2020 was full of tough lessons for businesses. A lot of small businesses didn’t survive those lessons, but those that did learned how important it is to have a business website. Having a website is all well and good, but it isn’t enough to just have one (another tough lesson learned). For your website to benefit your business, it needs to be engaging for your customers. So how do you go about making your website more engaging?
Start With Professional Design
Before you even get started making your website more engaging, you need to take into account the impression it makes on-site visitors. That means paying close attention to your website’s design. It should be professional and in step with your business’s brand. Good graphic design creates a positive impression on customers visiting your website. That positive impression is your way of getting your foot in the door with customers. It invites them in and encourages them to see what the rest of your site has to offer.
Create an Intuitive Experience
One of the things that happen when you have high-quality web design is that your website becomes intuitive and easy to use. Customers don’t want to have to go hunting for information or the pages they need on your site. They want to be able to navigate easily to where they need to go. As such, it’s important to have a well-organized menu on your site. It’s not a bad idea to include a search feature on your site as well. Between a solid menu and a search feature, customers should be able to easily find anything they’re looking for, so long as it’s on your site somewhere.
Avoid Pop-Ups
Technically, pop-ups increase the literal engagement customers have with your site. They force your customers to interact with your site somehow by addressing the pop-up. There is a time and place for using pop-ups, but in many cases, less is more here. Pop-ups quickly become annoying to deal with. If your customers become frustrated, they’ll leave your site for one that’s less obnoxious.
Use Videos
If you want to pique the interest of visitors to your website and increase your site’s level of engagement at the same time, make sure you use videos. Videos can capture interest and showcase your business’s brand in a fairly unique way. Few other methods give your customers quite the same degree of exposure to your brand the way videos can. They tend to apply to a greater number of senses, which is part of what makes them more memorable. There are a lot of different types of video content you can choose to add to your website. Which ones make the most sense will depend on your business and what you want to accomplish with the videos.
Share What You Know
A lot of people visit websites in search of information. After all, that’s essentially the whole point behind search engine queries. Consumers have a question or want to know something, so they turn to search engines to help them find the answer. If you want to take advantage of that, take the time to share what you know. The more you share, the more consumers can start to look to your site as a resource. You can do video tutorials, a content page dedicated to frequently asked questions, or blog posts explaining industry topics, as examples. You don’t need to give away trade secrets or anything, but feel free to share some of the knowledge you’ve gained as a business. It helps you build your business’s credibility and helps you come across as an expert in your field. Building your authority is always going to be beneficial to your business.
Use Chat Features
You want people to interact with your site positively. Consumers want you to be able to fulfill their needs. One of the things you can do to check both of those boxes is to use chat features on your site. You can choose to use a live chat feature, a chatbot, or a mix of both. Like search features, chat features allow consumers to enter questions or look for information and be directed to something that will fulfill their needs. Chat features are often superior to search features though. They tend to be more responsive and can handle a much broader spectrum of interactions. Knowing how and when to use chat features will help you make the best use of them for your business.
Optimize for Mobile
It’s all well and good to make your website more engaging in general, but if you haven’t done so with mobile web surfers in mind, you’re making a huge mistake. Over half of internet traffic comes from mobile phones. Sites that aren’t designed for mobile phone usage can present on phones as clunky, slow sites that can be difficult to navigate at best. As with pop-ups, if the consumer becomes frustrated with your site, they aren’t going to stick around. They’ll leave your website for one that is more optimized for mobile phones. On the other hand, if you optimize your site for mobile phones, you’re more likely to see greater levels of engagement from that segment of customers. You’ll see more conversions from them too.
Design for Accessibility
Similarly, not everyone who uses the internet can use it like the vast majority of people do. Some people need more accessibility, which means making accommodations for people who are hard of hearing or deaf, blind or visually impaired, or may have other disabilities. For you to be able to tap into that part of the market, you need to incorporate greater accessibility into your website. That will make your website more engaging for them.
An engaging website is a must for businesses who want to attract and retain customers. There are a lot of different ways to improve the level of engagement your website has. As you work to improve yours, take stock of where you’re at now. Identify weaknesses and work on strengthening them. Ask for external input as needed, and test everything before going live. That will help you improve your website’s engagement and keep everything running smoothly.
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