graphic designIt’s difficult to standout in this competitive digital world. Years ago, if you had a small business in a niche market, you would do fairly well in your specific area because your customers couldn’t really shop around without driving all over the place. Now, because of the digital accessibility of everyone with their smart phones in their pockets, people can buy virtually anything from anywhere in the world at the drop of a hat.

Roughly 40% of worldwide Internet users have bought some product online via desktop, cell phone, tablet, or other technological device. Because everyone is so connected via the Internet, it’s more important now to have a great digital presence — even more so than having a nice looking physical building.

Here are a few things that you should keep in mind when trying to stand out online and grow your company in the digital world.

Graphic design matters more than you think
According to Inspired Magazine, you have only 10 seconds to make an impression on your website and tell online users what they’ll get out of visiting your company’s page. Only 10 seconds. That’s how quickly it takes for some to make an assumption, whether it’s correct or not, about how credible your business is. Because of this, you better make sure that each web page associated with your business is visually appealing.

Before people will even browse your website, they will simply just look at the layout, graphic design, color scheme, etc. and make their decision right there about whether or not they’ll give your company a chance. Work with a professional small business web design company to ensure that your graphic design strategy is high enough quality to appease any users that visit your site.

Functionality is just as important
Like the look of your website, its functionality is also extremely important. You can have the most visually appealing website in the digital universe, but if every single aspect of your site isn’t properly working, you might as well not have a website at all. Approximately 40% of online users will abandon a web page if it takes more than three seconds to fully load. That’s it: three seconds. Again, consult with professional digital marketing firms to ensure that your site and everything on it is working fine.

Don’t forget about your search engine ranking
Though your site’s appearance and functionality are the two most important factors of digital success, you have to make sure that your site is at least easily accessible. People are only waiting three to ten seconds for websites to load so there is no way they are going to take the time to remember full domains. They are going to type what they are looking for into a search bar and click the first four or five listings. If your site isn’t on the first two pages at the very least, you could go months without getting a single visitor. Work with trusted SEO services to get your company’s listing higher on search engine results pages.

If you want your small business to thrive in this digital world, you have to put in the work. Consult with digital marketing professionals who can help you with your site’s look, functionality, and ranking. Talk to Fan and Fuel today to find out more.