
• Get Feedback: Use analytics and user surveys to measure how new elements are affecting engagement and conversions.
• Iterate: Based on feedback, make adjustments to ensure that your creative elements are adding value, not creating confusion.
• Balance with Familiarity: If you do introduce unconventional elements, balance them with familiar design features to help guide the user.

Save Yourself (and Your Conversions) With DOM

Using the World Wide Web doesn’t have to feel like a trek through a haunted forest, dodging pitfalls and snares at every turn. Your website should be more like a well-lit, inviting mansion where visitors can explore freely, welcomed and encouraged by each room they enter. 

At DOM, we’re the architects of these digital mansions. We know how to avoid the cobwebs in the corner, the flickering lights, and the confusing mazes. Let’s work together to build a digital space that’s not just free of scares but is irresistibly inviting. Turn the key, step inside, and let’s create something extraordinary. 

Key Takeaways

• Clarity is Crucial: Your website should immediately convey what your business is about. A clear value proposition is essential.
• Content Balance: Too much or too little content can either overwhelm or underwhelm your audience. Strive for the sweet spot that informs without overwhelming.
• CTAs Drive Action: A missing Call To Action is like a map without directions. Make sure to guide your visitors toward meaningful engagement.
• Mobile Matters: With over half of web traffic coming from mobile devices, a responsive design isn’t optional; it’s mandatory.
• Speed Sells: Slow-loading websites kill conversions. Optimize for speed to keep your audience engaged.
• Design Consistency: Inconsistent design elements can confuse users and dilute your brand message. Maintain a cohesive look and feel.
• Organized Navigation: A well-structured site helps users find what they’re looking for, improving user experience and SEO.
• Fresh and Modern Design: Outdated or unattractive designs can turn visitors away. Keep your design fresh and aligned with current trends.
• Technical Health: Regular maintenance and audits can prevent technical issues that harm user experience and SEO.
• Calculated Creativity: Unconventional elements can be a double-edged sword. Use creativity wisely to enhance, not hinder, user experience.
• Partner with Experts: Avoid these common pitfalls by partnering with a skilled team like DOM to create a compelling, effective website.

Free DOM Webinar: Tuesday, November 14 2023

Feeling like your digital marketing and sales teams are like a witch and a vampire—powerful alone but not quite in sync? Conjure up some team synergy this season. On Tuesday, November 14, 2023, at 12:00 PM EST, we’re stirring a potion of knowledge in our webinar: “From Click to Close: Maximizing Google Ads & Sales Team Synergy.” 

This isn’t your run-of-the-mill webinar; it’s a spellbook for navigating the shadowy realm between Google Ads and your sales force. From unlocking the dark arts of Google Ads to metrics that can resurrect your ROI, we’ve got the incantations you need. Suitable for CMOs, sales sorcerers, and SEO warlocks alike. Don’t ghost on this opportunity; reserve your seat in our digital séance today.

The post The Top 10 Scariest Web Design Mistakes You Can Make (And What To Do Instead) appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Getting Started

Understanding the Key Components of Website Design

We specialize in creating websites that accurately reflect your unique culture and brand. We take the time to understand your business inside and out so that we can create a website that feels like a natural extension of your company.

But it’s not just about aesthetics. We also focus on creating a website that is:

• User-friendly
• Easy to navigate
• ADA compliant
• Optimized for search engines

How Web Design & Development Can Help Your Business

• A properly designed website builds trust in your business and encourages customers to learn more about you.
• Your pages’ loading speeds can be improved, leading to greater engagement rates.
• Your website may have broken links or orphaned pages, frustrating customers when they attempt to gather information about you.
• Your site may be improperly tailored to mobile devices, leaving a large group of your customers unable to access or navigate your site.
• You may be unaware of problems that are hampering your site, whether technical or design-focused.

Benefits of Custom Website Development

We custom-develop each website uniquely as a solution to your needs. We build a platform for the future so that as you grow, you have a site that can handle your needs and expand as necessary. 

While our team is well-versed in all of the current web languages, the vast majority of sites we develop are on the well-supported WordPress content management system. This allows you the ability to more easily create, edit, organize, and publish content without having to write a single line of HTML code, letting you take the reins when quick changes need to be made. This gives added flexibility to keep your site up to date without having to consult a web professional. 

We also offer site management, allowing you to take your focus off the website entirely while we maintain and update it as needed. 

