Carly Stec says, “When our jeans no longer fit, we buy new ones. When our coffee pot starts to make a funny noise, we beeline it to Bed Bath & Beyond to pick up a replacement. Seems reasonable, right? So what makes your website any different? When performance declines, will you settle for the same results month after month? Or will you make a change? Agencies should look at their own websites — and their clients’ websites — as constant works in progress. Designs are not intended to be fixed, but rather, they should evolve to fit the needs of users over time. This... [...]

Christine White says, “According to Internet Live Stats, there are over one billion websites in the entire world. And by the time you finish reading this post, there will be even more. With so many websites in existence, what makes the good ones stand out? As inbound marketers, we often jump to SEO, social media, or the quality of content published. But there are actually quite a few other things to consider when judging the success of a website. What are they, you ask? When we built Website Grader, a tool to assess the effectiveness of a website, we judged websites on the following... [...]

Carly Stec says, “When it comes to your website pages, size matters. The smaller the file size of a page, the faster it will load for anyone who requests it. Makes sense, right? And people do notice how long a page takes to load. According to Akamai, a delay beyond two seconds can cause viewers to abandon a page — and for every additional second after that, the abandonment rate increases by 5.8%. Not to mention, Google had admitted to using site speed in web search ranking, as faster sites tend to create happier users. If that’s not enough to make you reconsider the size of... [...]

Gregg Crystal says, “The adage “patience is a virtue” doesn’t apply online. Even a one-second delay can drastically reduce pageviews, customer satisfaction and drop conversions. The speed of your site even affects your organic search rankings. Since 2010, Google has been accounting for a site speed in its algorithm. So what’s the biggest factor contributing to your page speed? Size. It takes browsers time to download the code that makes up your page. It has to download your HTML, your stylesheets, your scripts and your images. It can take a while to download all that data“. 5... [...]

Jordan Kretchmer says, “If you run the typical website, more than half of the people who visit leave in fewer than 15 seconds. If that’s not a red flag to you, it should be. As digital marketers push the boundaries of delivering a truly excellent customer experience, brand websites are re-emerging as one of their most important marketing channels. After all, it’s the number one place consumers go to learn more about your brand and product offerings — and the longer you can get them to stick around, the more loyal they (and their wallets) become. But inviting people to your website is... [...]

Ben Stroud says, “So you’ve just relaunched your website and everything’s looking good from a tech point-of-view.  You’ve spent an unholy amount of time, money and resources fixing the problems you keep hearing about and are very proud of the new platform. But something’s not right. Revenue has dropped and you’ve lost 0.5% of your 4% conversion rate in the first month. Does this mean it wasn’t worth it? Let’s take it back a step and first look at why you made those changes in the first place… Most changes made to an established website are iterative, they’re ideal... [...]

Rainmaker team says, “Let’s face it: if you’re not a trained artist or designer, color can be a tricky thing to use correctly. When you’ve got your website colors working right, your brand will look polished, professional, and cohesive. But if you don’t get your colors right — or you simply use too much color, your website can end up looking like a carnival. Which is perfect … if you sell carnival supplies. But not for the rest of us!“. Website Colors: How to Choose and Use Them ‘Copyblogger’ Blog  [...]

Peter Gasca says, “When was the last time you visited a website only to leave after only a few seconds? If you are like me, chances are you did this several times just this morning. Great websites are key to attracting and retaining visitors, and these days entrepreneurs have numerous tools at their disposal — Squarespace, Wix, Weebly — for creating sharp, impressive and mobile-ready websites easily and quickly. The problem is that these great resources are also creating a big issue, namely how does one identify the most trusted, authoritative and reputable websites?“. 4... [...]

Shari Thurow says, “Let’s play a word association game. Before we begin, clear your thoughts. Try to stay focused on this game only. Are you ready? What comes to mind when I say and write the word taxonomy? As mental models differ from person to person, I am reasonably sure that I will get many different answers. Information architects have word and image associations with the word taxonomy that others might not have. Computer programmers and Web developers might have different image and word associations than others. And some people, if I were able to see their facial expressions, seem... [...]

Dianna Huff says, “What if I told you that the lack of a seemingly insignificant content asset on your B2B vendor website will potentially cause 44% of your visitors to leave? And, what if I told you that this same piece of content was deemed a “must have” or “very important” to 90% of buyers who need it to move forward with an inquiry, request for quote, or trial offer? Would you include this content asset? You bet, right?! Yet, it’s this one asset that 51% of survey respondents indicated was most lacking on vendor websites“. How to Bring Trust and Credibility to Your Website Content... [...]