Website Issues and Website Ranking Concerns

Website Issues – Technical SEO

Top 5 Website Issues

You’ve spent hours building and setting up your website. It’s finally done. You set up analytics to track how well your website performs. At the end of that arduous journey, you even give yourself a pat on the back as congratulations for your accomplishment. Unfortunately, you’re the only one passing out congratulations. Why? Because the average user finds the aesthetic presentation of your website unattractive and the organization and information lacking. Along the way, you failed to treat the design and development of your website the way you would build and design a bricks-and-mortar store.

A user’s experience on a website should be every bit as good as a customer’s physical in-store experience. Customers and potential customers who walk into a store off the street should feel welcome and be able to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. If the products in your store are set up willy nilly on the shelves, sales people shout out to you from opposite sides of the building, and dust bunnies float around your ankles, chances are good you are going to turn around and walk right out. The same holds true for your website. One mistake on your site is all it takes to destroy credibility in your business and can keep a user away for life.

Most people have heard the phrase “Build it, and they will come,” and understand the meaning it espouses. But, the phrase “Build it well, and they will come” more correctly promotes the analogous idea that a website must be done well for people to not only come, but to stay and conduct business – shop, buy, call, contact – whatever you want them to do.

Most people look at a variety of websites on any given day, whether on their phones, their laptops, or their tablets. Most of these same people don’t give the websites they view a second thought because these sites look nice, feel comfortable, and function properly. The user achieves whatever it is they went to the site for in the first place. In a word, their user experience is optimum. And when user experience is good, the website’s bounce rate – the rate at which users leave a site after visiting just a single page – is low.

What do good websites have (or do) that bad ones don’t? Because your website is your virtual store, ease and convenience of use are not all that matter. Consider the distinct aspects of your website’s design and development, and how they might affect a user’s decision to stay or leave. By addressing these appropriately, you ensure visitors have the best possible experience and will want to keep coming back for more.

Top Website Issues

Top Website Technical Issues, Technical SEO
Top Website Technical Issues, Technical SEO

The design and function of your website is just as important as the information your site provides and the products and services you sell there. Professional web designers and developers are trained to build websites that appeal visually, function appropriately, attract users, and keep bounce rates down. Don’t jeopardize the profitability of your business by building your own website and missing the mark on any of these key details.

Philadelphia web design company Perfexion, Inc. specializes in web design and development, including monitoring and managing the performance of clients’ websites. They are experts at building brands and all types of online marketing. Because they thrive on helping clients be as successful as possible, they collaborate with you to understand your business and build a website that targets your ideal customer and increases relevant traffic.

Contact Us Today!

WEBSITE pfxn.com
E-MAIL hello@pfxn.com
CALL 610-783-7660
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Responsive Web Design: Every Search, Click, and Scroll Matters

Responsive Web Design: Every Search, Click, and Scroll Matters

When it comes to responsive websites, customer service and user experience go hand in hand. If users have a good experience with a website that responds to their every search, click, and scroll – that is, with every interaction they have on that site – they will equate those interactions to good customer service. The opposite holds true as well. Your products and services may be the best in the business, but if a user can’t locate them on your website, or they click on a link and are taken to an error page, or worse, they can’t properly view your website on their mobile device, they will equate that to poor customer service. At which time, they will click away and never return.

Responsive websites should always be fully accessible, readable, and functional for people who view them (error-free goes without saying) – regardless of the type or size of screen the website is being viewed from. Statistics indicate that more than 65% of web searches performed today are done on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. If your website does not adjust dynamically for ease of reading on different devices, or images get blurry when a user pinches and expands them, your website is not responsive or mobile ready.

When building your website, responsiveness of design is one key factor to keep in mind. WordPress, the most popular tool for creating and managing websites and blogs, offers plenty of website themes with responsive design. That means that users will be able to easily read and use your website whether they’re looking at it on their desktop computer, their laptop, their tablet, or their mobile phone.

WordPress is popular for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are its ease of use and community forum that provides support on virtually any topic. In addition, WordPress as a content management system (CMS) offers:

  • Easy content creation and publication of web pages, posts, media, and more
  • Control over who can access/update your website and the functions they are permitted to perform
  • Drag-and-drop functionality to quickly and easily add images and other media to your website
  • Plugins to add other features such as calendars and social media
  • Search engine optimization so your website gets ranked and found on the internet

If your website is more informational and contains fewer functions than a website designed specifically for e-commerce, you can manage it perfectly well with WordPress CMS. As you build, change, and manage your WordPress website, with its responsive design functionality, new content and features will adapt to the responsive design, so you can be assured of always providing the best customer service and user experience to anyone who visits your website.

Two other content management systems assure website owners of responsiveness of design when used: Sitefinity™ and Kentico. If your website is complex, such as an extensive corporate website, and/or contains e-commerce (online shopping) functionality, Sitefinity and Kentico offer high-end CMS solutions to support the detailed and more technical needs these types of websites require.

Similar to WordPress in terms of the page management and user access features they offer, Sitefinity and Kentico offer additional functionality right out of the box:

  • Websites are mobile ready, which means you create your website once and it automatically adapts to a variety of devices and screen sizes. You can preview how your website will appear on different screen sizes, and adjust content if necessary.
  • With responsiveness of design, you present a unified brand message and you do so consistently across all types of devices and marketing channels such as social media, which makes for a singular user brand experience.

