7 Ways to Make Your Website Stand Out

So, you just paid someone for creating a website for your business. Now, your website is one less thing you need to worry about, right? While many business owners may think so, they’re wrong. Just because your website is built, it will never be done.

Why is that the case? Because you can always improve your website so that it ranks better in search results and provides a more pleasurable experience for your visitors.

Remember, search engines like Google change their algorithms often. This means that what’s causing your website to rank well now may not yield the same results next week let alone next year. And that animation that you added to your website a few months ago? Well, it may be frustrating your visitors now instead of entertaining them like it used to.

How to Make Your Website Stand Out

Now that we’ve established that your website will always be a work in progress, it’s important for you to be familiar with some tactics you can use to make your website stand out. There isn’t much point in paying to have a website built and then investing resources in improving it afterward if it’s just going to be lost in a sea of other websites, after all.

Here are seven tips you can use to make your website stand out from its competitors:

1. Let People See Who You Are

In general, people want to know who they’re going to do business with. You can build trust and even the start of a rapport by letting your website’s visitors see you and sharing some biographical information.

While you may think creating an “About Us” page and explaining how your company came to exist is sufficient, you may want to take things one step further and create a page that has pictures of you and your key staff members (or at least the people consumers are most likely to interact with). You don’t have to rely on headshots. Getting creative with the pictures on this page can generate interest.

Each picture should be accompanied by a brief bio that includes more than a description of each person’s professional achievements and qualifications. Show your visitors that you and your staff have relatable personalities by sharing some personal details such as your favorite band, hobby, or sport.

2. Keep Your Content Fresh

Keeping your content fresh by updating your existing content and adding new content to your website is an effective way to engage your visitors and keep them coming back to your website for more. While you want your content to provide meaningful information that’s relevant to the lives of your visitors, you can also use your content to take a stand on an issue that distinguishes you from your competitors.

If you’re going to express an opinion about something, make sure your stance won’t alienate potential or existing clients. You should also make sure your point of view is original and that you provide information that supports your viewpoint which can’t be found anywhere else.

Fresh content isn’t just attractive to consumers. It’s also attractive to search engines and it can help improve your ranking in SERPs.

3. Incorporate Video

People are visual creatures for the most part, which is why the consumption of videos on the Internet has increased so dramatically in recent years. If you doubt the interest that people have in videos, all you have to do is research the number of people who watch videos on YouTube or Facebook now compared to just a few years ago.

Whether your video gives a behind-the-scenes look at your company, provides instruction about how to use your goods or services, or something else, video has the power to quickly make your business likeable and relatable to your website’s visitors.

4. Use Unique Photos

Using stock photos on your website is almost guaranteed to undercut your company’s authenticity and, perhaps, its trustworthiness. To prevent these things from happening, only use unique pictures on your website.

While unique photos are more expensive than stock photos, they are effective at revealing the true nature of your business, staff and products or services. Hire a professional photographer to capture images that adequately showcase your goods or services and be sure that your actual employees and/or clients are featured in at least some of those pictures.

5. Have a Visitor-Centric Focus

From its inception to every interaction consumers have on your site, your website needs to be fully focused on your clients and prospects. Your site should be easy to use and your pages should be quick to load no matter what kind of device someone is using to access them.

Your website should provide meaningful information that’s actually useful to your visitors. Whether the information you’re sharing is solving a problem or introducing a product that can satisfy a need, your content must do something for your visitors.

Your website should serve your visitors in every conceivable way if you want your website to rank better in search results. Find a way to make your website more enjoyable for visitors to use. To do this, make your website even more intuitive and even easier to navigate.

6. Be Consistent with Branding

It’s critical for your branding to be consistent across your website and every other platform you use to promote your business and your goods or services. Use the same colors, font, logo and tagline to avoid confusing people. If you haven’t done so already, establish branding guidelines and make sure every page on your website adheres to them.

7. Create Value Propositions

To make your website stand out, create value propositions in your menus and page titles. Doing this can help visitors see the value you offer instantly. If you sell textbooks, for example, you can have a Learn About page instead of an Available Titles page. Which would you go to? A page that lists all of the things you can learn about or a page that merely lists the title of books you can buy?

If you’re overwhelmed by the notion of creating or updating your website so that it stands out, contact GoingClear. We have a full menu of services to help your website stand out, including web design and website management. To learn more about the services we provide, contact us today.