All of our websites are developed with optimal load speed and practical functionality based on up-to-date best practices in the ever-changing world of the web, including mobile responsiveness and mobile experiences. 

Is your website in need of a redesign? Get your free website development consultation now.

Let’s Talk

Brainstorming & Research

Before our team begins any hands-on execution of a new website project, we dive into extensive collaborative sessions that allow our experts to familiarize themselves with your brand, ideate, and visualize innovative ways to ensure your company stands out.

Market Research 

Before diving into a project, our team engages in a collaborative brainstorming session to evaluate similar brands and companies, compile inspiration, research your target audience, and discuss the latest trends you may want to implement for your new website.

Focus on Visual Design – Marrying Brand with Performance

Identity, messaging, and usability drive the visual design, all with an eye toward conversions.

DOM will work closely with you to develop an intuitive, easy-to-use, user-centered design. This design is curated for the target audience and provides an excellent user experience.

The design also focuses on conversion rate optimization, providing a landscape to encourage prospects to contact you.

Omni Channel Experience – Usability for Any Device

The aesthetic look and feel, user experience, ease of navigation, and quality of content all must factor into the design for mobile and desktop across browser sizes.

We design for these different experiences with a keen eye for mobile accessibility, as this often serves as a first introduction to your brand and can determine whether users continue through your marketing and sales funnels.

Your brand will virtually be in your customers’ hands whenever they want to engage with it. We will ensure you are ready whenever and wherever they are with a mobile experience that is as seamless as it will be working with you.

We also emphasize site speed to enhance engagement, increase conversions, and improve search engine performance.

Kickoff Meeting

Now that the contract is signed, it’s time to get a meeting on the books to discuss your project in-depth, learn about your specific goals and needs, and review the project timeline.

Our experts ask questions to understand exactly what you’re looking for in your new website.

• Will the new site be designed entirely from scratch?
• Is the content on your current site relevant?
• Does your new site need to be rebranded?
• Who are your direct competitors? 

The kickoff meeting is an excellent time to provide brand guidelines, photography, logo files, content, and anything else that may be helpful for our team to make your vision come to life during the new site build.

Design Phase 

Site Mapping

If you have a previously created website, the designer reviews the live site with our SEO team to outline a feasible layout.

From there, the designer takes the outline and builds your site map in our preferred prototyping application, Adobe XD.

Upon completion, our team sets up a meeting to walk through the sitemap with you, answer any questions you may have, and source any feedback or revisions. 

Once the site map is approved, the team begins working on the homepage wireframe.

Homepage Wireframe

Wireframing offers a skeleton look at your new website design with an emphasis on content placement, space, functionality, and behavior without any imagery or color present throughout the interface.

Our wireframes are designed with a 12-column grid with Bootstrap grid widths that allow for seamless breaks between mobile and desktop versions of the site. 

While the page may look boring or even confusing at first, this stage allows our team to adequately create the backbone of your new website.

After the homepage prototype has been created, a meeting is set up to walk through the design and answer any questions you have. If adjustments are required, we take the feedback from the meeting, make the changes, and regroup, repeating this process until the wireframe is approved. 

Internal Wireframes

Your homepage wireframe has been approved, and the designer is now wireframing the remainder of the website in the same style, linking pages together to accurately depict page flows for all additional pages found on your site.

Once the remaining pages have been designed and prototyped, we regroup again to review the design and answer any questions. Implementing feedback as necessary until approval. 

Homepage Design

This is when your website begins to look like a real website and your brand comes to life.

Using the homepage wireframe as the base template, images, colors, fonts, and other design elements are implemented into the layout. Our team works hard to infuse your website with elements that your consumers will appreciate and understand.

Once the new homepage is ready for review, we regroup to walk through the design and answer questions. After the regrouping, we take your feedback and revisions and adjust the layout accordingly, repeating the review process until the homepage design is approved.

Keep in mind that any revision requests could add additional time to the project outlook, depending on the extensivity. 

Internal Designs

Our final step of the design process – similar to the homepage design – is where images, fonts, colors, and other elements are added to the remaining pages of the website design. 

All remaining copy and content should be added to the site during this step to wrap up the layout and avoid making changes to any layouts after development has begun. 

When the internal designs are ready for review (typically a few weeks after the approval of the homepage) we regroup to walk through the layout and answer questions, making any necessary changes until receiving final approval.

Development Phase

Now that you’re happy with the look of the website it’s time to pass the project over to our web developers to bring the design to life. 

