How To Create An Effective Footer For Your Website | Prescott, AZ

Although the footer of your website may not be the most eye-catching area of your site, your visitors look for the footer in search of important information. Here are a few things to keep in mind when designing the footer of your website:

Simplicity Gets It Done. When dealing with lots of information, keep it easy for your visitors to find the information they need.

Link It. Two of the most important links on your website are the contact and about us sections. When visitors land on your webpage, direct them to these pages.

Contact information. Besides including “Contact Us” in your footer, add your contact information, including physical address, emails address, and phone number.

Keep It Relevant. Your information should be divided into columns or rows and arranged by relevant important information like contact information, social media, links, etc.

Copy. Including a copyright notice is extremely important to your security and can save you from facing many problems. Include the copyright symbol, the name of the copyright owner, and the year it was created.

Add A Call To Action. Add the extra nudge your visitors need to sign up for newsletters, subscribe to blogs, or to send an email requesting a quote.

Legible & Contrasted. Your footer is typically small in size and much of your info is kept in that small block. Color, brightness, and contrast should also be taken into consideration.

Graphics. Add logos or graphic elements to draw the eye but be careful not to overdo the small space with too many elements.

Interested in learning more about how to optimize user experience for your website? Visit us online at jellywebsites,com or call our team at 951.371.9327 today!

Gaining and Retaining Customers Is All About User Experience | Prescott, AZ

User experience is arguably the most important thing your website can offer. If a visitor has a bad experience navigating your website, they leave before they can absorb what you have to offer. Hiring an experienced website designer to consider your needs and produce an effective website for your business can make all the difference for user experience.

Navigation works to guide visitors through your services and enhance search engine optimization. Words such as “services” or “shop” don’t share what your business is about or work to accentuate your online presence. Utilizing popular key phrases for your navigation bar is an easy way to increase your page ranking online.

Most sites feature an abundance of information, products or services; how visitors work through these elements makes a difference in what they view. If you want visitors to focus on specific elements, you want them at the top of your navigation, not buried in a dropdown. How dropdown menus are organized matters as well; mega menus are more appealing than those broken down into smaller sections.

Mobile navigation is also crucial to the experience, especially as people start getting back out into the world and technology continues to advance. When your website is where you want it online, it’s important to take a deep dive into its mobile presence. Have a friend or two log onto your site from their phone and provide feedback; it’s okay if they “don’t understand” how websites are created - it’s actually better if they don’t. Raw, honest feedback about their user experience will help you decide how to adjust the mobile presentation of your services.

Limiting the amount of menu items serves visitors and search engines, so it’s important to evaluate what you have on offer and how it’s presented. A good rule of thumb is to keep your menu at or below seven. Ideally, each page on your website is optimized to be found as easily as possible for existing and potential consumers. Interior pages tend to get lost in the mix, but keeping things streamlined goes a long way in getting them found.

Interested in learning more about how to optimize user experience for your website? Visit us online at jellywebsites,com or call our team at 951.371.9327 today!

How to Guide Your Website Designer to Get the Results You Want | Prescott, AZ

Designers consider so many visual and background elements that they are generally unable to produce the best work without their client’s thoughts and desires being understood. When the client feels there is more direction needed to achieve their vision, they should feel comfortable expressing their thoughts. Here are some tips on how to effectively communicate with your designer to achieve the results you want.

Sources of Inspiration. Remember Pinterest? Think of the accumulation of your perfect website inspiration as a pin board. Gather it together; the colors, layouts, fonts, down to the cute accents - everything that makes you think “this is so my brand”. Designers are good at taking your laundry list of likes, dislikes, and “I want to like” and boiling them down into a presence your clients or customers will remember. More is more so bring it on!

Specifics. We hear from clients that they are timid about providing a designer with too much information or aesthetic direction. More times than not, an over-explanation of what you are seeking from your digital presence is more welcome than total creative freedom. Designers will take your list of must-haves, dreams, and desires and boil them into a cohesive presence.

Inquiries. There are times when elements of a website edit don't suit you, but you are unsure of how to proceed - that’s okay! It is the perfect time to ask your designer his or her thoughts on how to bring a given element to life or rethink your approach. The designer is your ally in making your digital presence enticing, cohesive, and user-friendly.

Design is a collaborative process. It’s going to take time and multiple edits to get it just right so take a deep breath and be a true creative partner - even when you don’t know the answer.

Interested in developing a website with the professional designers at Jelly Websites? Visit us online at jellywebsites,com or call our team at 951.371.9327 today!

Effective Ways to Enhance Your Website | Prescott, AZ

Believe it or not, you would rather a visitor to your website not notice the effort it took to create a great user experience than find it distracting or difficult to navigate. When the elements that make your website beautiful, navigable, and searchable, and leave clients or consumers coming back for more when a website is the most effective. The next time you visit your website or enlist the help of a website designer, consider whether or not your website is optimized in these ways.

Usability. User experience is a make-or-break element for every single potential customer and visitor to your site. You want your website to be intuitive, ADA compliant, and mobile friendly so anyone can visit and feel comfortable navigating your services wherever they are.

