If your website has not had an update or overhaul in the past 3 – 4 years here are a few things that must be considered in website design to stay competitive online.

1. Is Your Current Website Mobile Friendly?

If your company’s website is over three years old, it may not be “Responsive.” Responsive means the site will display correctly on any device regardless of screen size. Many older sites are not MOBILE FRIENDLY designs making them difficult to view and navigate on smaller screens.

Example: Non-Responsive Website Design

2. Does Your Website Have The Newly Required TTPSHTTPS/SSL (green padlock) Security Certificate? 

As of July 2018 Google will begin marking websites that do not have HTTPS security as Unsafe. 

What this means for millions of websites without the required security certificates is a loss of websites visitors and a loss in Google ranking. If your current website does not display the green padlock next to HTTPS in the address bar contact us today 678-333-3179.

Negative Effects For Non-Secure Websites

 3. Was Your Website Built For Search Engine Ranking? 

Properly designed websites must function well on the customer-facing side, but also must be planned well for search engine robots on the backside. The search engine bots look for the proper structure that must include a sitemap, meta tags, image tags, H1 and H2 headers, quality URL page names, quality keyword content, and more. The whole of this work is called on-page SEO. For sites targeting local business, proper Geo-Targeting (Local SEO) is a must! Every website page we build is designed for search engines as well as humans.

4. Is your Website Registered and Verified with Google My Business, Bing, and Yahoo? Is Your Site Registered with Listings Distribution Services? 

Most business owners have no idea what it takes to have a proper website on the Internet; one that is designed to rank well on search engines. One critical factor that we constantly see overlooked by business owners and website designers alike is the necessity of listing and verifying your website on search engines like Google and Bing, and with registering with the four major data aggregators:

• Neustar Localeze
• InfoUSA
• Acxiom
• Factual*

Search engine verification tells the search engines that the info published on the Internet is correct and legit which is a ranking signal and helps people find your location and correct phone numbers. Listing with the four major data aggregators sends the accurate NAP data (Name, address, phone & website address) to all of the virtual world over time. The correct NAP data is also a strong ranking signal as well as supplying right data to everything from automaker GPS location systems to business location services like The Yellow Pages®.

5. Do You Have A Conversion or Lead Generation Strategy? 

All modern websites need a strong call to action. Ask yourself what do I want my site visitors to do? Should the primary call to action be a phone call, or complete an inquiry form? Should I use a pop-up offer or a free e-book?

6. Do You Inspire Trust by Using a Reviews Display Feature? 

Most new customers will check out your reviews online before doing business with you. You might as well make that easy by showing them your most recent reviews right on your website. This social proof (reviews) often makes the difference in winning a new customer or not.