5 tips to improve your website this week (8) | Heart Internet Blog – Focusing on all aspects of the web

When we sit down to write for the Heart Internet blog we always start with the simple statement: “How can we help our customers make their website better?” We are really proud of our blog, and since its re-launch five years ago we’ve covered a wide range of topics.

This week’s 5 tips to improve your website looks back on some of the most popular blog posts we’ve written, all packed full of really useful tips for you to apply.

This article is part of our “Power Up” series to help you learn new skills and take your website to the next level.

1. Top tips and examples for About Me/Us pages

You only get one chance to make a first impression, and your About Us or About Me page says a lot about how you approach your work and present yourself. Visitors will often check out your About page first – particularly if it has a prominent link or your website is quite small – so take the opportunity to make the most of it. It also gives you a chance to keep visitors on your website; don’t make them go to Twitter or another social network to find out more about you.

About pages allow you to show what you know and write about what you’re interested in, so it’s essential to come across as approachable. Below we’ve put together some tips for creating effective About pages and included some examples of great inspirational designs.

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2. 51 free high quality vintage and retro design resources

Vintage and retro styles have been popular for a long time now, and they’re a great way to make your designs stand out. Whether you’re looking to create a ‘50s American diner feel or you’re opting for a classic Victorian look, these free PSDs, vectors, fonts, brushes, badges, email templates and other design elements can help you do just that.

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3. 25 of the best free ecommerce templates

A good ecommerce template can be hard to find, so we’ve done the hard work for you and found some of the best free templates available on the web for WordPress, Magento, OpenCart, Prestashop and Zen Cart.

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4. 31 fresh flat design reads and resources

Flat design is swiftly becoming one of the fastest growing trends in web design. With the simplicity of Google’s and Microsoft’s latest offerings, it’s time to ditch the shadows and 3D effects and move towards bright, humble designs. We’ve scoured the web for some of the more attractive flat design resources out there; take a look at our list.

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5. Essential tips for selling web hosting to beginners

If you’re a Heart Internet reseller, chances are you’ll be looking to sell domain names, web hosting (and potentially other related services) to an inexperienced market at some point. As our recent survey showed, over half of UK consumers don’t actually know what ‘web hosting’ is, which is something of a challenge if you’re trying to get the average consumer or small business owner to invest in your products and services!

So, why sell to those new to the industry? Everyone has to start somewhere, and if you’re on hand to help out from the beginning, chances are you’ll be able to develop a long-term, trusted relationship with your clients. This is especially valuable if you’re combining selling hosting with other services such as web design and site maintenance. The consumer market is also a potential goldmine purely based on its size (but make sure you don’t fall into the trap of being too generic or trying to be everything to everyone – find your niche. See How to enter a competitive market such as web hosting for more tips). If you’re not hugely technical, targeting customers new to web hosting is ideal because they are far less likely to ask in-depth support questions or require non-standard set ups.

These tips specifically refer to how you sell from your website, but you can easily apply them to print materials, phone calls and face-to-face meetings quite easily too; just jot down a few notes and reminders to get you started.

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