Expanding your use of video, adapting to the growing use of smartphones and using your website to become an expert in your field are just some of the tasks you’ll need to tackle this year if you want to keep on top of the competition online. Think your website is ready for 2011? Think again. Just as you’ve mastered the latest web trends, suddenly major changes in SEO, web design and eCommerce appear from nowhere - and your business had better be prepared.
Here are the big web trends you need to address in 2011.
Add Something New: Physical retailers practically fall over each other trying to stand out among the crowd, offering extras like discounts, gift-wrapping and other promotions. “The more creative you can be, the better. I know of a clothing company that puts in handwritten notes into all of their products, thanking the customers. That’s a great example of what you can do when you’re a small retailer.”This is the type of stuff you can do when you’re a small company, and you have the chance to do it. Make yourself stand out and keep those customers coming back.
Make it Pretty: One of the biggest problems a new online shopper may have with the digital process is that they can’t touch and feel the product they’re buying. In order to eliminate that fear, you need to make the experience as visual as possible for them.
Content, Become an expert: Your website shouldn’t just be a place for customers to grab a phone number or send you an email. These experts say in order to distinguish yourself from the crowd, you need to be setting up yourself as an expert in the field – and the perfect way to do this is through a blog.“Plenty of businesses and simply people in general are either adding a blog to their site, or using a blog to communicate with their audience. And while blogs are not new, they are on the increase.”
Connect Your Customers: Social media is nothing new and we all recognize that businesses without Facebook and Twitter pages risk being left behind. But now comes the next step – connecting all your social media links together and plugging them whenever possible. All of your pages need to link to social mediate sites, and vice versa.“Interconnection with social media is the big thing now, you really need to be looking at having your Facebook page, Twitter and other sites all linked together. You need to make these sites are not just the place users go to buy something, but be sure they can get to other places as well.”
Keep it Social (SEO): Talk to any SEO webmaster and they’ll usually say that creating plenty of links is a great way to get your site noticed in Google. The more links, or “doorways”, into your site, the more opportunities people have to visit it.“This occurred in 2010 and there’s going to be much, much more of it in 2011. The social world is bigger, and it’s something that Google wants to do well. Now is the time to do social, and do social well.”
Don’t forget Google: Sometimes improving your website means going back to basics. “The big thing businesses need to be looking at is using Google Webmaster Tools to get analytical data. Many use just analytics, but they don’t use webmaster tools to find out what Google is doing with their site.”
For more information do contact A-1 Technology as they are expert in buliding attractive and strong websites.
