You have just three seconds to capture the interest of visitors to your website, according to Kirtarath Dhillon, social-media and public relations coordinator with Advisor Websites in Vancouver.
And if your site is not easy to navigate, visitors won’t bother to stick around.
You can make your website up-to-date, attractive and easier to navigate by employing some of these three new website trends:
1. The “long scroll”
A relatively new innovation in website design, the “long scroll” lays out all of the information you want your clients to read on one screen. So, instead of opening separate web pages, clients scroll down the page to read your content.
“Simply put,” Dhillon says, “clicking is out and scrolling is in.”
The idea behind long-scroll websites is that visitors do not have to keep clicking on different pages, Dhillon says. You keep them captivated by continuously presenting information as they scroll down the page.
Long-scroll websites are a byproduct of our increased use of smartphones to browse the Internet. “Clicking on tiny buttons to see what’s next on a mobile website is counter-productive to a great user experience,” Dhillon says. “The long-scroll concept has gone from being something that makes mobile-website browsing easier to something that we’ve almost come to expect from every desktop website, too.”
Twitter’s home feed, Facebook’s timeline and Pinterest’s pin-boards all use the long-scroll concept, as does the Advisor Website’s blog (http://advisorwebsites.com/blog/).
2. Fixed headers and menus
A sub-trend of the long scroll, fixed headers and menus ensure important content is always accessible to the visitor.
A fixed item stays in the same position on the screen as you scroll down or up the long-scroll website. Dhillon describes it as a “you are here” map that remains at the top or to one side of your screen. It acts as a reference point, so your visitors won’t have to scroll back up to the top if they want to find a different section of the website or if they want to contact you.
“This feature is especially important for financial advisors,” Dhillon says. “If a prospect has been long-scrolling through your website and is impressed enough to want to quickly set up a call or book a meeting, that contact information will be readily available to them.”
3. Video backgrounds
Video backgrounds are quickly catching on within the advisor community. They make a great first impression and set the tone for the rest of the site’s content, Dhillon says. Instead of a static picture at the top of your site, why not have a video that tells your story?
For example, Napa, Calif.-based DeDora Capital Inc. (http://www.dedoracapital.com/) shows a sweeping view of a Napa Valley vineyard, a nearby scenic attraction. Naples, Fla.-based Capital Wealth Planning LLC (http://www.cwpinvestmentadvisors.com/) features a video of a beach scene at sunset, which refers to the firm’s focus on retirement planning.
This is the second part in a two-part series on new trends for advisor websites.