Ah, the new year. Full of goals, dreams, and resolutions. This isn’t just restricted to individuals, either. If you happen to be one of those unlucky businesses who hasn’t got around to getting a site redesign, what better time to change that than the new year? After all, everyone seems to know the power of a great website, so why not go out and upgrade your online presence? We’ll do our best to give you a few pointers right now so you can make your website the best it can possibly be later on.

 

Style, Layout, and Responsiveness

Let’s jump right into what you re going to need to know before you or someone you hire starts making your site. First things first, your site has to have a strong foundation before you can fluff it up and make it look nice. This means keeping things simple and easy to navigate. No one wants to spend half an hour sifting through pages before they find what they want; organizing your pages into groups will go a long way. If you’re using an e-commerce system, put all the best-selling items in one place, then break up all the other items into their own separate categories. Having some sort of organization in place will greatly help a customer’s ability to find what they want as fast as possible.

 

 

Once you have a good basic layout for your website, it’s time to make it look appealing. This is where you really get to be creative; you want the design to convey what your business is about using nothing more than a few colors and some patterns. This can also be one of the hardest aspects to get right, and hiring a professional designer can always help. That being said, it never hurts to have an idea of what you want, even if you do end up paying someone to do it for you. Do your best to come up with what style will appeal to your audience. Having a strong design can buy you those few precious seconds when a person is deciding whether or not to stay on the site.

 

Last but certainly not least, you have to have a responsive website. This is another extremely tough part to get right, as there is so much possibility for variation. It will vary between designs, but you are essentially trying to make the website as good as you possibly can across all platforms. You will almost certainly need to hire an outside specialist for this (unless you have an employee with extensive experience in the field), but it is definitely worth it. With massively increased numbers in traffic outside of desktops, it is important to maintain a solid presence on any mobile devices out there.

 

 

 

There’s no denying the fact mobile devices are quickly becoming a household appliance. Over 50% of people in the U.S. live in constant reach of a smartphone or tablet, and many of them reach to it the moment they need to buy something. Well naturally this creates a demand for web sites that can function on mobile as well as desktop, and that means going above and beyond the bare minimum. Websites that “work” don’t necessarily make the cut when it comes to selling your product, and people have come to expect a certain standard from their browsing experience.

 

 

What’s So Important About It?

Simply saying it’s important to have responsive web design doesn’t explain why. Yes, it is necessary to implement it, but just exactly why is it such an essential concept?

1) First off, and perhaps most apparent, is that bad websites drive visitors away. If you don’t capture someone’s attention in the first few seconds of their visit, they’re going to head straight for the back button. Obviously you can’t showcase your website to someone who can’t see it, meaning you can’t showcase your product. Plain and simple, bad websites lose business.

 

2) While most of us can recognize a bad website, it’s much harder to recognize a good one. One thing is certain, though: good websites look, well, good. Responsive web design does just that, making sites look attractive across all platforms. This goes a long way towards enhancing user experience, and will not only keep visitors on the page for longer, but can bring them back to make purchases again.

 

 

3) With massive amounts of growth in mobile devices sold each year, these users can’t be ignored any longer. Sites need to be designed for both desktop and mobile if companies plan on keeping customers around, and with over 200 unique screen resolutions out there, this can be quite the challenge. Responsiveness allows any and all screen sizes to display a site the way it’s meant to be, meaning everyone using a smartphone or tablet won’t have to worry about scrolling or resizing.

 

4) We’re at the point in time where some companies design their websites for all devices, but there is still a good number that don’t. Users are noticing this, though, and will browse search results until they find a site that looks good on whatever they’re using. This doesn’t just keep sites from bringing in new customers, it will lose them existing ones as well. Keeping a steady flow of income from online campaigns means adapting to what’s around you, and right now that’s responsive web design.

 

We all know how important a good SEO campaign is. It is more than capable of making or breaking your online profile, and can’t be overlooked if you want to find success on your website. The one downside to this, though, is that very few people actually know what “good SEO” means. Yes, we all have the general idea: choose keywords carefully, post content regularly, etc. But the real challenge is finding how to go above and beyond the basics. Enter Google Authorship, the wonderful little tool that can help bump up your traffic by 150%. A painfully simple method of increasing traffic, it is one of the best ways you can get an edge on your competitors.

 

How It Works

Google+ is a big part of this system, if not all of it, and you’ll need an account to use Authorship. Lucky for everyone, this is easy to do, and shouldn’t cause any problems for some of the less tech-savvy people out there. After you have an account, any blog posts you put up while signed in will show your name, photo, Google+ bio, contact info, and anything else you choose to put on your profile right there on the post link.

 

 

The Effects

We’ve all seen the facts behind rich snippets, so there’s no need to go too in depth behind all of that. However, there are some important aspects unique to Google Authorship that will directly impact SEO results.

• When browsing search results, social annotations attract attention better than video snippets. Not only does this mean personal photos are more valuable than videos, it also suggests that a link’s placement on the front page is not as important if the other links don’t have pictures.

 

 

 

• Users look at links with photos for longer. This further supports the idea that someone will be more likely to click on a link establishing a personal connection. As an added note, the longer someone looks at a link, the better the chance that they will read the description, adding to the effectiveness of search snippets.

• Social annotations also allow you to further refine your SEO campaign through carefully selecting what to put in the snippet. A professional photo, bio, etc. will attract professional users. This can give you an added edge on those pesky sites holding down the top spots for your keywords, bringing increased amounts of traffic without actually increasing your rankings.

 

If you’re looking for the next way to bump your SEO to the next level, Google Authorship could very well be the best method out there. Easy to set up and even easier to use, it’s quickly becoming a staple in every great marketing scheme.