One of the goals you need to have is to keep people on your website longer. You totally don't want to be a website they click on and then click off right away. That's not good for your reputation with Mr. Google and shit, and it doesn't lead to you getting clients either.

1. Bermuda Triangle Navigation

You know what happens when people go to the Bermuda Triangle? They get lost.

The same thing happens when you use words in your top navigation bar that no one understands quickly. Some designers use the word "Work" in their navigation menu to mean "Work with Them," and some use the word to mean "See my Work." How about we KISS? Work With Me or Services and Portfolio for photos of your work.

2. Make It Last Longer Than 8 Seconds

Not that. You've got 8 seconds to catch someone's attention when they arrive at your online kingdom. Increase the length they stay on your website by having a benefit-driven headline (need help, hire Misha!), buttons with calls-to-action that stand out, eye-catching images. All of this matters.

3. Faster, Faster!

Your website needs to load quickly. Life's to short for a slow-ass site. Remember, you've only got 8 seconds and if those seconds are wasted waiting on your website to load... BYE! They aren't going to stick around to see what you've got going on.

4. Rev-Up The Popular Ones

Check your analytics and find out what your popular content is on your website and then optimize it. Say you've got a very popular post on how to pick the perfect white paint color? Add a content upgrade (freebie) to that specific post. Maybe it's PDF of your top ten white paint colors or a checklist of what to do before painting, whatever it is you want to take advantage of your most popular posts.

5. Rita Hayworth Gave Good Face

Unless you're some faceless corporation, please plaster that beautiful face of yours all over your website. Humans like to look at faces https://usabilla.com/blog/effect-human-faces-web-design/ and since you're a human (you are human and not an alien, right?!) use what you've got. If you need to schedule a photoshoot, do it.

6. Mission Responsive

If your website is vintage, then you need to listen up. Your site must be Responsive (not mobile-friendly). Like it can't just be a smaller version of the website when people look at it on their phone. It needs to be able to change its functionality to match the device it's being displayed on. Here's a more in-depth explanation. https://www.atomic74.com/click/responsive-vs-mobile-friendly-websites-whats-the-difference Hint: If your website platform isn't responsive, you should get that fixed ASAP because Mr. Google is penalizing websites that aren't down with this.

7. A Little Bit Longer

You're an exciting MOFO (even if you don't think you are, you are). People wanna hear all about whatever it is that you're passionate about. And they want you to go deeeeep into a topic.

So how long should your blog post be? From 1,500 to 2,500+ words. https://coschedule.com/blog/how-long-should-a-blog-post-be/ You know how you can do this (even if you hate writing)? Dictate your blog post. Believe it or not, but you're a wordy gal, and once we get you talking about something you love, there's no way to shut you up. Plus, your blog post will be way more interesting when you dictate it, so it doesn't end up sounding like the most boring college essay ever.

8. You Might Like...

After Dolly has finished your epic blog post on why mixing metals is totally awesome, she may want to learn more about the different type of metal finishes. And look at that! You've got a post on that, too, so make it easy for Dolly to continue reading by adding your related posts to the bottom of every blog post.

9. Searching With One Eye Closed

Give them the power to search your website. If you've got a Squarespace website, you can add the search block to the footer of your site. If you're on Wordpress, there's a bunch of plugins to help you do that with the better ones costing you a little bit of dinero.

10. Don't Let That Be The End

404 Errors are a bitch. Sometimes people come to your website from a Pin or a link on someone else's site leading directly to a dead-end on your website. So no bueno.

First, find all of your 404 errors http://validator.w3.org/checklink and take care of the pages you can fix. As for the pages that are muerto for all time (like expired offers) make sure to edit your default 404 page by adding in an apology and offer them a way to search on your website.

11. TL;DR People

Make your content scannable for the people who are in a rush to find the answer to their question by adding enticing sub-headings to the sections of your post.

12. Keep Branding Congruent

Make sure your brand is visually congruent. That means consistently use the same brand colors throughout your website, and your imagery should have the same feel.

13. Use Videos

People love to watch videos. Me? It depends on what the video is about and who is doing the video because let's face it. Some people out there make videos that are so boring I'd rather decapitate myself, you know?

Anyway, if you can turn up your dazzling personality up a notch higher than these boring fucks, people will eat that shit up.

14. Make It Easy To Read

Choose a few fonts that are easy to read. That means you use a larger size and have enough spacing between the lines of text. And white space is your friend. And choose the colors of your fonts wisely because some of us are getting those middle-aged eyes.

15. Organize Your Content

Make it easy for your visitor to find your content. Create a handful of categories for your blog posts that relate to your client's biggest problems. Then create a page on your website where they can find all of your best content on one page efficiently organized by categories.

16. Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive

We've got enough negative shit that we see every day that makes us want to chuck our phones in the trash. Be a ray of positivity by creating content that acknowledges that your client has a problem, but there is a pot of gold at the end of their decorating dilemma rainbow.

17. Link It Up

Within your content don't forget to link up to your related content on your website. If you've got older content that they haven't seen, this is an excellent way to help them dig deeper into your site.

The competition out there can be fierce, but your interior design business can genuinely stand out online if you optimize your website for your dream client.

Here's one more tip to keep people on your website longer... after you've made these changes have a couple of your friends check out your site. See what they have to say and see if you can't incorporate their suggestions, too.

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