Unless you’re fluent in web programming jargon, it can be difficult to sort an expert from a con. The average business owner knows little of coding and this puts them in a potentially vulnerable position.
In your next meeting with a developer, show them you’ve done your research and treat it like an interview. Even if you’ve never set a virtual foot in your website’s backend, the right questions can get you the information you need. Show up armed with the following.
1. Are your web designs responsive?
A+ Answer: Most definitely. With the increase of mobile and tablet use, the last thing we want to do is lose visitors because of poor user-experience. Each of our websites adjust smoothly to different screen sizes and devices. No need to worry about an extended load time or glitchy design.
2. What’s your strategy to increase conversion rates?
A+ Answer: I’m glad you asked! Conversion centered design is one of our specialties. Our strategy starts by defining your target audience, or what we call buyer personas.
By determining what their goals, concerns, and preferences are, we are able to begin designing each website feature to convert better. Each of your visitors are conducting research before making a purchase decision. This is how the purchase process usually looks:
Awareness Stage ⇒ Consideration Stage ⇒ Decision Stage
Our goal is to guide them through the different stages and establish your business as the winning choice. CTA (Calls-To-Action) are buttons or images we use to encourage user interaction.
For example, you own real estate company. A visitor reads a blog on your website explaining how to apply for a first time home buyer’s loan. At the end of the blog, there is a button to ‘Download Negotiating Guide Every Homebuyer Should Have’.
To get this guide, they must fill out a short form with their contact information. This converts them into a lead who can be marketed to via email workflows in the future. The guide they receive will also increase their trust in your company, and educate them so that they can move closer to the decision stage.
CTA are a very important piece of our conversion strategy. By conducting A/B testing on these, we can continue to find styles, placement, and wording that is most effective for conversion.
3. Do you have a team?
A+ Answer: Yes. We know it is important to work consistently with the same team members to ensure quality and accountability down the road. We do not farm out work each job to new freelancers.
Our developer, graphic designer, writer, and marketer have worked together on a number of projects. In fact, you can check the staff out on our website.
4. How will you improve my website’s search engine ranking?
A+ Answer: Since ranking in search engines like Google is one of our clients’ top concerns, we’ve put significant effort into finding the best ways to do this. There are a few different approaches we take in our search engine optimization service.
First, we conduct a keyword audit on your website to determine which keywords should be targeted. The audit lists keyword options, the amount of competition for each, and if they are popular terms used in searches.
At this point it is important to only select keywords with a reasonable amount of competition and popularity. Using long-tail keywords (a phrase that is more specific vs. one or two words) is helpful in ranking higher: there is likely to be less competition. Also, the users searching these are usually more qualified and interested in your services.
The chosen keywords are then used throughout your website in appropriate places. Including the correct tags and coding makes keywords more coherent to “spiders” used by Google to scan websites and help rank.
Besides placing the right keywords in the right places, content production is a factor for ranking. We encourage you to keep a consistent blog to target different phrases. If you are unable to publish blog posts once or twice a week, we recommend using our content writers to take care of this for you.
5. Do you offer data-driven services?
A+ Answer: Absolutely. We offer website packages that follow a continuous improvement strategy. Sometimes our clients have a tough time relying on programming “best practices” and want to see real data from their website.
We prefer this more effective approach and encourage clients to choose our growth-driven design service. Each change is directly based on data, which includes:
- Visitor demographics.
- Page bounce rates (when visitors abandon your page).
- Sources of referral traffic.
- A/B testing results to determine which website features increase conversion.
- Page mapping.
..and more! Just let us know if there is specific data that concerns you and we will do our utmost to gather it for you.
6. Can I see previous projects with similar goals?
A+ Answer: Of course! Whether you’re looking for a custom eCommerce store or user-friendly member portals, we have examples in our portfolio. Let’s take a look now.
By showing up with a little background knowledge, you’ll be met with respect and clarity. It’s worth doing your homework!
