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As of January 2014, according to techmadeeasy there are 180,000,000 “active” websites – and, that’s a lot.

So how can you establish a website and get it to stand out from the crowd?

It isn’t enough to just have a website, there are an array of elements that determine whether or not your website will be successful. There is a difference from getting your audience to visit your website and actually KEEPING them on your website.

When trying to leverage your website to increase sales, one of the most important things to remember is how credibile your website is.

There are five elements that can establish a websites credibility that will allow an audience to trust it and feel comfortable enough to return. The first element focuses on getting noticed, and that’s where the design comes in.

Focus on Design

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Always remember: a simple, clean, professional design with minimal clutter will go a long way.

This might seem obvious but your website has to be pretty to:

  • Not only get a person from closing the tab but to
  • Keep them coming back. Now, you may ask yourself:

How do I know if my site is ugly?

If your website resembles the website for Space Jam (shown below) you might want to consider getting it fixed by a professional. Bad graphics and difficult to read paragraphs are just two elements that make this website look unprofessional.

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Other unprofessional elements include:

  • Using stock photos
  • Using difficult to read fonts like Curlz MT
  • Using random colors that don’t go together or make it difficult to read, such as the red Cooper Black font against the black background Space Jam is using.

Being aesthetically pleasing doesn’t mean you have to add a glittery cursor, instead, focus on a clean look. A cleaner, less cluttered look is easier for a user to read and less distracting too. Research done by Social Triggers also suggest that more trust is given to sites that look professional.

Take a look at our website for example, it’s clean, it’s minimalistic – it’s professionally designed and its effective. It’s effective because it’s professionally designed, no bad photos of two businessmen shaking hands, and no distracting neon colors. If you want another guideline, simply visit a website of a company you would like to be like one day, your spirit website – is your website as badass as theirs?

Make it User-Friendly

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Having a good looking website means it must also be user friendly. If you want people coming back to your site and buying, your website navigation needs to be in tip-top shape. That means it must be well laid-out and clear, according to Dailyblogtips.com, a rule of thumb is that any page on your site should be 2 clicks away from your homepage. The last thing you need is somebody rage-quitting off your site because they couldn’t find your contact information.

Make it Fast

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Which brings me to my next point, part of being user-friendly means your website must also run fast, because in 2014 if you’re not first you’re last. Yeah, that saying still doesn’t make much sense, but basically if you have enough time to open another tab and search “your competitor won,” then your website is slow, and your competitor just 1-up’d you. This is because according to surveys done by Akamai and Gomez.com, about half of web users expect a site to load within 2 seconds or less, and will abandon a site if it hasn’t loaded within 3 seconds.

Now that your design is clean and your web site is fast, you have the users attention but how can you keep them coming back? Well, for starters you can blog.

Create a Blog

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It is imperative to become an expert of your trade and write about it; you must make the consumer believe that you know the industry you’re in better than anyone. Having a company blog with relevant content not only makes you look like a connoisseur, but it will bring the much-anticipated traffic you desire.

Improves SEO

Writing about your trade looks great, it is informative to the consumer and beneficial to your website. Running a company blog can further SEO due to the increasing content it provides. As you may or may not already know SEO improves the visibility of your site in search engines such as Google and Bing.

The keywords provided in the blog can also increase your sites popularity and rank, thus increasing visits and your chances of making a sale. In case you need more proof, according to Hubspot 92% of companies who blogged multiple times a day acquired a customer through their blog.

It’s simple: More traffic = More opportunities to sell.

In 2014, there are many companies we can learn from and use as a guide, Sony, Dell, and Zillow all have successful company blogs.

Disney Parks’ Social Media Director Thomas Smith explains why the company’s blog is so important:

"On the Disney Parks Blog, we like to go behind the scenes to show the dedication and inspiration that make our park experiences so magical for our guests. People often talk about the “Disney Magic” and ask “how do they do that?” This wonderment applies not only to our attractions and shows, but also the many everyday events that happen at all our destinations. We know it’s our cast members that go the extra mile to make those experiences so special for our guests, and we love to share those stories on the blog." For Disney, showing their guests behind the scene videos of the way “Disney Magic” is made can be both endearing and magical.

Which brings me to my last point: you don’t have to sell in everything the company does. Some things, and certainly your company blog, can be a time of information, interesting factoids, or even behind the scene magical moments. It is not about trying to sell, but more about trying to get your target audience to come to you and building brand loyalty.

Take advantage of connecting with your audience

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Linking your company’s social media accounts can increase your site traffic and increase the visitor’s willingness to buy.

You can link directly through a Facebook status or a tweet and bring customers to your door, or you can take customers from your website to your Twitter – everything works, as long as your brand is connected.

If you haven’t already linked your accounts, do it. If you still haven’t, let the next statistic sink in:

129 million Americans use social media

Linking your social media accounts to your website creates an expressway for your consumers, it makes it easier for them to find you, like your page, and buy your product.

In a nutshell:

  • Make sure your website is pretty fast, but preferably professionally designed and fast.
  • Blog, blog your heart out until you have covered everything in your industry and established yourself as a thougth leader.
  • Be social – link all of your accounts to your website and don’t forget to add all the necessary plug-ins at the bottom of your blog.