How to improve your website functionality?
We are constantly asked about how to make our organization’s website more functional. Generally, when we are asked about functionality, the organization is referring to speed, responsive time, and analytics. When we are looking at a new project with an existing website, we always look at these three areas to access what is needed for our potential client. So what areas do we focus on:
Hosting
It is always amazing that many organizations will spend thousands of dollars on a website project, only to place it on a share or cheap hosting platform. Then the organizations will wonder why their organization’s website was hacked. Hosting is very important. There are several good ones, and we would recommend either Flywheel or WPEngine.
Plugins
There is only one rule with regard to plugins. Only place plugins on your organization’s website that are being used. Do not use cross-functioning plugins, which perform the same functions. Your organization needs to make a decision on which plugin works best for your website. Plugins can add a lot of dynamic features to your organization’s website. They range from form builders, membership access, directories, image sliders, search engine optimation, lead generators, etc.
Responsiveness
According to Wikipedia, responsiveness is “responsive design is an approach to web design that aims to make web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes from minimum to maximum display size to ensure usability and satisfaction. A responsive design adapts the web page layout to the viewing environment by using techniques such as fluid proportion-based grids flexible images, and CSS3 media queries, an extension of the media rule,…” In layman’s terms, your organization’s website should display similarly on mobile devices and tablets. This is important because over 60% of visitors come from mobile phones or tablets.
Social Media
Social media is here to stay! It is a free platform, that your organization can take advantage of extending or growing its reach. Your organization is going to need a social media policy and select an individual responsible for posting and sharing content about or supportive of your organization. We have discussed the importance of social sharing, and why it can assist your organization’s growth.
Navigation
Easy and obvious navigation is critical to new visitors. Most new visitors will stay on your home page for up to 6 seconds, so it is very important to have an architectural intellectual (menu), that can assist them to find out what they are looking for and how to get to specific pages. Your organization’s website should be created into leading new and returning visitors on a certain journey. That journey could be conversion (sales) related, or informational based.
CDN
If your organization does not have a content delivery network, then your website is probably slow loading site. What is a CDN? According to Wikipedia, “A content delivery network, is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. The goal is to provide high availability and performance by distributing the service spatially relative to end users. CDNs came into existence in the late 1990s as a means for alleviating the performance bottlenecks of the Internet as the Internet was starting to become a mission-critical medium for people and enterprises. Since then, CDNs have grown to serve a large portion of the Internet content today, including web objects (text, graphics, and scripts), downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications (e-commerce, portals), live streaming media, on-demand streaming media, and social media sites. CDNs are a layer in the internet ecosystem. Content owners such as media companies and e-commerce vendors pay CDN operators to deliver their content to their end users. In turn, a CDN pays Internet service providers (ISPs), carriers, and network operators for hosting its servers in their data centers.”
Conclusion
Search engine optimization (SEO) and security are also very important. You can find out more about SEO and security by checking our search box. If your organization is needing some creative assistance, from web design to marketing, then we are available and can be reached at info@jdswebdesign.biz or 678-718-5489. Image courtesy of Ana Taha.
JDS WebDesign is a Web Design and Brand Marketing Agency located in Marietta, Georgia. We create AWESOME on line presence for Start-ups and Influential People/Organizations. To learn more about us or how we can help you and your organization, you can contact us or schedule a meeting.
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