Design Post Update

The internet has a whole world of great free resources for your website

If someone told you that you could quickly and easily improve your website and that it wouldn't cost you a penny, what would you say? Probably something like "what's the catch?". Well no catch here as I highlight 10 great (and free) website add-ons that can immediately improve your website.

1. Google Analytics

2. Share Buttons

3. Email Sign Up

Gathering email addresses can help create a customer database

4. Contact Form

5. Testimonials Widget

6. Social Feed Widgets

Social Media is a great place to promote your business

7. Social Follow Buttons

8. Google Translate

9. A Blog

10. Live Chat Widget

Never miss an opportunity to engage with customers.

11. FAQs Page

If your website matches any of these signs then it needs updating

The internet is a dynamic and rapidly changing place. It is not enough for a business to simply have a website. In fact your website needs to be fast, attractive and effective for it to be worthwhile having. Here are 5 quick things to check to see if your website is performing or whether it is in need of an update.

1. Your website appears dated

If you haven’t updated the design of your site for a while, chances are it has a dated aesthetic. Features such as Flash based videos or animations, bad pop-ups, corny stock photos or a gradient button menu are a sure-fire way to know that you need a new one. When analysing your website step into the shoes of a potential customer. They’re instantly going to associate the design and functionality of your site with the quality of the product or service you offer. You only get one chance to make a good first impression, so make sure you make the best one possible.

When analysing your website step into the shoes of a potential customer.

If your website messaging seems stale or blends in with your competitors, it’s time to make a change and showcase your company for how remarkable it really is. The good news is that website rebuilds or redesigns don’t need to be a headache, Opus Web Design can help you update your site so it will not only captivates your audience but push them towards a conversion. Often, it’s not necessary to go through a complete website rebuild. We find, in many cases, that some simple optimizations and refreshed page elements can improve website appearance and performance.

2. Your competitors outrank you on Google

It's all well having a good looking website but it isn't much use to you if nobody can find it. We all search for businesses on Google, often even if we know the actual web address so your business needs to rank well, especially against your competitors. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and content marketing are vitally important for ensuring a healthy Google ranking. Search technology relies on algorithms to identify websites that are either completely static or don’t change their content regularly.

By continually having engaging and informative content that is keyword targeted on your website, you can take significant steps towards ensuring that your site stays ahead of your competitors. A good way to see whether or not you’re lagging behind is to do a simple Google search for your site and for your key services/products. If you find some of your competitors are higher in the search rankings than you, it may be time to rethink your SEO and content marketing strategy.

3. Your website isn’t mobile responsive

Mobile browsing now accounts for over half of all online activity

So your website looks good and ranks well but is it mobile friendly? People are constantly on their phones and tablets, so if your website doesn’t look great and function properly on all major device platforms, you’re ignoring potential customers. Today’s websites should be completely mobile responsive so that they appear and function well on devices. Mobile responsiveness has become massively important in terms of search rankings over the past couple of years. According to Search Engine Land, nearly 60% of all online searches are now conducted on a mobile device, and that number continues to climb.

Click to do a quick mobile friendliness test for your website.

4. Traffic isn’t converting into sales

A lot of sites have good web traffic, meaning that they are doing the hard work in terms of SEO and effective content marketing, but for certain reasons very little of that traffic is converting into actual sales. It could be that the user experience isn’t great in certain areas of your site and it’s costing you potential sales. Your website is the first impression that most prospects get of your company, and its main purpose is to convert visitors into leads. If this is not happening, it’s time to redesign.

We can use Google Analytics stats can find the holes in your site and tell you where most of your visitors are slipping through the net. Many dated websites lack effective calls to actions that convert users to customers. A call-to-action (CTA) is a button or link that you place on your website to drive prospective customers to become leads by completing an action on your landing page.

5. Website Speed

Website loading speed is a key factor in Google's ranking algorithm

Your website’s loading time is a major factor in people either staying or leaving the site and never returning. Google Page Speed Insights find out how long your site takes to load. If your score is not in the green then you need to rethink the elements of your website that are slowing it down. The main result of slow loading times is a high bounce rate.

The definition of bounce rate is the percentage of people who arrive on your site and leave without visiting a second page. A high bounce rate is an obvious sign of an outdated or poorly performing site. Website users usually leave a site hurriedly without visiting other pages because it didn't load fast enough, they don’t find what they are looking for instantly or simply do not like the look of it.

This article and connected infographic will highlight how to solve the problem of losing customers

In the earliest days of online shopping, selling to customers via the Internet was a novelty. Simply offering customers the ability to buy anything online was enough to drive new business to many retailers.

Today, things have changed. What was once revolutionary is now commonplace, and e-commerce is something most shoppers expect retailers to offer.

One of the biggest reasons why e-commerce sites fail is related to simple design flaws...other times, e-commerce businesses stumble because their sites ask for too much information

In this new landscape where e-commerce is the norm, it takes more than a website to get people interested in buying from a retailer. Understanding visitors’ behaviors and what makes them choose one website over another is critical for any e-commerce business, especially when it comes to reasons that drive away customers.

For instance, one of the biggest reasons why e-commerce sites fail is related to simple design flaws. Whether the website is too confusing to navigate, too buggy to function properly or simply visually unpleasant, bad design can ruin an e-commerce business faster than almost anything. E-commerce businesses need to invest in high-quality web design to ensure that customers don’t have an excuse to go with a competitor.

Other times, e-commerce businesses stumble because their sites ask for too much information. People often are sensitive about the amount of personal information they put out online, and an e-commerce site that asks for too much information can be a turn-off. If e-commerce businesses simply removed one field from their online forms, for example, it could make a tremendous difference in the number of customers they retain.




E-commerce isn’t the future anymore — it’s here and now. The novelty of online sales is no longer a selling point, and e-commerce businesses have to be willing to put in the hard work necessary to make their sites the best they can be. This infographic contains the most common problems e-commerce businesses have — and what they can do to solve them.

Sample of the free website templates available

If you are looking for free website templates then you have come to the right place. We have scoured the internet looking for the best totally free, website templates, including fully HTML5 templates, responsive template, animated templates, parallax scrolling templates, templates with bootstrap and much more. So whether it is a simple one column website template you need or a fully responsive business template with eCommerce capabilities you can find it here. Of course all there website templates will require knowledge of HTML and CSS so if you need to brush up on that first then click on the links to learn more.

We have also ranked the providers by stars to give you an idea of both how good we rate the quality of their templates, the ease of use of the website, range of website templates available, design and visual appeal of templates, live demo of templates etc.

Free CSS

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*This article was created by our friends at free design resources who will be launching their new website on January 1st. We will be writing more about that at the time but if you want to be the first in the know be sure to subscribe to our newsletter.