A week ago, I received a message through a contact form on one of my sites. I thought it was spam, but then, I decided to go ahead and read through. The content of the message were revelational. I learned new optimization avenues to improve the user experience and SEO on the website.

Having been making websites for the last 5 years and some, I was almost sure I knew all the optimization steps a website requires. However, I had overlooked very key issues for which the message I received from a stranger revealed. I wouldn’t get this if the contact form on my site was not simple and accessible.

Have a Working, Acessible Contact Form

The contact form on your website is not just there as a placeholder or by convention. The contact form should submit to your regular email address. When a website visitor fills the form and submits, the content of the form should be filtered for spam, and then, the message should be submitted to your Gmail address, or any other regular email you choose.

You already have an email address like me@mywebsite.com. This email address in most cases takes time to set up and sometimes does not work as expected. Since this email is something that you struggle to use, you end up not checking it regularly. This makes it a placeholder.

Emails sent to custom domain email addresses don’t make a big impact. For this reason, at least make sure that your web developer connects the contact forms on the website to your regular email instead. Contact forms on your website do not show which email address they are being submitted to. So you are safe to use any email address you love.

Update Website Design Regularly

No matter how cool your website looks, it gets boring after some time. Returning visitors will get bored looking at the same thing over and over. Even if it is a small design refresh, it sends a message that your company is ‘alive’.

Some of the easiest parts to update are the branding elements, the homepage/landing page design and showing the date the posts went up. Showing the posts went up at which date helps visitors confirm you are active and also keeps you on toes. You will always put up new blog posts to show acivity, and this boosts your SEO. Win-win.

Share Your Portfolio

Designing a portfolio is tedious. However, you can easily add a gallery section on your website where you can showcase some of your amazing work. This ranges from your project approach/journey to finished work. It doesn’t matter, just share anything that helps paint the picture of the kind of abilities you have to deliver on the products and services you promise.

CSS Grid makes it even easier to include a gallery section. Try it.

Include Clear Pricing Information for Products

When I visit a product website, I always look for a pricing page. If you are selling something with fixed pricing, indicating the pricing cleary is very important. On the other hand, hiding the pricing information behind a sign-up form or something similar can be a disadvantage.

Offer Sign Up With Google, Facebook, Twitter, Github and Other Social Signin Providers

Twitter, Facebook, Google and other platforms already have several details about their users. When you allow users to connect via these platforms, you are doing what is popularly known as Social Sign in. If you need users of your website to sign in, make the process simple by adding social signin. I can confidently approximate that more than 99% visitors to your website already have an account on at least one of the major social platforms. Therefore, when they click, for instance, sign in with Google, since they are already signed into Google, they just give permissions to your website and get in.

Social signin also adds a layer of security. You will not have to worry about users' passwords and therefore the attack surface on your website reduces drastically. Security for your users is your business' security.

Use Readable Fonts

I have an issue with many Wordpress themes. They have amazing animations and other cool features, and are beautiful to look at. The font-size, however is a problem. They are designed mostly for landing pages that have small amounts of text to read. When you take the same design and use it on your website, you will be very disadvantaged. Your website will not be accessible. Yet accessibility boosts interaction and reach.

Conclusion

I am sure there are many other ways you can enhance your website, and I will keep this page updated as I think of more. Feel free to reach out via the contact form below. Ensure your growth by talking to us. 🚀🚀🚀