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More and more business websites are having home pages dominated by image sliders, also known as ‘carousels’. These have become increasingly common due to out of the box content management systems such as WordPress, with many themes including image slider plugins.
However, recent usability studies have indicated that using image sliders on your home page are a bad idea and many leading companies are now moving away from this design.
Below are some strong reasons why image sliders are a bad idea:
Image sliders can be mistaken for banners or banner advertising, which people have learnt to ignore. One study found that it’s more likely that you will survive a plane crash or win the lottery than click a banner ad.
The area where banners normally appear is the prime real estate of your site (the part of the home page that appears before scrolling). This is where your company should be presenting its USP’s and / or call–to-actions such as sign-ups.
The moving or sliding motion distracts visitors from other areas of the site.
Multiple large, high definition images can have a negative impact on page load speed, particularly is using entry-level, shared web hosting or the user is using a slower or heavily contended connection. A small increase in load time can negatively impact the visitor experience and adversely affect search engine performance.
Studies have shown that image sliders aren’t very effective, attracting at little as 1% of clicks.
What You Should Consider Instead
Usability studies have shown that website visitors make a sub-conscious decision whether they will stay on site and engage within 200ms of landing on one of your pages. Your website’s prime real estate should be the area where your business presents it’s USP’s, why visitors should engage with you (and not your competitors) and / or it’s call-to-actions, such email sign-ups.
More and more site owners have come to understand the importance of Google Analytics. However, the majority of people I come across are using it incorrectly and nearly all except the dedicated professionals, fail to understand its features and make it work to improve the marketing returns.
We’re big fans of GA (Google Analytics) at Crescent Digital because in particular, we can study the data to improve 2 fundamentals:
how to get more targeted visitors to the site
how to get more of those visitors to engage, purchase or inquire
In addition, if you’re using AdWords, I would class GA as essential.
The infographic below explains how you can use Google Analytics effectively to improve your marketing.
Crescent Digital Ltd. are officially recognised as a certified Google Partner.
This certification demonstrates proficiency in search advertising, including best practices for creating, managing and optimising AdWords search campaigns and means that we have access to the best resources available to get the most visibility for your website in Google and its partner sites.
What Does This Mean For Our Clients?
As partners, we are trained & work with Google & have access to Google assistance and account management. As a client, this means that you get to work with ourselves and Google in order attract visitors to your website and get them converting into paying clients. You’ll also be eligible to receive promotional credits.
Best Practices
High performance keeps our clients happy and improves our standing as a Google Partner. In order to attain & maintain Google certified Partner status, Crescent Digital have had to demonstrate high performance & best practices of our client accounts.
What Specialist Services Do We Offer?
Crescent Digital can train staff or operate as your outsourced digital marketing partner that operates as part of your main team in the following areas:
We had a lovely testimonial in last Friday from a long-term client of ours. Our focus is on search and conversion. We do this by driving highly targeted visitors to websites optimised to convert visitors into clients:
Hi Steve,
I know you are not one for blowing your own trumpet, but it’s the first time I have looked at the Google analytics and ad words and all I can say is wow! Never seen a bounce rate so low for an adwords campaign, very impressive! Great job! Brilliant results.
I am going to start working more closely with Michelle but just wanted to say how impressed I am with what you have done!
As part of our services here at Crescent Digital, we also provide workshops & presentations at business events on the following subjects:
SEO (search engine optimisation)
mobile search
pay per click, including Google AdWords & Microsoft Bing
conversion rate optimisation (getting more website visitors to buy or enquire)
website userability
social media for business
WordPress development
We’ve had some great feedback recently, and below is letter received following a presentation to Plymouth Chamber of Commerce members:
If you would like us to speak at your workshop or presentation, please get in touch.
About Us
Crescent Digital are specialists in growing revenue using digital marketing through consultancy, training and execution. We are accredited by the CIM and formally approved as a service provider for the UKTI for International Digital Marketing.
Thanks for the explaination. I did everything accordingly, and now waiting for the 24h to pass for it to show up in my Analytics. However, the small one-sentence confirmation is not appearing anymore, when someone fills in the contact form on our website. Could you please give some input on how to fix this?
Unfortunately not I’m afraid. It does vary with the type of activity and LinkedIn frequently change their policies, but at present, LinkedIn’s maximum is 30 days.
Regards
Steve
Hi there.thank you for your website
Is there any possibility to see all my updates in linkedin from the bigining?I had been linkedin member for about 3 years or so and .I had shared simething that I need it now and unfortunately I lose to have them any where else they were gone. I’d have been grateful if you can guide me
Many thanks
Verena
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Thanks for the explaination. I did everything accordingly, and now waiting for the 24h to pass for it to show up in my Analytics. However, the small one-sentence confirmation is not appearing anymore, when someone fills in the contact form on our website. Could you please give some input on how to fix this?
stevenba
| #
Unfortunately not I’m afraid. It does vary with the type of activity and LinkedIn frequently change their policies, but at present, LinkedIn’s maximum is 30 days.
Regards
Steve
N_jarolmasjed
| #
Hi there.thank you for your website
Is there any possibility to see all my updates in linkedin from the bigining?I had been linkedin member for about 3 years or so and .I had shared simething that I need it now and unfortunately I lose to have them any where else they were gone. I’d have been grateful if you can guide me
Many thanks