A few years back creating a website from scratch was a big deal – for a Web Design Company like programming, coding, designing, testing – the works. Everything that went into the successful performance of a website was reason enough to raise a toast. Today, if you have a web developer with your help or if you sign up with a web design company, you can easily cook up a customized WordPress website in a matter of few days.
While there’s no doubt that WordPress has changed the way the world create websites (WordPress powers about 60% of the CMS based websites in the world), as a business owner it’s good to ask if my website is just another WordPress website.
Take a close look at your WordPress website to see if you have optimized it to generate exceptional results. Here are some pointers that help you evaluate the effectiveness of your website.
- Themes are good, but not good enough
Let’s start with the hard fact- WordPress themes are tempting and they come quite cheap, but that doesn’t guarantee you a great website. Creating a fabulous, brand-aligned website require something more than what themes can offer. To say it differently- unless you are well-versed in customizing a theme to suit your requirements and unless you are knowledgeable about WordPress plugins and functionalities, you would end up with a poorly designed website that can kill your business credibility on the web.
- Categorize web design company menus
A basic menu does not suffice if you need your audience to explore your website from start to finish. The trick is to categorize the menu into bite-size segments so visitors can find exactly what they need quick and easy. Rather than leaving them puzzled with an unstructured and haphazard website to make sense of, give your audience what they need upfront.
- Summarize content creatively
By default, WordPress uses the first sentence of your post as an excerpt. It’s on you to steer away from the usual and come up with something intriguing enough to keep your audience hooked. Unless your excerpt is noteworthy, visitors are unlikely to stick around for long. The idea is to pique interest without being verbose. The golden rule in website content is to keep it crisp and concise. Keep in mind that your website visitors don’t read your website content anymore, they only scan through it in a few seconds.
- Manage bounce rates effectively
If your website’s bounce rate falls within the 26-40% range, breathe easy – things are looking good. However, once it climbs to the 41-55% bracket, it’s time to brainstorm and balance the equation in your favor. Working with the Google plugin – Reduce Bounce Rate – keeps Google informed about your website’s activity which will otherwise be overlooked.
- Get the SEO plugin
Ranking in search engines is essential if you need consistently increasing page views. The best way to do that is to make sure your content is high in quality and optimized for keywords and key phrases. You can seal this performance with a great choice of SEO plugins for your WordPress web design company which can ramp up page views. If you are a starter, the free version of Yoast SEO plugin is a good try.
- Insert links when possible
It’s good practice to link information when possible. Why? So you can empower your audience with added information that would benefit them. You can have the Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) do the job for you automatically; if you’d rather do it manually, that works just as fine. This plugin saves you time by filtering relevant posts to link which is known to have a tremendous impact on rapidly growing page views.
Points to Ponder
Lately, WordPress has turned out to be the talk of the town and the go-to place for businesses looking to gain online visibility while increasing customer conversion rates. What does this mean for you in terms of business? Well, it’s a highly competitive marketplace and you’re neck-to-neck with your opponent in the industry.
You can choose to get lost in the crowd or stick your neck out to stand out from the usual suspects. Working with the pointers listed above, your chances of growing your network globally are higher. All it takes is a few smart fixes along the way and the traffic on your website is going to multiply. Eyes on the prize, people – it’s never too late to get started.
P.S. ‘Just another WordPress site’ is the default tagline displayed when you install WordPress. Many amateurs who build websites on their own using free or paid themes often miss to replace this tagline, a testament that’s it’s just another poorly done website.