Beyond the direct website experience, a CMS can be set up for other functions you want as part of your user experience. For example, you probably want to include a series of automated emails to be sent as certain user activity triggers them: Welcome, abandoned cart, Thank You, delivery confirmation, and more. Or you want to send product news, sale information, or coupons. Given the mobile nature of our society, more people are doing business on their mobile devices than on desktop computers. Responsive design makes sure your entire message gets seen and is easy to respond to, so people will want to do business with you.

Website owners should choose the most appropriate content management system for their needs – based on the amount and level of functionality and complexity of their website. But, whether your website is simple or complex, if you want your website to display accurately on both desktop and mobile devices, make sure every aspect of your website contains responsiveness of design.

Responsive design is vital to engaging customers and users. If they can’t view and navigate around your site on their smartphone or tablet, they will move on to one they can. If you have limited expertise in website design and management, or you would rather spend time running your business than managing your website, consider consulting with a professional web design and development company.

We are a Philadelphia-based web design and development company located in Plymouth Meeting just outside King of Prussia.  We are a web design and development company that understands responsive design and how it interplays with content management systems – CMS.  Perfexion specializes in helping clients market their business online effectively – and profitably. Contact us today to schedule your consultation.

Contact Us Today!

WEBSITE pfxn.com
E-MAIL hello@pfxn.com
CALL 610-783-7660
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Why Hire a Professional Web Design Company

Why Hire a Professional Website Design Company

Few business owners dispute the need to have a website. How else will current and prospective customers know about the products and services their business offers and the unique value they bring to the market? Or the company’s history and mission? Or how to find or communicate with the business? Frequent changes and updates to a website support a company’s ability to attract new customers and expand into different markets, if desired.

Done right, a website also serves as a forum for business owners to target, reach, and communicate with, desired clients; educate and inform visitors to their site about topics related to business offerings via blogs, company updates, or a FAQ section; and receive feedback, inquiries, and concerns about customer needs.

Some business owners prefer to design and build their website themselves, via readily available user-friendly apps and platforms (although user-friendly is debatable). They might be looking to save money or already have a design in mind. Sound familiar? While these may seem like good reasons to build your own website, by doing your own, you risk losing business if your website comes across as unprofessional, disorganized, not secure—or worse, no one knows your website exists.

Your site may have eye-catching colors, attractive images, and easy-to-read/easy-to-understand content (text). But these are only a small portion of what goes into making an effective, high-performing website. For all the beauty and graphics your site displays, if your website is not coming up in internet searches, the weekend and evening hours you spent building the site were for naught.

Professional Web Design Company

The 4 Best Reasons to Hire a Professional Web  Development Firm
If you’re still not convinced your website needs a professional touch, consider these top 4 reasons to hire a professional web design company.

1. Visual appeal and function – The text, colors, and graphics on your website matter. The look and feel of your website, and how easily users can navigate the pages and find the information they’re looking for also matter. Professional designers will tie these elements together to make sure your website is attractive and functional, as well as user-centered.

2. Search engine optimization – Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical if your website is to be found when people perform an internet search for your type of business on one of the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, or Bing. This traffic, derived from organic searches rather than from a user clicking on an ad, is like gold. The the traffic is due to people looking for exactly what you have to offer! SEO involves using both the right keywords and phrases as well as the right creative elements to improve your search engine rankings and generate traffic to your website.

Web designers work in conjunction with web developers, who add the necessary ingredients behind the scenes to ensure a website not only gets found on the internet, but also ranks high in relevant searches.
What is more, web design, along with solid web development, makes use of programming language, behind-the-scenes codes and tags, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to set up all the technical aspects of a website.

3. Value-added technology – Every website can benefit from using additional technologies that help drive traffic to the site. These include videos that demonstrate how products work, an RSS feed that provides the latest industry updates, and links to other pages or relevant materials on the internet or on social media, among others. And, when properly positioned and coded, all enhance the ranking of your website for internet searches. Do-it-yourself web designers either don’t include these valuable technologies or they add or place them in a way that does not benefit the business.

4. Results tracking and analytics – A professional web designer will know how to design your website so you get more conversions.  Website developers will drive the actions you want visitors to your website to complete. This includes filling out a contact form, click to another page, call you, or buy a product. The pros will set up your Google Analytics so you can track results via a dashboard. To measure success, you’ll track such Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as new visitors to your website vs. repeat visitors, number of visits to your site before a user makes a purchase. Other KPIs are bounce rate (how often a user clicks off a page),  time on a page —and many others. By understanding these metrics, you or your designer will know what is working and where you might need to make changes to improve performance.

Be Competitive

If you truly wish to be competitive in the online marketplace, use a professional web design service for your website. The vast majority of businesses today rely on their website—and its optimum performance—for the success of their operations. The value provided by a web design service far outweighs the results you might obtain by designing and managing your website on your own. For more information on how a professional web designer can help your business, contact Philadelphia based Perfexion, Inc. today. We specialize in helping clients market their business online effectively and profitably.  We also help our clients with insights, awareness and how to measure success. An example is a great article on measuring brand awareness at: How to Measure Brand Awareness.

We are a Philadelphia-based web design and development company located in Plymouth Meeting just outside King of Prussia. We specialize in making sure clients’ websites are technically sound and perform to the best of their ability at all times.

Contact Us Today!

WEBSITE pfxn.com
E-MAIL hello@pfxn.com
CALL 610-783-7660
SAY HELLO