They begin by coding the homepage, header, footer, and internal page templates.

Once development is between 85-90% complete, we send the staging link for review and set up a meeting to walk through the website to review and answer questions. From here, the team will make any requested changes, and repeat as needed.

Quality Assurance

Your website is about to launch, but we want to make sure that everything is perfect before going live online. 

Our design and development teams regroup to complete a thorough internal quality assurance check to ensure everything is functioning properly, all links are working correctly, ADA compliance standards are met, and all elements from the approved design are accurately translated to the functional website. 

Our analytics team also performs a quality assurance check to make sure that Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has been properly implemented on your new site.

Website Launch

Our team coordinates a date that the website will officially go live online. In an effort to avoid any missteps, we prefer to launch new websites Monday-Thursday for appropriate post-launch monitoring.

The developer will host a WordPress walkthrough training session with you to make sure you understand how to add new content and make any updates to the website in the future. 

After the site has launched, our design, development, and analytics teams perform post-launch quality assurance checks to make sure your website is in good shape.

We did it! Your website is live and already making a lasting impression.

Is your website in need of a redesign? Get your free website development consultation now.

Let’s Talk

Read more about how our website design and development services can help your business make impressions that matter.

• https://www.directom.com/10-website-examples-to-spark-inspiration-for-your-next-web-design-project/ 
• https://www.directom.com/graphic-design-services/ 
• https://www.directom.com/website-redesign-seo-best-practices/ 
• https://www.directom.com/how-can-website-design-affect-seo/ 

The post A Step-By-Step Process for Your New Website Design Project appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Not every website will come together as picturesque as the one we’ve just painted, and, in most cases, the above is merely a dream scenario, at least from the outset. 

But that’s why we’re here to help! 

How to Decide If It’s Time for a New Website

A good website showcases its brand, products, and services. But how do you know when to revamp your online presence? 

First and foremost, if your website looks like a relic from the ’90s, complete with pixelated images and clunky navigation, it’s a clear indicator that a redesign is long overdue. A modern, visually appealing website is essential to captivate and engage today’s users. 

Additionally, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re missing out on potential visitors who primarily browse the internet on their phones or tablets. A responsive design that adapts seamlessly to various devices is no longer a luxury. In today’s digital world, it is a necessity. 

By staying attuned to these key indicators and embracing the evolving digital landscape, you can ensure that your website remains a valuable asset in driving growth and success.

Where to Pull Inspiration for Website Designs

Design inspiration can come from the most random, unsolicited places. A quick Google search can generate thousands of options at the click of a button, but all this can get overwhelming and tedious to explore.

That’s why we’ve compiled some of our favorite website designs to spark creativity and harvest inspiration to help get you started on your next website design project.

Adams Presidential Center

This website informs the public about the Adams Presidential Center to honor John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and their families. 

It features plenty of scrolling animations plus multiple interactive carousels that condense page length and customize different pages.

Land & Sea

Hungry yet? The Land & Sea is a business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce site for specialty meat and seafood sales.

The design highlights select brands and distributors, includes a customer portal, and features a vast product catalog that incorporates countless images sure to make the tastebuds water.

JV Manufacturing

JV Manufacturing’s site uses bold design elements, video, and interactive hovers to reel the viewer in and keep them engaged. 

The contact page features a creative look at how a typically generic page layout can transform something from bland to unique with color and layering effects.

Carnegie Mellon University RoboticsEd

Talk about information overload. This site doesn’t hold back on content resources, but the user-friendly layout makes all the information incredibly easy to navigate and digest.

Incorporating interactive maps, content, and videos are excellent techniques to keep visitors engaging with your pages longer.

MidAtlantic Energy Services

It’s becoming more uncommon to see full-screen website layouts, but the MidAtlantic Energy Services website executes this style brilliantly. 

The large text on top of the slightly overlaid images feels fresh compared to the many boring white-space-filled corporate sites that flood the internet.

Bonus points: this site uses dark mode-friendly, inversed layouts! 

Cleveland Research Company

Spot a trend yet? All the sites on our list incorporate unique interactivity, and the Cleveland Research Company website fits the bill, too. 

In addition to the breathable layout, the site incorporates a variety of candid employee photos. We recommend checking out the careers page for an excellent depiction of how to use photography as a hiring tool.

