Online Marketing Hack: How website designs affect Traffic and

Conversion

Not long ago when website design services used to be a major revenue stream for Nativedge,

prospects would call requesting either a dynamic or static website. I remember those days now

with much amusement.

But now the game has changed.

With the raising trend of technology devices that are capable of connecting users to the internet,

a critical question that entrepreneurs like you in Nigeria should be asking is if your website

design affects your overall web traffic and conversion rate.

Your website design definitely affects your web traffic and conversion. But let's go down

memory lane and find out how website designs have changed over time.

About a decade ago we had static website designs which required that you had programming

skills to be able to upgrade or even upload content to the website.

Then dynamic websites came into the picture and made life easier with content management

systems and other plugins where upgrades could be done over an interface by any user. Although

this was much simpler to manage for organizations, small business owners found this option

expensive to setup and many still stuck to their static websites.

What digital marketing agencies in Nigeria who still use black hat online marketing strategies

won't tell you is what makes a website Responsive is the design architecture which makes it

possible for the site to display a uniform template which formats to any device i.e. mobile

phones, tablets, computers that it is viewed from.

What are the advantages of a responsive website?

User Experience

Having a responsive website is important if you want your online marketing efforts to result in

search traffic and visitor retention.

Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Imagine browsing a website that is not responsive on a mobile phone or a tablet, you notice that

the layout falls outside of the screen of the device and you will have to keep scrolling (left and

right) and expanding the website to be able to read.

Put simply non responsive websites are just not legible on tablets and mobile phones.

Desktop view of a non responsive website

Tablet view of the same non responsive website

Phone view of the same non responsive website

This will naturally make the user experience poor and increase the likely hood of your website

visitor to close your site and move on to other things.

But if your website were to be responsive, it will maintain a uniform and legible template across

all devices. Users are more likely to explore your website and even visit it again and again.

It all boils down to user experience.

Moreover, you don't want to miss out on the growing mobile subscriber base in Nigeria.

Subscriber Statistics by the National Communications Commission

More and more people in Nigeria are connecting to the internet from mobile phones and tablets.

So with the surge in competition to deliver products and services to the growing population of

over 160 million people, businesses owners hoping to compete are left with no option but to

make their websites responsive in order to gain market share within the mobile space.

How a Responsive Website Design affects your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Before responsive websites started gaining traction in 2012, business owners adopted a two (2)

tier website approach to cater for their mobile users. They basically built mobile versions of their

website.

However, from a search engine perspective, this in itself is an online marketing blunder because

mobile websites have a different URL from the desktop version of the website which has

different HTML.

What this means is that the search engines will crawl both the mobile and desktop versions of the

same site as different websites.

If you adopt this approach to reach your mobile users, search engines will see the mobile version

of your website as a different website from the desktop version. Doing this means you separate

your website into two entities.

Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Whereas, a responsive website has only one URL and one set of files which are coded to ensure

that the web pages display a uniform template on mobile phones, tablets and desktops.

If you want search engines especially Google to send juicy traffic your way then you need to pay

attention to how they crawl your websites and try to avoid these 10 internet marketing mistakes.

Another key search engine optimization (SEO) advantage of having a responsive website design

is that it helps to reduce bounce rate. Unresponsive websites content may appear dissimilar

across devices which may prompt users to leave the page.

When people visit your website and leave immediately, Google and other search engines refer to

this phenomenon as bounce rate and interpret it as a sign that your website isn't offering visitors

valuable content that they want to consume and share.

This is likely going to result in a drop in your ranking by search engines and lead to them

refusing to send you that juicy traffic that you envisioned in your online marketing strategy.

Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How Responsive Website Design affects your Social Media marketing strategy

Storytelling is gaining traction and has become critical success factor in how you attract and

retain a loyal audience of people who want to read and share your brand story and Social media

is the tool that does just that.

Having a responsive website makes it easier to form that loyal audience, as you will be able to

build social shares for only one URL. I recommend that you study Neil Patel's 13 content

marketing hacks that will help you attract more clients.

When your responsive website gets shared on social media platforms, whether it is viewed on a

mobile phone, tablet or on a desktop, the content will be displayed clear and it will be easy to

navigate.

Conclusion

Responsive website designs offer the best user experience and increases the likelihood of visitors

staying on your website, engaging with your content and buying your service or product.

Upgrading to a responsive website is the best way to attract and retain the growing number of

mobile and tablet users in Nigeria as your content will be legible irrespective of the device that it

is used to view it.

If you already have a website, check if it is responsive by viewing it across a mobile phone,

tablet and a desktop. If the site does not appear fit to screen and legible without any overlapping

then it is not responsive.

For you to attract and retain visitors to your website to engage your content and possibly buy

your product or service, you will need to place priority on user experience by upgrading your

website to a Responsive website.

PS: To view this article on www.nativedge.com click http://nativedge.com/blog/online-marketing-hack-how-your-website-design-affects-your-traffic-and-conversion/

Also, if you would like to see more tips and reviews on Online Marketing and Technology visit http://nativedge.com/blog/