How to Create Websites That Will Help You Stand Out From the Competition

So, you just had someone create a website for your business and now you can cross it off your list of worries. While many business owners might think so, this is not true. Simply creating a website is not enough to stand out from the competition. Without a unique, strong website you’ll face high bounce rates and lose business.

Currently, there are more than 1 billion websites online. According to stats, more than 50% of visitors spend less than 20 seconds on a site. This means that you only have 20 seconds to grab their attention and make them want to keep browsing your site. 

But what can you do to differentiate yourself among so many websites? 

Select a Good Domain Name

One of the first things you need to think about if you want your website to stand out is a strong domain. Think of the domain as your digital address - besides building brand awareness, it also attracts people to click on your site.

When selecting a domain name, make sure it matches your company name so that you make it easier for people to find your site online. In addition, your domain name should be short, unique, and easy to remember. 

Conduct thorough research to make sure that the one you want isn’t already taken by another company. Then, find a domain registrar that offers cheap domain registration, register your domain, and renew it annually. 

Pay Attention to Design

If you want your site to stand out, you’ll have to pay attention to how it looks. One study showed that the look and feel of the website are the main drivers of first impressions. Namely, when asked to give their opinion about a website, nearly 95% of the feedback was related to the design and about 5% to the content.

This doesn’t mean that content isn’t important. However, if your design is poor, people won’t stick around for long enough to check out your content. 

That’s why you need to make sure your website is visually attractive. Be careful though - your website shouldn’t be a copy of a competitor’s website. On the contrary, it should be unique and represent your brand. Here are some ideas to help you out:

• Incorporate your brand colors, use easy-to-read fonts, and make sure your logo is prominently displayed. 
• Create original, high-quality images of your products and services, along with descriptions. Visual content studies have found that more than 60% of people retain information better when images are combined with content. 
• Make sure your content is easy to read. Avoid writing big paragraphs and use visuals to break large blocks of text so that people don’t get bored with your site. 
• Finally, add social media icons so that visitors can see which channels your company is active on. 

Make Navigation Simple

If your site is too complex and people need to figure out how to navigate it, they’ll probably get annoyed and leave. If you want people to stick around, you need to ensure that your site is simple to navigate.

First, you need to provide enough info so that people know exactly what to do and find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. Include info about your products, contact info, business hours, etc. Make sure this info is arranged on clearly labeled pages.

In addition, make sure your visuals don’t get in the way. Even though your site should be visually appealing, visitors should not have to make their way through unnecessary visuals and text blocks in order to find what they’re looking for. Keep things simple. 

You should also make sure that navigating around your site isn’t slow. If your web pages take ages to load, people will leave. Studies have found that 45% of people will leave a site if loading takes more than 3-4 seconds. 

Go Mobile Friendly

In 2019, 80% of people used a mobile device to search the internet. Moreover, 40% of online transactions are now done using a mobile device. 

Many businesses have realized how important mobile is, so today, over 50% of websites are using responsive design technologies that work for all devices.  Having a mobile-friendly interface will allow people to visit your site through their mobile devices from anywhere. On the other hand, if the info is arranged exclusively for a big PC screen, it will make navigation on mobile quite difficult.  

If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you risk yours being rejected by the masses: about half of mobile users will switch to your competitor after a bad experience with your mobile site.

Always Keep Your Content Fresh

As we mentioned earlier, content matters. Keeping it fresh by constantly adding new content and updating old content is a great way to engage visitors and keep them coming back for more. Fresh content isn’t just attractive to visitors; it is also attractive to search engines and it can help improve your ranking in SERPs.

Consider offering resources like blogs, help articles, definitions, etc. and make sure to include popular, ranking keywords to get these resources to rank in searches. This will attract more people to your website.

Final Thoughts

Remember, the Internet is a big place so if you don’t want your website to get lost, you need to do everything you can to help people find it. You can always improve your site so that it ranks better in SERPs and provide a more pleasurable experience for your visitors. Hopefully, these 5 tips will help you get a little better equipped to make your site the star of your niche!