Aesthetic. Your website is part of your reputation; it’s important to coordinate with your designer on how to best present the elements that make your business unique. The visual appeal of the services or products your business offers is the first step to getting visitors to click through the rest of your website.

Content. A business owner may take “content” to mean the words, images, and presentation of e-commerce online. While this is what makes up the website, designers take it a step further, developing the background elements to those visuals that get them found online.

Visibility. You also want to link as many external pages back to your website as possible, things like social media biographies and a LinkedIn profile. Search engine optimization can be strung through the entire website to enhance your page ranking on Google, Firefox, and other search engines.

Engagement. The second challenge to getting eyes on your website is keeping visitors engaged. You want visitors to be interested in learning more about what you have to offer through design elements, videos, blogs, or any element that works to keep them coming back for more.

Interested in learning more about how to make your website stand out? Visit us online at jellywebsites.com or call our team at 951.371.9327 today!

What You Need for Organic Website Traffic | Prescott, AZ

Websites are the first thing you should consider investing in when you start your business. It allows potential and existing clients or customers to find, learn about and follow your growth. There are many ways to promote your business to generate clicks and views, but don’t expect your website to generate organic traffic without these essential components.

Search engine optimization. First and foremost, it’s imperative to optimize the copy with keywords. To generate organic web traffic, you should be taking advantage of certain words to make it at the top of search engines. What keywords will your target audience need to use in order to find you? To find out, simply give it a Google and incorporate relevant tags into as much of your website as possible so it can pick up on it later.

Blogging. The content you add to a blog is very useful for SEO, keeping your visitors informed, and ranking you higher in search results. Blogs are also great for your visitors, it encourages them to visit regularly to discover new and interesting tidbits they may find useful.

Keep it clean. Oversaturated websites are not only confusing to navigate but are likely to cause them to leave your site. Keep your webpage to be easy to navigate, and less cluttered in order to keep your audience’s attention.

Link to social media. Social media has become a necessity for everyday life. Linking your website to a variety of platforms will help your customer base find your website, becoming potential customers or clients. For instance, having a Facebook “Like” or “Share” button on your webpage allows your visitors to follow or share your business without having to navigate away from the site.

Interested in learning more? Visit us online at jellywebsites.com or call our team at 951.371.9327 today!

SEO-Enhancing Website Additions | Prescott, AZ

Whenever a web designer or copywriter discusses the importance of incorporating Search Engine Optimization (SEO), they are basically referring to the ability of Google to find your business online. Essentially, their goal is to build and write your website in a way that uses as many relevant tags, both in the background and on landing pages, as possible. If they are able to do that, it kicks off a positive cycle of events that help grow your business.

Here’s a brief description of how it works:

When someone types something into a search engine, tags and keywords work to drive your website up the URL results hierarchy. The higher up you are, the more clicks your website receives and the more a search engine will associate you with those keywords; over time, enhanced SEO works together with organic website traffic to keep you there. The more discoverable your business is, the more potential you have to generate new clients or consumers. Here are some easy ways to update your SEO:

Blogs

Blogs are a great way to add or increase your ability to get found by search engines. They are usually between 350- 500 words and offer readers a variety of information from the latest updates on a given topic to insight into your business or field of expertise. A blog writer’s goal is to create structured content in a way that allows for the greatest volume of keyword use within that length parameter. A succinct, single-topic, in-depth blog can say a lot in 350- 500 words, both to the reader and search engines.

Meta Data

Metadata refers to the “unseen HTML elements that directly communicate and clarify website information for search engines” according to bigcommerce.com. Image information, titles, tags, structured data, and code all fall into this category of HTML elements. Metadata is embedded into what is referred to as the “back end” of a website; the space in which website developers work, and can even pull information from image tags.

Landing Page Copy

Landing pages are simply where visitors to your website “land” when they click on a given element of your website. A website can have any number of pages on it, but it’s important that those pages are information about your business or service. When a website is written, the person writing it uses the same technique as the blogger, it’s just disseminated differently. Ideally, the two work to complement one another providing a seamless experience for viewers and search engines.

We are proud to offer clients the SEO services they need to get found online. Visit us online at jellywebsites,com or call our team at 951.371.9327 today!

Blogging for Discovery and Engagement | Prescott, AZ

Blogging is a great way to enhance your website’s search engine visibility, and keep visitors to your website updated on the latest news on your enterprise or within your field. Blogs can cover a range of topics from niche insights to the latest trends or research, and can even provide readers with a glimpse into how your values drive business decisions. Whatever you want to convey to your audience, captivating and informative blogs may be the addition you’ve been missing.

There are a few ways blogs work to enhance your discovery online and retain the interest of those who visit your website. We are proud to offer blogging services to our clients, employing copywriters at the top of their field to write research-backed, informative, and enticing blogs that enhance your visibility online.

