Design Development

By 2014, there were already one billion websites on the net, so it’s fair to say people know what a website is, and just how important it is to a business owner. We like to call websites the face of a company.

Back in the day, phone books just had a business name with a phone number. Nowadays, people will visit your website and if your site is not appealing, you have just lost a potential client. At MarkeTop, we want to focus on websites that convert, meaning a visitor will land on your site, be immediately hooked, read your content, and then call or submit a form right away. That’s conversion. Just like anyone else, when you visit a website and you don’t like it, you leave. Don’t let that happen to your business. We’re here to help.

In the virtual environment, your website is the heart of your business. In fact, many website owners think of their website as their “virtual real estate.” In other words, it is your business’s home on the web. Your front door is the link people click on to get to your site and your back door is your backlinks.

Yeah, we know. We’ve carried that metaphor far enough, but you get the picture.

And since your website is your home in the sky to transact business, you cannot entrust it to just anyone. You need to hold the web design company up to standards that you hold as important so that you are letting the technology work for you, rather than against you.

How to Choose a Web Design Platform & Web Hosting

When it comes to choosing the best web hosting and design platform, you should take a look at their specifications and see if they have the features you need. The ability to include multimedia on your site, such as video and podcasting, has become an integral part of the marketing process. So you need to make sure your hosting company allows for this.

Don’t just choose any web design company or web hosting solution for something as important as your home in the sky. Below are some of the criteria that you should look for when choosing a web design and hosting solution:

• Choose a hosting plan that allows you to expand your website and grow your business. As we’ve alluded to before, for all practical purposes, your website IS your business online. So you should leave the door open to changes and find a solution that will let you grow and adapt as your business’ needs change. At MarkeTop we help you choose from several hosting plan options.
• Make it talk. Video is responsible for over 65% of sales on the internet, according to a recent poll in which people revealed they purchased a product immediately after viewing a marketing video on the product. Make sure your web designer takes this into consideration and that your hosting plan allows for ample storage and speed to house your videos.
• Focus on customer engagement. The key to increased sales and revenue that you generate from your page is directly related to the level of customer engagement that you are able to create. Your web designer should keep this in mind and create a site that is highly interactive and uses gamification techniques and other strategies to increase your level of engagement. With our LiveChat services we have increased by 30% more leads to our clients that we built a website with a live chat widget integrated with it.
• Social media is a big part of the engagement that you want to create on your site and it should be a primary objective of the web design firm you choose, as well as an integral part of your overall marketing plan.

Making your Website Mobile-Friendly: From the Gospel According to Google…

In April 2015, Google released its latest algorithm updates. When it did, people were somewhat amazed at the simplicity of it all. Google announced to 1,000 of its employees, as well as countless others in attendance at their announcement, that two things mattered the most:

1. Mobile-Friendly Websites
2. High-Quality, engaging content

Google has constructed a website where you can go to find out if your site is mobile-friendly or not. You can try it out right now by following this link:https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

Once you do that, take note of the comments Google makes on your site. Those are the changes you will need to tell your web designer to do for your site. Here is where you simply call us for a quote.

To fulfill Google’s second commandment, make sure you fill your site pages with quality content. You should write content that hold value for people first and foremost, and which creates sound, relevant results with the searches. Nowadays, you must be aware of SEO techniques as well as good content so that you keep both the search engines and people happy!

The Need for Speed

As people stroll the byways and roads of your virtual palace, the last thing you want them to have is a lag in loading your page. Why? Do you have any pages that have several pictures and heavy content on them? Have you checked Google Analytics to see the bounce rate on these pages?

I guarantee it’s substantial.

We could rewrite “Field of Dreams” to say this:

If you build it, they may come.

But if your page won’t load, on they’ll go!

Bounce rate is specifically related to content lag. Kissmetrics, a well-known platform that uses tracking to measure a website’s progress, happens to agree with us. They even have a whole page of infographics on their site that show this statistically.

So we know that page lag is out.

How Do You Avoid Loading Lags and Increase Your Speed?

The best thing you can do to avoid these lag times and decrease your bounce rate is to hire a professional web designer who already has the technology worked out.

It could take you months to figure out all of the pieces of the puzzle trying a DIY approach to your own web design.

And I’ll Huff and I’ll Puff and I’ll Blow Your House Down

In the virtual world, page lag is like a big bad wolf. It decreases your speed and lowers your bottom line and ROI. There are other big bad wolves too.

So, ask yourself this: in the real world, would you try to build your own house brick-by-brick fumbling for the best way to do it, and hoping it will just all come together?

Or would you hire a contractor?

It’s the same thing with web design.

CoLocation of Services

There’s a movement on the web called colocation of services. It’s a hot topic these days because it addresses an important issue. When you hire one company to do it all, you know it will be done right. With the same people working on different aspects of your website, you’re always in control by dealing with that one company. And that’s a big plus.

Marketing and Web Design

When you need the best and want to cut through the time it takes to put this together on your own, contact us for that. We really know our stuff and they can construct, maintain, and integrate your entire marketing plan within your web design. That’s what an integrated approach is all about.

So when the big, bad wolf comes knocking, your house will stand firm.