Web development companies have made a huge difference with where and how people shop online in the last years. Those who manage to take advantage best software practices and technologies of web developers, .NET developers, PHP developers, other software developers carry their business a long way. There has been research according to which Amazon makes $ 1,084 per second, eBay – $ 290, etc.
We have analyzed some of the most profitable websites like Amazon that sell a lot, and tried to find out what strategies web development companies use in order to add more value to their customers’ websites.
1. Conversion rate optimization (CRO). CRO drives up a better ROI (return on investments) than SEO (search engine optimization). CRO is defined as the process of analyzing of a website and its traffic to reveal strengths and weaknesses in order to get a better ROI. In other words, CRO lets web developers and their customers know what works best on a website. Software development companies optimize conversion rate re-writing website pages, making them available for mobile use, changing colors, etc. Generally speaking, conversion rate optimization means keeping some problems fixed and, unless there are major changes to a business, having increased sales.
Just imagine that you have a high conversion increase in year 1. In year 2, it may drop, however, you’ll still generate the ROI growing from the initial investments into CRO. SEO is needed to drive traffic but in respect of capital investments, CRO is more cost-effective. Each new sale that comes from CRO entails no additional marketing costs. Besides, optimizing conversion rate, software development companies ultimately send traffic to a website and improves the page rank.
2. Mobile optimization. The volume of mobile traffic is soaring. Gartner predicts it will be 52 million terabytes in 2015, an increase of 59 % from 2014. In this respect, software development companies should think of mobile usability as a search ranking factor. Earlier this year in a Google Webmaster article, Google emphasized that because global web traffic from mobile devices is on the rise, and recent studies show that mobile visitors are more likely to revisit mobile-friendly sites, mobile usability is now relevant for optimal search results.
It all goes without saying that web developers consider mobile-optimized websites as a must after April 21, 2015 when Google introduced a new algorithm of search results. Since then, sites suitably optimized for mobile use are favored in search rankings. Referring to our example, Amazon is really a mobile-centric company where web development companies ensure an aesthetic view of the pages, compelling graphic content, ease of use of tabs and links and a clear contrast between the text and color background across different devices.
3. Content marketing. According to Gennady Sergeenko, our project manager, users set the following priority of website aspects:
2. interactive design;
3. visual design.
Content quality is number one challenge for custom software development companies. Just a simple example. Imagine that you want to buy a pair of shoes online from a retailer in New York. First come top search results like Century 21 Department Store, Barneys. Why? Of course, web developers do not know the Google’s search algorithm for sure.
However, the top-ranked websites ensure extra quality of UX guiding customers, advising them, answering their questions, giving reviews and recommendations rather than being a booklet with lots of data that demands much time and efforts. Referring to the mentioned examples, their web developers have managed to grasp what customers want. Customers can make use of comprehensive data for each product immediately right at the moment of purchasing.
4. Quick-loading pages. Web development companies never know what little nothings of life can bog down their web products. Every second of delay in loading time decreases customer satisfaction by 16 %!
In other words, website page load time either increases, or reduces your ROI. Today software development companies have many tools to measure average page load time, that’s why the idiomatic expression time is money should be understood in the narrow sense.
5. High quality real images. There has been a research that photos of actual employees perform better than stock images. Web development companies should use real high quality images as a trust building factor that converts visits into leads. The mentioned experiment revealed that when web developers put a recognizable image of the founder of the company on the website homepage (instead of a smiling Mrs. Generic Stock Image), customers were 35% more likely to sign up for a consultation.
6. Constant links and instant connections. Software development companies can take advantage of providing their products with a number of suggestions for pages. Amazon, for example, offers frequently bought togethe items, sponsored products related to the item, special offers and promotions.
Have you ever noticed the similar trick in Facebook? Many of these pages have also websites attach to them. Then, unless you have your Facebook profile on lockdown, your friends may think you like a lot of pages. Even though you encounter something which does not correspond to your search, it may still sound appealing. This trick can be useful for web developers in retail industry.
Vice versa, software development companies can drive more value to websites giving links to the company’s social network pages like YouTube, Twitter, Reddit and others.
According to statista.com as of August 2015, Facebook is the first social network to surpass 1 billion registered accounts, while Twitter had over 316 million monthly active accounts. Web development companies should not ignore this huge potential because it is a good channel to reach customers.
Besides, software development companies and retailers stake on website interactions. According to Forbes, some analysts say that when a customer is curious about a product, the chances to get a sale decrease by over 6 times in the first hour if you fail to contact them. In particular, Forbes describes that only 27% of leads are ever contacted, i.e. 73% are likely to make somebody’s else revenue. The analysts tested over 10,000 companies during 5 years. They filled in a lead on their website with a real phone number and email address. It turned out that companies need 46 hours and 53 minutes to respond to a lead.
So, if due forward-looking web developers you can communicate with customers instantly, it makes their UX impressive because it’s rare. Summing it all up, web development companies offer today multiple web development tools. Businesses just have to leverage the right edge. In our next article, you can find out marketing campaigns for boosting your app sales.
Elinext Group software development projects:
EdQuants Web Portal
GoldStar WordPress Plugin
LoanGarage Financial Portal
Custom Healthcare CRM System Case Study
Rescue Game Web
Industries and Technology Areas:
Industries: IT
Technology Areas: web development, software development, custom software development
