Whether you’re selling a product, service, or just an idea, your website needs to be social media-friendly. After all, you want as much exposure as you can get — and 40% of consumers prefer businesses that engage with them on social media. Why invest in things like custom websites if you’re missing out on potential customer interaction?
Whether you hire custom web designers for all your online work or you do much of it yourself, here are some things to focus on so your website is social media-friendly.
Place an Image on Every Page
Whenever a link is shared on Facebook and other social networks, a preview is automatically developed which features an image from that page. If you’re prepared for this, that means the image which registers is the page’s featured image. If you didn’t upload a prominent image specifically for that page, however, the preview may load a pixelated version of your site’s logo or a random image from the page that’s completely unrelated to the topic.
To have the best impact in social media shares, it’s important to have a relevant image prominently displayed on every webpage and blog post. After all, you never know which page is going to get shared. If you do the work upfront to find and place a relevant image on each page, you’ll never have to worry about what a page will look like when it’s shared on platforms like Facebook or Pinterest.
Optimize For Mobile Devices
If you’ve never viewed your business website on your phone before, do that now. More and more people are using mobile apps to access social media; when they click your link, the webpage is going to display on their phone. When that happens, you want to be sure you’re prepared with a responsive website. This is one reason custom websites are so important: they ensure you’re prepared for the most common ways people use to browse the web.
The easier it is to find you on social media, the more likely your customers are to engage with you there. For that reason, you should have all your social media pages prominently displayed on your website. As a side note, it’s a good idea to choose just one or two social platforms to dominate. It’s hard to maximize your potential on too many social networks at once.
While you’re at it, use social media share icons on all of your websites. Making the suggestion for visitors to share your content, alongside the logos of prominent social media services, makes it more likely that people will talk about you online.
Use Attention-Grabbing Titles and Headlines
It doesn’t do much good to have your content get shared online if no one feels compelled to click through to your site. That’s why writing compelling, attention-grabbing titles is key. Whether it’s a headline for your latest blog post or the title of a prominent page, make sure every webpage on your site has a title that will make people want to click.
While you can probably figure out how to do several of these things yourself, your best bet is to have a company that makes great custom websites do it. The better your site looks, the more customers will take you seriously.
Whichever way you go about it, follow these tips to make your website social media-friendly. You’ll be thankful you did.
