As the digital era has taken hold of nearly every industry over the last decade, it’s easy to get caught up in the latest marketing trends and put a huge focus on social media and PPC marketing. But it’s important to remember that with most social media or PPC marketing, people are being redirected to your website, so having a stunning, content-rich website is crucial. Even if you have an engaging social media marketing campaign, an outdated website can prove that campaign to be null and void because you’ll lose your audience the second (literally) they land on your site.

Think of your website as the hub of your online presence. It’s connected to Google search, to each of your social accounts, and it’s really where your business resides on the internet - it’s the virtual version of your brick-and-mortar location. Your website determines how people find you and how they purchase from you. Obviously, if you’re in business, you need people to purchase from you, so make sure your website is strong and helps people make their purchasing decision to buy from you.

As we turn over a new decade coming into 2020, make sure you are setting your business up for success with a clean, modern, and converting website. Here are six keys to an amazing website in 2020.

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Specific Landing Pages

This is the page people land on when they either click on a specific product line ad or if they click through on a social media campaign for a specific product or service. Every product or service you provide is unique, so the funnel that brings prospective customers through their buying journey to your website should also be unique. Make it easy for your customers to learn everything they need to know to buy from you while building trust and commitment through each step of the funnel.

A great example of a targeted marketing website is Specialized Bicycles. They build a funnel for each product and really wow their customers before they can even see the product pages. Here is an example: Specialized Venge.

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Easy Contact Throughout

Make it easy for your customers to contact you. This does not mean having a million “contact us” forms or buttons scattered throughout your site. Making it easy for customers to contact you means having a contact page that lists all the ways they can reach you, a simple form on most (if not all) pages that is specifically tailored for the call-to-action on that page, and having easy-to-find links to your social accounts. People always have questions, so making it easy for them to communicate with you helps increase trust and commitment. Plus, you can use their contact information to remarket to them down the road.

Also, make a point to encourage people to subscribe to your email list. Many e-commerce clothing companies do an amazing job with this by using a shadow box with a discount in exchange for an email address. Use this same strategy for your business giving visitors to your site something that will add value to their experience.

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Testimonials

People like to hear positive experiences from prior customers to confirm that they are making a good buying decision. You can tell your customers all day long that your product or service is the best on the market, but adding in real testimonials from real customers can provide a trust-building, non-biased opinion from someone who has done business with you in the past. Adding testimonials to your homepage, funnels, and product/service pages can increase trust throughout your customers’ buying process.

Pro tip: Use different forms of testimonials including video, audio, photos and text!

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High quality photo/video

Nobody wants to browse a website with blurry photos or videos. This is probably one of the most sure ways to turn a shopper away from your business. Instead, focus on high-quality imagery to showcase just how amazing your business is. Spending time to take high quality photos of products and creating a professional, engaging brand video can help your business stand out while building trust and increasing the value of your products.

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Animation/Parallax

This is where you can add that extra little wow factor that can really make a difference for the user experience. Creating parallax-style photo backgrounds and simple animations will help increase the fluidity of your website and will add that extra touch of sophistication that your customers will love.

Be careful though, too much animation or parallax can be annoying and can drastically slow down load times. So find the perfect balance!

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Keyword focus

Perhaps the most important piece to think about as you build your website is keywords. What do you want to be known for? How can people find you? For the people who are buying what you sell, how do they find you on Google? By answering these questions and using the Google Keyword Planner you can increase your organic SEO to help drive traffic to your website. Remember, it’s easy to sell to someone who is looking for exactly what you are selling, so make it easy for them to find your business!

In addition to SEO, sprinkling in the correct keywords throughout your site will help increase your customers’ commitment to your products or services. If they are looking for a specific product or for a specific reason to buy your product, adding in keywords to your copy that emphasize that connection can help increase your conversions drastically.

Pro tip: Make sure your keywords match your content! Don’t just add in keywords you think your customers are searching for without having the information to back it up when they click through to your landing page.

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