PopSole

Who knew foot insoles could look so cool? This site incorporates bright pops (see what we did there) of bold blues and purples for a trendy, modern palette. 

The hover effects on the homepage’s insole infographic offer an excellent user experience, while the rest of the site makes it easy to find additional information.

Brookeville Equipment Corporation

The Brookeville website offers unique navigational pieces and incorporates bright videos and images that blend well with the site’s palette. 

The homepage’s video hero immediately captures visitors’ attention, while interactive pop-ups and timelines add extra personalization and engagement to the design.

The University of Pittsburgh Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence

The IEE website perfectly embodies what visitors expect from an informational higher education site. The design plays perfectly off of The University of Pittsburgh’s corporate branding but adds personality that derives from being a carbon copy of other websites. The animations for statistical callouts and hover effects particularly stand out.

Precision Fluid Power

The Precision Fluid Power website offers extensive product and resource libraries with user-friendly contact options. Category filtration takes this user experience to another level to easily find whatever you may be looking for.

Ready to Start Your Next Web Design Project?

Our graphic designers understand the importance of creating a digital presence that engages visitors without bogging the site down through unnecessary extras. 

In collaboration with our in-house web developers, we’ll work to create the best digital experience possible for your audience, along with enticing visual elements to reel them in. 

Web design isn’t all about what you see, but if the visuals aren’t appealing, customers have no reason to delve further into learning about you. You only have one chance at a first impression; let us make it count.

Read more about how our web design and development services can help take your business to the next level

• https://www.directom.com/graphic-design-services 
• https://www.directom.com/thinking-mobile-first-for-your-web-design/ 
• https://www.directom.com/how-can-website-design-affect-seo/ 
• https://www.directom.com/website-redesign-seo-best-practices/ 

The post 10 Website Examples To Spark Inspiration For Your Next Web Design Project appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

For instance, we had to go all the way to page 5 of the Google search results for the keyword “fairies” to even find out that these mythical creatures are actually 100% totally real. It’s not just that the site is badly designed. It’s almost even pleasant to navigate, and the blog content is generally pretty up to date and prolific. The real culprit here is that the site wasn’t designed for SEO. 

When we talk about SEO, the conversation is often focused on targeting keywords and optimizing content to strengthen the presence of those keywords. You want Google to place your site on that coveted page 1 of search results, so you write targeted blogs that contain great informational content and optimize your on-page copy. 

What many people don’t realize is that SEO goes much deeper than keyword optimization, and should in fact be baked into the website’s design. 

Let’s look at some of the ways in which web design affects SEO so you can avoid living on page 5 with the fairy folk. 

Appease the Crawlers

The Prequel Trilogy introduced to Star Wars fans the concept of Midichlorians. Midichlorians are intelligent microscopic symbiotes that live inside of all living things. When a person has a strong enough connection with their Midichlorians, they can sense a pervasive energy called The Force and make use of it for their own purposes. 

Star Wars fans ate this new bit of lore up with unanimous joy and celebration, naturally. 

Well, the internet has its own sort of Midichlorians, in a sense. These tiny, artificially intelligent creatures, called search engine crawlers, crawl through websites and pull data and links to determine, ultimately, where the website falls in terms of keyword searches. 

For example, you don’t have to tell Google that your website is about trampolines. Google’s search engine crawlers will skitter their way through your site and determine on their own that it is about trampolines. When somebody searches for “trampolines,” the results of the crawl will place you in the results based on how “trampolinish” your site is, and how likely it is to align with what Google thinks the searcher is looking for. 

That means that from the first step of designing a website, you need to be aware of both your human audience and your search engine crawler audience, and they’re not always looking for the same things. Here are some ways to make your site more appealing to people and crawlers alike: 

• Keep it simple. Nobody wants a website that’s difficult to navigate. By cutting down on the number of URLs, the length of URLs, and sub-categories within URLs, you make your website easier to quickly navigate. 

Simpler sites with easier navigation mean both a better user experience and an easier indexing process for search engine crawlers. 

• Use responsive design! People are looking at your website at home on their laptops, on their phones during lunch breaks, on their ultrawide monitors, on a train, in a tree, in a car, Sam, let me be! The point is that there are so many differently sized screens out there these days, and a well-designed website will be responsive in a way that accommodates all of them. 

It’s not just for user experience, either. Google checks the responsiveness of your design and ranks your site accordingly. Use this tool to test if your site is up to snuff. 