Discovery

Add or increase your ability to get found by search engines through keywords written in blogs. They are usually between 350- 500 words and offer readers a variety of information from the latest updates on a given topic to insight into your business or field of expertise. A blog writer’s goal is to create structured content in a way that allows for the greatest volume of keyword use within that length parameter. A succinct, single-topic, in-depth blog can say a lot in 350- 500 words, both to the reader and search engines.

Engagement

As visitors to your website or blog interact with it (click around, read content, etc.), the more favorable your service is over the competition. Why? The people who take time to read through and understand your practices, and philosophies or use your site to stay updated on the latest news are more likely to build a rapport. As they spend time on your website reading blogs, it increases the amount of engagement your site is getting which will allow it to rank higher on search result pages.

Interested in learning more, or want to incorporate a blog onto your website? Our developers, designers, and copywriters are here to help your business get found online. Visit us online at jellywebsites,com or call our team at 951.371.9327 today!

Loading Time and Overall Website Performance | Prescott, AZ

The amount of time that it takes for your website to load can truly impact SEO. Your website's speed depends on many different factors. This can range from host design and optimization. As a matter of fact, loading time matters for both users and search engines. It’s a fact that many users are less likely to stay on a site that has a slow loading time and I assure you that Google will penalize your site for loading too slowly.

Page Speed Matters to Google- Google wants to provide its users with the best experience possible, and if your site loads slowly it will affect your rating with Google. Google has been focusing on delivering the best user experience possible. Chances are that if your site loads faster, your business has better chances that viewers will remain on your page.

Page Speed Matters to Viewers- While page speed is important to Google, other search engines, and for your rankings, it also impacts user experience. It is not a secret that a positive user experience often leads to better conversions overall. There are many ways that a fast-loading website creates a good user experience.

  • If your business sells a product, having a fast-loading page helps your visitors quickly understand what your company has to offer and complete the order forms.
  • If your website generates revenue due to the advertising of your content, a fast-loading site can ensure that your visitors navigate through all of your web pages and can increase the total page views.

Efficient page speed relies on many different optimizations. If you’re ready to improve your overall website speed, contact Jelly Websites in Prescott, AZ today at 951-371-9327 or visit www.jellywebsites.com today!

Factors that Hinder Your Website | Prescott, AZ

Designing a website is not the easiest thing to do. Not only does the website serve a purpose, whether you are creating it for business or pleasure, but it also needs to continue to drive traffic if it’s going to be successful. After all, you are designing it for the visitor more than it is for you personally. While there are plenty of tips out there to help, there are lots of mistakes commonly made while creating them. Here are some of the more common mistakes web developers and web designers make that hinder the effectiveness of your website:

No consistency. When it comes to designing multiple pages for a website, keep things simple and consistent. If your page design is inconsistent, your visitor may wonder if they’ve been sent to another website.

Confusing navigation. If your website’s navigation isn’t direct, visitors are likely to get frustrated and leave. Remember the three-click rule – your important content should be accessible within no more than three clicks from your homepage.

Irrelevant/outdated content. Three little words: less is more. Make sure your website’s content is up to date and refreshed on a regular basis. After all, you want your visitors to come back wanting more.

Poor readability and legibility. Visitors come to your website in search of information, so making sure they can read it is extremely vital. Make sure to use easy-to-read color schemes and fonts to make reading easier for your visitors.

Non-responsive design. Most web browsing is done on mobile devices, so make sure you design your website to be mobile-friendly, in order to enhance its usability.

If you’d like to customize your website, contact Jelly Websites in Prescott, AZ at (951) 371-9327 or visit www.jellywebsites.com for additional information.

DIY Website Platforms: A Guide | Prescott, AZ

Websites are advantageous investments in your business. They communicate to existing and potential clients that you either run a legitimate enterprise or are a serious sole proprietor. For many just starting out in their career or seeking to level up their business, it’s useful to understand which of the many website platforms will suit your needs the best. Here is a rundown of the various DIY website options and their best use cases.

Shopify: This is a platform for e-commerce-based businesses. As your business grows, it offers add-ons and upgrades that allow the site to scale with you. It also integrates other management tools to keep tabs on several aspects of your business.

WordPress: It may be the most recognized website-building tool; it's certainly one of the longest-standing DIY platforms. WordPress allows users to completely customize their website and often relies on code to get the details just right.

Wix: A website built on Wix can be crafted from a variety of templates to highlight anything from services to a portfolio or built out to support e-commerce. It’s a fairly simple and intuitive program to use, making it a popular way to easily create an online presence for your enterprise.

Squarespace: Another e-commerce-specific platform, Squarespace is a user-friendly website-building tool. If your business is mobile, the accessories they offer are an added bonus, and a large reason it has become a popular option.

Having any online presence is better than none, so if you are considering the next steps for your enterprise, it’s important to analyze what you offer, and the platform that may best suit your needs. Of course, none of these options is going to provide a customized experience for your clients the way crafting your presence with a designer will.

If you are interested in curating or improving your online presence, contact Jelly Websites at 951-371-9327 or visit www.jellywebsites.com today!