Do you ever feel that your website could do with just a little nip tuck? Could it use a few small changes to really spruce it up and improve how it looks and works? Well here are 25 really quick tips from Xposure’s web development expert, from Mansfield, to improve your website now!

1. Give your website an “About” page, that gives visitors to your site the opportunity to learn a little bit about you and find the person behind the business.
2. As well as using all your fancy JavaScript to navigate around your site, have regular text links for those who have (for some unknown reason!) got JavaScript switched off.
3. Make sure that if you decide to use links within your text, to make them descriptive, so that visitors know what they are doing there, and where the links are going to take them.
4. Everyone expects the logo at the top of a website to be a link back to the home page, so rather being a little quirky and not having it link anywhere, avoid the wrath of lost internet users, and just make it a link!
5. Just incase your excellent site navigation lets you down, have a search bar at the top of the site that appears on every page. People will really appreciate the ability to search, and may even return to your site again, knowing they can find what they are looking for easily!
6. If you have decided to use Google Adwords, or other pay per click advertisement systems to drive people to your website, then get creative and produce specific landing pages for each phrase that you have bought. This will ensure that each user who clicks on your ad, will be taken to a relevant landing page, and will really lower your bounce rates.
7. If your brand colour is iluminous green and white, you may want to think about colours that are slightly more legible on the web, so that users can actually read your website.
8. For the visitors of your site who have accidently left their glasses at home, allow the resizing of text to make it smaller or larger, and easier to read.
9. For the links you have, specifically those that are within text, make them descriptive enough for visitors, with relevant and useful titles, telling them where the link will take them.
10. Having all your links the same colour is a must, as it will help people to know which links they have clicked on which they haven’t.
11. Like a newspaper folded in half on the top of a newsagents counter, all the best headlines and important information are at the top ready to get the reader thinking, above the fold, your website need to be displayed this way too. A screen size, will not be the size of your full website, and there will be areas that are cut off. Make sure that you have all your best information at the top of the site to grab the audiences attention straight away!
12. With regards to the wording on your site, you should always have text that emphasises how your site, and business will benefit the user. This positivity will keep them interested and engaged for longer.
13. For users who have text based browsers, and to improve your SEO, take care to have text as well as HTML to display your site as this is more easily searchable, and easily readable on text-only browsers.
14. Just because you use Google Chrome, doesn’t mean that everyone else does too. Before you go live, have a look how your site looks in other browsers and make the tweaks you need to ensure it looks good.
15. Have a tagline at the top of your page (in the area as stated by number 11) to grab the audiences attention as soon as they arrive at your site.
16. No one likes slow loading pages, so reduce the file size of the graphics you have used within your site in order to minimise the time they take to load.
17. Include a text site map to help users find their way around if they get a little lost. Not only will your site map help with navigation but it also assists search engine spiders to find, and index, all your pages.
18. You may have found the perfect image for your site in a Google search, but you need to remember that you don’t own it. Make another, or buy one to avoid getting into a legal battle about copyright infringement!
19. Meta descriptions are essential as they display when a user sees a link to your site from a Google search results list. Your description should make people want to click on your link and visit your site, while being honest about the topics they’ll find when they arrive!
20. Any contact forms on your site should be easy to fill out, and should require only information that the user should know off-hand, making them easy and desirable (and most importantly) quick to fill out.
21. Keep the choices for the visitors limited, as having lots of options all around your site can leave users confused. Lead the audience to where you want them to go, through your copy and your site navigation.
22. Just because your super fast Google Chrome, internet speed and top of the range computer will load pretty much anything, you can’t assume that everyone else’s will. Make your website useable by all and avoid using too much memory-hogging technologies like JavaScript.
23. On the off chance that something on your site does go wrong, have an error page with links back to the main sections of your site ready to display so that people can return to you, rather than leaving your site all together.
24. All your headlines and links need to be meaningful, so avoid titles that don’t describe the page location. Keep them concise and easy to understand to encourage users to give them a click.
25. Ask for feedback by having forms that make it easy for customers to speak to your about your site. This way you can learn what you are doing right, and do it more, and find out what isn’t as popular, and do it less!

Each of our 25 quick fixes should only take around 5 minutes, so get on with improving your website now! Rank higher in search engines, get more users and more importantly, have a site that looks great and works!

We have been building websites for a long time now and are well versed in the ins and outs, so if you feel your site could use a little sprucing, give us a call or email our web developer Tom.

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