• Show and tell. Images are nice and can enhance the user experience. However, website designers often like to place important relevant text inside of an image instead of in the copy. This is an SEO no-no. 

Search engine crawlers don’t read images, they just see the image and say “Oh, hey there’s a picture,” and move on. That means any text inside your images isn’t being considered for search engine rankings and you’re losing viability for a place on page one.

If you just have to put your words in pictures, make sure those words are in the copy too!

• Image size matters. While it can be tempting to plaster large beautiful imagery all over your landing page, that can lead to longer loading times and longer search engine crawl times. Both of these things are bad. 

Even the tiniest delay in a site’s loading time can bounce users away. Even just a second of extra loading can be like agony to somebody who’s in a hurry. And let’s be honest, these days it feels like we’re always in a hurry. 

Likewise, search engine crawlers will see the delay as a negative and head  back to the Google mothership with a bad report about your site’s optimization. 

Best bet? Keep your images small enough to get the idea across without clogging up the loading pipeline.

And auto-play videos? Fuhgeddaboutit. 

Other Considerations 

Beyond appeasing the search engine crawlers and becoming one with The Force, there are plenty of other things to consider when designing a website. 

In general, avoid gigantic blocks of text. Short, but informative is generally the way to go in terms of readability. 

Keep an eye out for harsh color schemes, both in your font and in your backgrounds. 

Make navigation as easy as possible, and for the love of Obi-Wan, stay away from Flash and JavaScript elements as much as possible. 

If you’re designing a site of your own, and you’re wondering about the myriad factors that can help with optimization, feel free to reach out to our Pittsburgh marketing firm for a chat.

The post How Can Website Design Affect SEO? appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Since accepting the offer, you and your team have put in months of hard work to get it done. Launch day came and went; all of your hard work was finally about to pay off!

But as the weeks following the site redesign go by, the exact opposite of what you expected to happen, happens.

Sales dwindled. Phones that constantly rang eventually came in drips. Qualified leads became mostly spammy submissions.

The C-suite is naturally going to ask questions, so like any good marketing professional, you turn to your data for the answers.

Instead of that reassuring feeling you’ve come to expect from your analytics, the answers you find in the data shock you.

Users? Down. Sessions? Down.

In short, your traffic fell off of a cliff. It tanked hard.

Failing to consider website redesign SEO is a very real possibility that marketers and site owners face whenever they consider redesigning their site. Without bearing in mind the impacts a redesign can have, you can seriously hurt your organic search traffic.

If you’ve experienced a significant traffic loss post-redesign of your site, this post is for you.

We break down why that may have happened. On top of that, we cover a few options you have for getting that traffic back.

First Things First – Did Your Traffic Really Tank?

This might sound like a redundant question. After all, you can take a look in your Google Analytics account and clearly see that traffic is down.

Traffic can decrease for lots of reasons, but here are some ways you can evaluate your site to see if your site traffic actually tanked due to not properly planning for a site migration from an SEO perspective.

Check Your Site Code for Missing Analytics Tags

No matter what analytics platform you use—Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Piwik, Clicky, and so on—there is some kind of site-wide code these platforms use to track how users interact with your site. Without it, analytics tools have no way of recording traffic data.

Ask yourself; is this code installed on every page of your site?

If you’re unsure, crawl your site with a tool like Screaming Frog to see if your code is missing from any pages.

Did you install Google Tag Manager (GTM)? According to BuiltWith, at least 7.8 million live websites use GTM. If you did install it and add your analytics tool to one of its containers, you might need to do some troubleshooting.

In case you didn’t know, the easiest way to figure out if your site uses GTM is with Tag Assistant, Google’s free Chrome browser extension.

If after the above you’ve concluded that your analytics configuration is correct and tracking works as expected, proceed to the next step.

If analytics tracking is not collecting data as intended, try fixing it first, and then wait for more data to see if your site’s performance continues to suffer.

Did You Contract Your Site in Any Fashion?

We have consulted with many companies who redesign their sites and then become concerned when their traffic takes a hit. As we begin to dive in, our analysis typically uncovers several reasons why their traffic tanked.

• A support forum or knowledge base that was once public facing on their own domain is now discontinued or hosted by a third-party provider like Desk.com, Freshdesk or Zendesk.
• Content now deemed outdated or irrelevant to the site has been unpublished, such as old blog posts or company listings in a directory.
• Business model or service offerings have changed, resulting in fewer pages on the site to be indexed to generate search traffic.

