The opportunities for web development are endless today. With seemingly millions of plugins and other web tools, web developers need to resist the temptation to go overboard with how they create web pages and websites for clients.
While web tools and plugins have their place, there are instances where things can get excessive. Simply put, some pages do require a certain amount of plugins and tools, this way visitors can get fast access to whatever services the owner of the website provides.
In other cases, less is more.
All things considered, different websites, landing pages, and sales pages should have different web development schemes. There is no “one size fits all” method to this, and anybody who does follow a “one size fits all” approach to web development will not have happy clients.
In order to have happier clients who enjoy the web development you are performing for their websites, funnel pages, sales pages, or landing pages, you will need to understand that there are different approaches to web development.
Different web pages for different purposes
Web developers who believe that all web pages are interested in selling things are embarrassingly wrong. There are different web pages for different purposes, and any web developer worth their salt knows this.
You can tell when somebody with this philosophy has designed a web page. There are ads everywhere, redirect links and buttons for dozens of sponsored programs or software, and probably two different email optin forms.
To their dismay, more is not more when it comes to web development.
Some of the most profitable web pages have the simplest designs. Everything fits perfectly.
A blog should be built differently than a brochure page, a sales page should be built differently than a webinar funnel, and so on.
Good web developers know and respect these differences.
Proper ad placement
The first mistake and most common mistake that web developers make is unorganized advertisement placement.
A *popular* method that content creators utilize to make money is by placing google ads on their youtube videos or websites. While this can succeed for content that receives a lot of traffic, it does nothing for the smaller content creator.
However, when web developers hear “I want to make a website that makes money while I sleep,” the immediately place a dozen google ads on their client’s website. This is not a good idea in any case.
Too many ads on a website/sales page/funnel page will turn any visitor off. Any content creator who gets less than 10000 daily visitors to their pages daily should not have any google ads on their pages at all. They should instead be advertising their own merchandise.
In the case of affiliate marketers or content creators who do get at least 10000 daily visitors, ads should be placed strategically. No more than three ads should appear on any given page.
Have only one sponsored software/app/program for each related issue
Another popular thing that most content creators like to do is sponsor apps or software that they believe that their customer or prospect base could benefit from as a form of marketing their own product.
While this is a good idea, another mistake that web developers will make is creating redirect links or buttons for multiple sponsored software/programs/apps. This can easily crowd a page, and make it a chore to navigate.
For example, say that you have discovered software that efficiently tracks numbers that any small business needs to track that is very easily accessible. Let’s say that three of these exist, and you know that visitors to your page can benefit from this.
Instead of telling your web developer to publish redirect links/buttons for all three, tell them to only publish one.
Doing this does two things. First, it establishes trust between you as a content creator and the creators of the software/app/program who you wish to support. Second, it will make your page much easier to navigate.
What kind of web development should a blog have?
A lot of websites try to do too much. They make the mistake of having a blog, brochure page, sales page, landing page, and a funnel page to their webinar…all on the same website.
Then they wonder why their sales are struggling.
Sure, they get a lot of visitors, but they get a lot of confused visitors.
A blog should only have a couple of things. Social media links, an e-mail optin form, perhaps a couple of well placed ads, links to the brochure page, sales page, funnel page, and that is about it.
This will make navigation much easier for visitors, and they will be curious enough to visit the other pages. The articles in the blog should sell the visitor on going to the other pages.
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What about other pages?
When it comes to pages where things are physically sold, they need to be as organized as possible. A funnel page should only contain buttons and links that pertain to the webinar or whatever else the funnel page does to capture leads.
Brochure pages should only contain a complete listing of anything that can be purchased with each item being part of whatever e-commerce software you are using. A button directing visitors to the e-commerce software should be there as well.
Sales pages should contain one thing and one thing only: Sales copy. Nothing else should distract the viewer.
Never forget that the best web developers are the most organized. Good web developers know this, and have a philosophy of “doing a lot with a little.”
Marie Erhart is a Success Manager at FieldPulse, creators of field service software that lets you run your entire contracting business from a single app. She works with contractors to help them grow their business using best practices.
