5 Ways to Make Your Website Stand Out from Your Competition

Creating a website can be fun, time consuming and sometimes even frustrating if you are new at working with hidden codes. Some business owners have even gone so far as to have a family member setup a website for them, but their site is not ranking in search engines at all.

One customer I helped recently, had a website so full of unnecessary code that the search engines did not rank their site well because of the clutter. If this describes what you are going through, please understand, while drop ‘n drag software may be a great tool for some, it can leave a web page full of unnecessary code. You may need to understand hidden codes better so you can know what codes to remove when using this type of software. Better still, using content management software like WordPress will solve that issue for you.

So now, let’s move on to 5 ways to make your website stand out from your competition:

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1. Responsive design
If your website is not at least responsive to all devices as of April 2015, your website will NOT rank very high in Google any longer.

So, no more excuses, responsive design is an easy solution for most websites. Find a template that will work for you. For a full explanation… read more

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2. Bring your website home
A major American web hosting service is advertising a LOT on Canadian TV and radio.

You need to consider this: Would you open, say, your new dress shop in a city in the state of Kansas when you want to serve Toronto, Ontario? Then why would you have your website hosted on a server located ANYWHERE in the States? For more on this topic… read more

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3. At the very least, do basic SEO
Without (at the very least) basic SEO that new website you just spent hours creating, will go nowhere in search results… unless of course, you have used a very clever technique of using your keywords in your newly registered domain name.

READ  Tired of Paying $400 Monthly for 3-Page Website?

Examples: torontocarpetcleaner.com or oshawadeli.com or cobourggiftshop.com … but then, that option IS a basic SEO. Read more

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4. Use images wisely
I cannot stress this enough… nor repeat it too many times; Do NOT use an image on your website that you do not either own the full rights to, or have paid for the rights to use.

Many website owners have learned this costly lesson the hard way… and I DO mean costly lesson… thousands of dollars costly! Please, don’t you end up being one of them. For a more information on this issue, please DO read more

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5. Share only quality, unique information
The information you share with your website visitors needs to be unique. In other words, not duplicated from some other website, because Google HATES duplicate content.

Now you can consider yourself forewarned. Besides, if you offer your visitors unique content related to your business, they will be more apt to share it on social media or with their friends. Let your information be complete (don’t be afraid to share), honest and let it work FOR your website. Read more

By following these 5 ways to make your website stand out from your competition, your website is bound to be ranked ahead of your competition in internet search results. So, what are you waiting for?

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Trish

Website Designer for Parr's Publishing. As a full certified Internet Specialist, I help business owners and organizations increase their profits by providing them with a fully managed, custom designed website as well as basic Search Engine Optimization.

24 thoughts on “5 Ways to Make Your Website Stand Out from Your Competition”

  1. Lots of excellent suggestions, or I should say, must-do tips. I agree with having your site hosted in your home country although I don’t necessarily think small hosts in your hometown are necessarily the best. I’ve known a number of them that are just too small to give reliable service. Here anyway. I’d recommend checking with people who have used the hosting company. I love patronizing hometown businesses but I really want my site to be hosted by an exellent one. Nice article, Trish.

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    • So right Beth, a reliable, local host IS best. Most local businesses here tend to believe TV commercials and end up with their Canadian businesses hosted on servers in Kansas City, MO, USA, and then they can’t figure out why their websites are not found as a local business in internet search results.

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    • This blog is truly intended to help those who want to create their own websites Susan, so I make sure to give full disclosure on what I have found (during my 20 years as a website designer) that works and what doesn’t work.

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  2. Years ago I thought I had a website that in reality was a glorified shopping cart. The best money I ever spent was to hire a web developer/SEO master who has become our coach. As an e-commerce site with many products, our visual presentation is critical.

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    • That is a sign that you have THE BEST web developer Roslyn. Giving customers MORE than they’ve paid for is a standard practice for my business too. That’s my secret on how to keep preferred customers 😉

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  3. Great tips! It’s important to be honest in the process of sharing on a website. People can really sense when someone is just selling to them on a website. I recommend to my clients to really ask “what does the visitor coming to my business site want from me?” This question gives them a clearer direction of which way to go. Thanks for sharing.

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    • Am glad you enjoyed the tips offered here Sabrina. Answering “what’s in it for me?” to your potential website visitors straight away IS a great way to keep their attention for sure.

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  4. Having been with GoDaddy for far too long, I really wish I had a way to “bring my hosting home” as you mention, Trish. I would never attempt to do the coding on a website as intricate as mine and even my expert developer ran into issue after issue, partly because of my theme. Even now, my theme holds me hostage at times for many reasons. As far as graphics/photos, I get all mine from Pixabay and they are Creative Commons, free to use without attribution. Are you saying even these are not safe? Thanks for the clear tips on how to optimize our websites. Things change so quickly in the online world, that as I’ve learned, it is really important to stay on top of our websites.

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    • Beverley, all I can say is to make REAL sure you understand and abide by any small print offered up on those “free use” image websites. That’s how this mess all started. Students were given free use of images they used in creating templates years ago, and they NEVER disclosed that the images were to NEVER be used. Several website owners used the images and got sued THOUSANDS of dollars per image. As my post clearly states, it doesn’t matter if you are NOT in the States; if an American lawyer sues a Canadian you can BET they can destroy your financial credibility.

      In the future, should you EVER decide to bring your website home, I hope you will seriously consider a FRESH new theme, say, maybe a WordPress theme.

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  5. Trish, I started my blog last year when I wasn’t sure I was going to be blogging and so I started with WP.com. I am in the process of tranferring it to WP.org so I will be keeping this article to make sure I do this things. It is a slow process to keep learning about websites and blogs. I don’t regret what I did. I never would have started if I had to do it another way. I am fine with making changes and improving as I can. Thanks for the tips.

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    • Like you Karen, I found website designing was fun to learn in stages. Thankfully, I started out when NO one was teaching HTML. You would have laughed at the group of us when tables where first introduced. We could finally get our text away from the edges of the monitor. Then it was the fascination with moving gifs 🙂 … ahhhhh, the good ole’ days. I still love to learn new techniques.

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  6. Ah the pros, cons, concerns and success of having your own website. I appreciate your thorough insights and experience to keep us (me) in the know!

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  7. Trish, your post should be a must read for anyone starting out with a website. But, even for us vetrans there are good reminders. I like that you offered your tips and then followed up with more indepth information. I’m going back to learn more about the SEO tips.

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    • Joyce, it is my pleasure to share fully with others who want to learn, so I hope you will always feel free to ask me ANY website design question(s) you have.

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