Businesses evolve, so we all understand that changes like this happen.

However, we tend to overestimate the extent by which 301 redirects will save your traffic.

It is true that 301 redirects will send your visitors from a former URL to a new destination in an SEO-friendly way.

However, if an older webpage had keywords mapped to it via Google’s index, it could take a long time for Google to figure out where to find the new page and whether it is worthy of prior rankings.

Let’s say that you decide to sunset old, irrelevant blog posts and 301 redirect those URLs to your main blog page, here’s what is most likely to happen:

• Search engines will follow that redirect over the course of 90 days, sending traffic intended for your old pages to your blog main page.
• Over time, Google will learn that you eliminated those posts and that your blog main page is not a relevant match for your old pages.
• Google will stop ranking your old pages for the search queries they used to occupy.
• Over time, your traffic from search engines will drop significantly.

Now, this doesn’t mean that 301 redirects are bad. If you legitimately migrate content from one URL to another, then you should always use a 301 redirect.

If you have backlinks that send referral traffic that you don’t want to lose, refer those visitors to a new destination with a 301 redirect. Or, better yet, see if you can get the referring site to update the link to your new page.

When you do that, however, you are still signaling to the search engines that the page you are redirecting no longer exists. Because of that, the search engines will remove that page from the index over time, and your rankings will go along with them.

If you did decide to reduce the size of your site and your search traffic tanked, that likely should have been expected. It is possible to bounce back and regain that lost traffic, but not without a serious effort to improve SEO across the board.

Your Traffic Really Did Tank. Now What?

If you’ve come this far, you have probably confirmed that your site:

• Has fully functioning analytics code.
• Has not been contracted in any way.
• Has still lost a significant amount of traffic.

You’re probably ready to hear all about what options you have to course correct.

To get started, let’s go through the three most common reasons why your site traffic from search has likely tanked.

1. Old 301 redirects weren’t updated.

As previously mentioned, you should use 301 redirects if you migrated pages to new locations on your site. Many companies are successful at mapping redirects from their previous site to a new one.

Depending on how many versions of your site have existed, these may be the only redirects you need to manage.

Lucky you!

But, if your site has been on the web a long time and undergone multiple changes, then setting up redirects from the most recent version of your site to the new version is just the tip of the redirect iceberg.

Much like how Google has a record of every single thought you have ever searched, they also have a history of every single webpage your domain has ever hosted.

And here’s a little tip—the search engines want to know the new destinations for those old web pages.

If old redirects are causing your traffic to tank, here’s how you can fix it:

• Map those old redirects to their new destination, placing a priority on the ones with backlinks pointing to them.
• Upload those redirects wherever they need to be placed.

While this is a very tedious and time-consuming fix, you should start seeing search traffic return quickly once you begin placing these redirects on your site.

2. SEO data wasn’t migrated from your old site to your new one.

You spent years cultivating the perfect title tags, meta descriptions, subheadings and schema on your site.

But when you launched your new site, you may have rewritten all of your content, and forgot to copy over all of that SEO friendly information.

When the search engines crawled your new site and realized you didn’t have any of that beautiful SEO data they have come to expect, they dropped your site in the rankings, favoring newer content they deem more relevant to searchers.

If this is the cause of your traffic tanking, here’s how you can fix it:

• Review your old site files (hopefully, you have them backed up somewhere).
• Transplant as many of the previous title tags, meta descriptions, headings and schema markup settings you can on your new site.

Similar to redirecting old web pages, adding old data is also a very tedious fix, but very necessary.

While not as time-consuming as mapping redirects, recovering traffic this way might take a little bit longer because the search engines will only update your content when Google recognizes and accepts the changes made to your site.

3. Your developers forgot to remove the noindex/nofollow tag from your header.

We see this happen to redesigned sites a lot, and it still amazes us every time because it requires such a simple fix.

Commonly referred to as the robots meta tag, you can use this tag in your site header to tell search engine spiders not to index a page or follow its links. Check out this great resource if you want to know everything there is to know about this tag.

Developers sometimes forget to remove this tag from header files when they migrate from dev environments to production. Removing the tag is so simple to do, but it happens more often than you’d think.

When developers forget to take this tag out of your header, search engine spiders stop crawling your site. Meaning that your pages get removed from the search engine index.

No one can find your site in searches anymore.

Your rankings decline.

Your traffic tanks.

