10 Web Development Strategies for Nashville Businesses

10 Web Development Strategies for Nashville Businesses 

More than 90 percent of internet businesses fail. Here are the factors that will help the best Nashville websites beat the odds.

You need to make sure that your website stands out in a faceless sea of dot-coms. How? It takes informed web development, inspired web design, and carefully considered user experience strategy. Here are some tips from the Social Link team:

1. Mobile, Mobile, Mobile…

Would you book a luxury cruise from your phone? That’s one question Vista Fleet had to consider when building its new website; 60 percent of all digital purchasers use mobile exclusively to make buying decisions. It works the other way too: more than half of customers say a bad mobile experience means they’ll engage less with a company. So the web development team made sure that VistaFleet.com was built with the mobile user experience in mind, fast and lightweight enough to make finger-scrolling easy, but still stunning enough to retain the visual punch and immediate calls-to-action of the desktop version.

The takeaway: To meet your customers where they are, consider a mobile-first approach.

2. …and Local, Local, Local

If the world is moving to mobile, then it’s also becoming more localized, as smartphones and other devices allow consumers to physically explore their communities while also staying digitally connected to them. 94 percent of local users use mobile devices to find information on nearby businesses, and a whopping 90 percent visit the site, contact the company, or make a purchase.

The Takeaway: Mobile is especially important if you’re targeting local customers.

3. Content is (still) King

A website can provide value to the customer before a purchase is ever made. When research firm Experience Dynamics studies statistics from tech heavyweights like Google and Adobe, it found 70 percent of consumers say they learn more about businesses from company blogs than ads, and 60 percent are more positive about a brand after reading its blog. That content has staying power, too: 8 of 10 consumers who signed up for email newsletters said they made a purchase based on the content of those newsletters in the last six months.

The takeaway: Useful information, provided in an entertaining and timely fashion, is a powerful tool for turning visitors into customers.

4. Menus go Mega

Don’t be afraid to show off. That’s the idea behind mega menus, navigational tools that expand into large, detailed, and categorized subheadings when activated. Mega menus are almost like testimonials—they provide immediate proof to the user of the breadth and depth of everything that your site offers. They’re particularly useful for sites that contain many different forms of specialized information that you know user will want to find quickly. A word of warning: mega menus don’t play well with mobile devices, so it’s important to find a web development team that understands how to employ this tool.

The takeaway: if you’ve got lots of specialized content, a mega menu can show it off to your users.

5. All Tracking, All the Time

Tracking your visitors isn’t just for Google anymore. Even smaller businesses need to identify and track their customers online. These measurables won’t just show you the results of marketing campaigns or new product launches, but will help you plan better for the future, since you’ll know who your visitors are, what their lives look like, and how you can answer their needs.

The takeaway: Any good web development strategy needs a plan for trackable analytics.

6. Get off the Carousel …

Useability tests show that most website visitors don’t click on slider images—in fact, they pretty much ignore them all together. So don’t take up the valuable real estate at the top of your website with a feature that doesn’t work. Stick with an arresting visual and a strong call to action, like you’ll see on the site for Castle Glen Winery.

The takeaway: they might seem convenient, but carousels usually don’t add much to the user experience.

7. … And Get Direct

Less is more. At least that’s often the case when it comes to the biggest headers on your website. As we noted above, make your titles direct, clear, and actionable. Generally, you can often use fewer words than you think (as long as they’re the right ones!). It’s important to note that the choice of typography and styling is particularly important here—don’t just use Arial and call it a day! Include prominent call-to-actions for your most important conversion goals.

The takeaway: done right, a simple and direct header is best.

8. Generate More Lead Form Conversions with Better Design

Nashville realtor Chase Leatherwood’s website is built for that generating that critical first lead—a must-have in his industry. To drive conversions, the websites lead forms are featured prominently above the fold, with white space to set them off from the rest of the page, and a short form that reduces the barrier to entry. Your website may even benefit from split testing to measure the conversion rates of different forms.

The takeaway: your lead form shouldn’t be an afterthought—think hard about the strategy of its placement and design.

9. Speed Up

Everything we’ve described above—lush images, interactive forms, back end-analytics, mobile responsiveness—takes processing power, and that can make for slow load times. But it’s critical that you beat the standard load time in your industry: Google research shows that 53% of people will leave a mobile site if it takes more than three seconds to load, and even a one-second delay means double-digit drops in pageviews, conversions, and customer satisfaction. So make sure that your website is optimized to load faster than the competition.

The takeaway: measure your load time—and improve it if falls below industry standard.

10. Get a Team

Maybe you don’t have an extensive marketing department with a fully built-out web development unit. That’s where Social Link can help. We can partner with you to create a strategy that identifies and addresses your specific business needs, then build a website that can make that strategy a reality.

The takeaway: Get a free lead generation review here, or just call: 615-873-0707.