Web design and social media marketing are two topics that Nuttifox enjoy’s very much, and they both certainly impact on one another for website owners and bloggers who are attempting to increase traffic to their site. However, time and time again we also see business owners and bloggers get the balance wrong.

Lots of businesses come to Nuttifox asking for website optimistaion and consultation on social media marketing to improve traffic, leads and sales. We then we get handed a business card and view their website to quickly discover this is where the problem lies. We agree that clever online marketing and social media are essential tools for the modern business; second to having a powerful brand identity, usable & well designed website.

The design of your site will have either a positive or a negative influence on the end user, and social media marketers need to consider the appearance of the site framing their content as much as they consider the content and headlines themselves.

Seems like common sense! Why would you spend so much time and energy writing & marketing something, only to counter your efforts with poor design and usability.

We love seeing start-up businesses grow, and the passion of the business owners in their new venture, we enjoy working with and guiding these business owners in the development of their online assets, so we think this is a simple don’t run before you can walk scenario.

Spend time on the foundations and design of your site, make sure it looks right for your target audience and is user friendly. Then make sure you know the running costs; can you update your site yourself, and it’s easy to do so, or do you have a reasonable price from your web design company to do it for you, bearing in mind that the busier your site becomes, the faster you will want to update it.

Finally! Only then, attack the social media network for global domination and focus on other online marketing strategies, some of which I will cover in our next article.

Below I have outlined a few steps I would follow to create a strong online presence.

1. First Impressions

The first impression of any visitor, regardless of how they arrive at your site, will be heavily influenced by the appearance of the site, do you look the same as everyone else or do you have an edge?

2. Readability of Content

Are you considering accessibility and usability when writing your articles. Make sure your font size is not to small.

3. Page Load Time

An important aspect for any website, but even more so for blogging websites. If you plan to market heavily using social media, then make sure your landing pages load quickly, as social media readers are generally impatient.

4. Buttons/Widgets on your pages

You have just had a user land on your article from twitter, make sure that same user has the option to easily re-tweet or re-publish a link on their social media accounts to your article.

5. Branding

As your site becomes busier through your social media marketing, how does your sites branding impact on that user, will they remember you; resulting in a returned visit, or was it a lucky one-off hit and your soon to be forgotten!

6. Navigation

Typically at the moment, social media traffic results in a low number of page views compared to search engine ranking and paid advertising, however, you can increase these views by making it easy for the user to find other content on your site.

7. Subscribers

Do you reply on social media marketing? Do you market using the followers built up on Twitter, Facebook and email subscriptions? If so are these options easy to find on your website, do you actively push people to find you on these accounts and is your email subscription form obvious and easy to fill in?

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