To determine whether or not you have a noindex, nofollow tag in your header, pull up any page on your site and hit CTRL + U to look the page’s source code in your browser.

Once the source is opened in a new tab or window, hit CTRL + F to search for either “NOINDEX” or  “NOFOLLOW.”

Do you see the following line of code in your source file?

If yes, then this is likely the cause of your traffic drops. Here’s how you can fix it:

• Login to your content management system
• Navigate to your Settings or admin area
• Adjust your settings to enable or encourage search engine visibility (completing this varies wildly based on your platform).
  • In WordPress, you can navigate to adjust this setting under Settings > Reading.

Website Redesign SEO & Your Next Steps

It’s a commonly quoted statistic in the web design community that a site should be redesigned every three years or so.

Depending on your industry, you might be doing redesigns more frequently. Either way, a general rule of thumb for companies that rely on website traffic to generate business opportunities is to redesign their site every few years.

So, if you haven’t already done so in recent memory, you should likely plan on tackling a website redesign sometime in the next nine to 12 months.

If you have recently redesigned and your traffic tanked, here are a few things to remember before you freak out:

• Your tanked traffic doesn’t mean you have tanked rankings.
  • Make sure you have your tracking code placed throughout the site.
  • If you reduced the overall size of your site, your traffic is likely to go down, also.
• Just because traffic is gone now doesn’t mean it will be gone forever.
  • Was every page on your site properly redirected?
  • Was your important SEO content transferred to your new site before launch?
  • Was the noindex, nofollow tag removed from your header?
• Time is of the essence. The longer these issues go unaddressed, the longer the recovery time.

Now that you are up to speed on the most common reasons why your traffic may have tanked, we hope you can take the necessary steps to get it back.

This is one of many helpful guides and resources we have on our site related to SEO migration services. Click one of the links below if you need a boost to your confidence in the growth of your digital marketing campaigns.

• 7 Proactive Steps For SEO Site Migration Success (Checklist)
• The Complete Beginner’s Guide To SEO Website Migrations
• Craft CMS vs. WordPress: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide
• Sr. Strategist Bentz Talks SEO Site Migrations On BluHorn TV
• How To Prioritize Link Building Tactics During A Site Migration

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as Google Partners before you reach out.

The post Website Redesign SEO: What to Do When Your Traffic Takes a Nosedive appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

With so many people relying heavily on these gadgets, you need to design your website with the mobile market in mind.

Improve Your Mobile Accessibility

It’s not enough to just have a website. Your site needs to be mobile so people can access your information from anywhere. You don’t want your website to be limited to just desktop and laptops, when there’s a sea of tablets, iPhones and Androids out there. Right?

People today are too busy to chained to one spot. They seek information on the bus, in the car, at the gym – anywhere they can. Consumers are mobile, so you need to be as well.

Reach Your Audience via Digital Marketing

To stay competitive, you need to be reachable to your market in all avenues. That means you need to expand beyond traditional marketing methods. You need to leverage social media, email marketing, PPC…and more.

Your website is the hub of all your online marketing tactics. All digital roads lead back to your website.

Picture this. You decide to start sending a monthly email newsletter to a list of your prospects. You link to pages on your website where they can find more information, and even submit a form to take advantage of one of your offers.

The problem? A good portion of the email opens are on mobile devices. They click over to your website and are met with buttons too small to click, oversized images, and text out of place. They’re so frustrated that they just exit your website, instead of learning more about your company.

Not a very good experience. And definitely not ideal for business.

To be where your customers are, you need to be online. And if you’re online, you need to be mobile.

Make it Mobile

There are three main ways to ensure that you have a mobile ready website.

Separate Mobile and Desktop URLs

When you choose this method, different websites will be served up to your visitors, based on the type of browser they are using. So, mobile users will see the mobile specific version of the site.

Dynamic Serving

Similar to having separate URLs, this method uses the user’s browser to determine which version of the site to serve. But, the URL stays the same.

Responsive Web Design

This is hands down the preferable approach. When you choose responsive design, you’re choosing to think mobile first. The same code is displayed across all browsers and devices.

But, the website is designed to respond to different screen sizes. A responsive website will display your website in the best possible format, based on the screen size a visitor is using.

Stop overlooking the mobile platform…you need to be mobile to be in front of your customers! Want to know if your website is mobile friendly, or how you can get started? Reach out to us.

The post Thinking Mobile First for Your Web Design appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.