1. Responsive, adaptive or mobile-first?

In the era where the majority of your audience browses your website or buys from your e-store via a mobile phone, it’s vital to decide whether to go with a responsive, adaptive or mobile-first design. When it comes to it, all of the above-listed solutions have their advantages, yet, a mobile-first design usually requires you to have another version of your website, while adaptive encourages you to make six different versions (for six different screen sizes). This is why you get the best ROI by going with responsive web design. Moreover, this is the only way to future-proof your website, seeing as how you never know what the dimensions of the next big device may be, which could spell a disaster for your adaptive approach.

2. Speed and uptime

Another thing you need to understand is the fact that about 25 percent of your website’s audience might leave you if the page fails to load within the first four seconds. In fact, there’s a statistic claiming that an average website has between 7 and 9 seconds to persuade their visitors to stay, so the last thing you need is to waste a couple of seconds (even if it’s just 2 seconds that we’re talking about) on loading. What you need is something fast and efficient. Aside from this, you also need a host that will provide you with as much uptime as possible. Speaking of which, you should look for at least 99.99 percent of uptime, which, roughly translated, comes down to 4.38 minutes of downtime each month (about 52.60 minutes per year).

3. Social media integration

The next thing worth keeping in mind is the fact that the majority of your traffic (at least in this day and age) comes through social media. In fact, this is the primary method for sharing your content, which is something that deserves a lot of attention. Namely, not only do you need to endorse this hyper-connectivity further but also enable your audience to help promote your brand by sharing your content, your offers and promoting your brand name, in general. The problem lies in the fact that for such a complex function, a mere integration of social media buttons may not be enough. Experts behind a reputable digital agency from Melbourne know full well the full significance of a solid social media integration and strongly support the idea that such a task should be left to professionals.

4. A/B testing your CTA button

It’s impossible to dispute the importance of CTA (call-to-action) button to the overall efficiency of your conversion system, however, what works for others may not necessarily work for you. This is why you need to A/B test your CTA button before making any permanent changes. One such test has even shown that the difference in color of the button (red or green) may make a difference of 21 percent in the average CTR (click-through-rate). Needless to say, this kind of difference can easily make or break your efforts to increase the overall engagement of your audience.

5. Don’t ignore whitespace

Finally, we need to address one of the most important visual elements on your website which is, coincidentally, something that often gets overlooked by laymen web designers. We’re talking about the whitespace. When done properly, this increases readability and allows much easier scrolling experience for touch, seeing as how the risk of clicking an interactive element on accident is reduced. Most importantly, seeing as how whitespace is, from the technical standpoint, a lack of an element, by increasing its presence you’re substantially speeding up your website and making it more resource-friendly. All in all, the adequate use of whitespace can give your website a massive edge.

In conclusion

As you can see, some ideas on this list are there to respond to current trends, while others suggest future-proofing your business. This is a merely because, in order to stay ahead of the curve, you need to learn how to be both reactive and proactive. With the above-listed five ideas, this shouldn’t be that much of a problem. With a higher conversion rate, you’ll also increase your profit, which might increase the number of options when it comes to your digital marketing efforts, as well.

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