Web Design Tips: The Engine Room of your Online Presence

The inspiration for this article comes from my own journey from playing about with free templates and taking the wrong road on so many occasions with my website. Even though I only run a blog, here are some of the tips I have picked up along the way through research and advice from friends who know their stuff.

When it comes to refining the online presence of your business or even your own persona, many people sporadically utilise a wide range of social media platforms and often run out of time to maintain their website. Having a lot of followers is great but you probably want them to do more than just see your post. Not only do you want them to interact, like or share - you need to turn that follower into a customer, client or a dedicated fan of your blog.

The website should be the main portal of your online presence and any social media needs to spider out from the website to collect any followers in its web bringing them back to the website. The reason why the website is important as a central engine room for your online presence is mainly down to measuring the traffic and being placed in the best possible position to influence their user journey. Being able to measure your traffic and guide the visitors through your website to an eventual ‘call to action’ should be your main aim with every tweet, post, like and comment.

Of course there are many other factors to consider here. A professional website is often the first impression people will get of your brand. They will make a judgement as they hit that page and it will directly influence their decision to work with you or come back at a later date. Now that we have that cleared up, let’s move on to some top tips for creating a website that can function as a worthy engine room for your online presence. I have also included ways that your website can interact with your social media. 

Consistent & Professional Design

Think of your website as the ‘Design God’ for your entire online presence. Work first on the website, building a good gallery of professional images and logo options for various elements; such as square or round icons and headers. Once you have established your design and brand you can then roll this out across your social media platforms. Consistent design across your online presence will elevate your professionalism and help establish trust from new visitors early.

If you are not sure where to start, then look at comparative brands and how they are presenting themselves online. Make a note of anything you like, i.e. colours, layouts and designs and have this prepared before you meet with a website designer or begin approaching the task yourself. Making your own website doesn’t have to be expensive. There are plenty of affordable companies out there offering a range of packages from branding to full website design and development. There are also templates that you can use on Wordpress or Joomla.

Finding the right web designer or template can be difficult but it is possible to narrow the field through your peers. Whether you find web design in Windsor, Brighton, Bristol or London, network with people in your industry so that you can go on recommendation. If this is not possible browse their website for case studies or ask your business peers what theme they are using for their website. When it comes to selecting a website design company your first stop is to consider if you like their website. If a web design company can’t get their own website right then it is more than likely they are not right for you.

Define Your Call to Action

Every website should have one. Whether you just want them to follow your blog, subscribe to your newsletter, contact you or buy a product. Basically you need to know where you want your website visitors to go and what you would like them to do. Once you have a good understanding of the journey you would like them to take, you can work on creating a website that encourages that journey.

Anyone reading this feeling proud of their social media followers or likes that hasn’t yet developed a fully functioning website, has amazing potential to do better online business. Remember: there is no point having thousands of likes and followers if they don’t turn into customers, clients or regular readers of your blog.

Once you have decided on your call to action or actions if you have several, add these into your Google Analytics event tracking. You will then be able to measure the results in the future.

Top Tip: If you have more than one contact method or several call to action points on your website make sure they all have their own unique URL address. This is because Google Analytics will need a separate URL to do the event tracking for each individual action

Be Selective About Your Social Media

Firstly, be selective with social media and narrow down the number of platforms you are using. Focusing your time into the main social media channels. For example, you don’t really need ten different platforms. Many believe that Twitter, Facebook and Google+ should be your main channels but you could have a couple more such as Pinterest, Instagram or Tumblr if it is appropriate to your audience / customer base. For example a visual company, such as a photographer, wedding shop, fashion retailer or art seller would need to have all of the good image based social media platforms. However, a musician or band needs to have any audio based platforms such as Reverbnation, MySpace and Soundcloud.

If you are starting from scratch, do your research and find out what other companies like you are doing. If it is working for them then follow suit, if not then learn and adapt. If you already have a strong social media presence and the website is an afterthought, select three or four main channels to work with your website. Select the platforms that can easily synch with your chosen website content management system (CMS) and have the most engagement from followers.  

Social Media Icons and Sharing

Once you have selected your platforms, the next step is to make sure they are utilised correctly and that you have socially charged your website. As mentioned earlier, you want your social media to branch out from your website and in turn, scoop people back to the website again. In the header area of your website make sure you have social media icons making it easy for people to find you on their favourite social media platforms but, more importantly, give them the option to share your website or the individual posts and page they may have landed on.

When you speak to the web design company ask them what kind of social media sharing capability they would recommend. Find out the various options and select one that works for your business. Ideally you want the posts that get shared to be aesthetically pleasing when they go out. So make sure there is the opportunity for an icon or image. There is usually also an chance for someone’s post comment to share out on their social media by default. Some websites also allow visitors to login with their Facebook or Twitter account so that they can remember the visitor and more easily share out their activity.

Build a Mailing List

Data is like gold to an online business. Collecting emails of people visiting your website is a great way to build followers that you can draw on in the future. Include a newsletter sign up or follower option in the sidebar of your website that is easy and quick for them to join, i.e. they simply type in their email address and click submit. Wordpress offers this option within their templates, which is one of the many reasons for its popularity. Any followers also automatically get an email with new posts or you can use this for any key events coming up. Your mailing list is your safety net for building your online community and musicians in particular use them forupcoming gigs.

Now that you have begun to build your list, think about implementing a newsletter. It doesn’t have to be very often, in fact most of your followers would prefer a monthly or bi-monthly update. Avoid ‘selling’ to them in this newsletter and keep it relevant and packed with content that is of value to them, which they will be more likely to share. For example you could offer top tips (like these) or give your thoughts on the latest news in the industry.

Thank you for reading. I hope you found my article helpful. I write on plenty of other subjects and you can follow me on Twitter for more updates @EdwardPhelan1.