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Are load times slowing your business down?

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It’s common for businesses to prioritise sleek design, nifty functions or extra content over fast load times when building a website. Having all these added bells and whistles can be an asset to your brand, helping you to stand out against competition and attract customers’ attention. But if they begin to encroach on your website’s speed and efficiency, there’s a point where they’ll stop making your customers happy and start slowing sales down. Not convinced? Amazon reports show that just a one-second improvement in page speeds yields seven per cent growth in conversion rates and a ten percent overall increase in sales – proof that speed is a big deal.

Here are the main areas of your business load speeds may be influencing:

Customer experience

Research shows that when a website runs efficiently, we perceive the brand to run with equal efficiency, leading to better trust and improved customer retention. Alternatively, slow load speeds can kill the browsing experience. After all, how frustrating is it when a site lags for what feels like a lifetime when you’re just trying to access basic information? A website could be beautifully designed and have awesome interactive features, but at the end of the day, if it is too slow, users will simply shut the tab and switch to a competing site. In these situations, the business is not only at risk of losing a sale, but also a repeat customer, which is a big opportunity cost. Remember, consumers, value their own time above all else, which is why a smooth user experience should always be first priority.

Search rankings

While many people expect loading times to influence user experience, few anticipate how much they can also affect search engine ranking algorithms. There are two factors influencing this. Firstly, Google searches have user engagement indexes that track how many potential customers are engaging with the content on a website. So if people keep dropping off a page shortly after opening it, Google will think something illegitimate is going on, placing the site lower in its rankings. Secondly, if the search engine is too slow to connect to the data on a particular web page in time, it will simply ignore the content, leaving the site out of search results, no matter how good its other SEO efforts are. And as you’re aware, search rankings have a large impact on web traffic, which is a crucial driver of sales.

Here are some simple tips to help improve your page loading speeds:

Compress your pages

Large pages are bulky and slow to download. The best way to speed pages up is to zip them, which reduces their bandwidth, improving download speeds by up to seventy percent (according to Yahoo).

Optimise images

Large images take too long to load, but small images are too low quality, which is why striking a perfect balance is key.

Enable browser caching

Caching temporarily stores data on visitors’ computers, keeping them from having to re-download it each time they visit your page.

Minimise CSS

Excess or unnecessary code can really slow download your speed. It’s important to regularly sift through your coding and make reductions where possible. You can also copy and paste CSS into tools like CSS Minimiser, which will optimise your stylesheet automatically.

The Merryn Bourne Creative team are experts at building websites that are both beautifully designed and quick to load. For more information about improving the functions of your site, contact us today.

The Coffee Experience

The Coffee Experience

Merryn Bourne Creative recently worked with Velocity from Airport Retail Enterprises to develop a marketing strategy for the signature drink round in the recent championships at The Coffee Experience.

We created a beautiful brand for the Macadamia Moment along with a promotional tent card to deliver the message that the deconstructed beverage could made just how you like it!

Here a few snaps from the day!

The Coffee Experience
Source: Prime Creative Media

The Coffee Experience Macadamia Moment

The Coffee Experience
Source: Prime Creative Media
The Coffee Experience
Source: Prime Creative Media

The Coffee Experience Macadamia Moment

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AEH website lead generation

Recently Merryn Bourne Creative partnered with AEH Property Group to make some website changes to help increase the sites conversation rate. Our solution included adding an email capture form at the top of every sidebar. Having this new lead generation element positioned above the fold means users are more likely to notice and act on the call to action before having to perform a scroll action.

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CBC Group Responsive Wordpress Website

CBC Group responsive website

Merryn Bourne Creative and Concession Planning worked closely with the facilities management group, CBC GROUP to redesign their company website.

They now have a beautiful responsive CMS site with strong branding throughout. The new platform also features an interactive safety induction that allows for required sub contractors to complete an easy online questionnaire and agreement, which in turn cuts the internal admin processes for CBC Group.

For the potential client searching online, company statistics as infogrpahics show success in their sector in a snapshot, and gives the viewer a simple path to all core services, and required information.

CBC Group Responsive WordPress Website CBC Group Responsive WordPress WebsiteCBC Group Responsive WordPress Website

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About HR responsive website

Flat design for the About HR brand, now live on their new website.

The About HR website is a responsive and conversion friendly website. Their three core services featured clearly underneath the main image and above the fold. The call to action and contact number in the top right hand corner makes it user friendly, and the contact details are always visible – this entices users to perform the action that is most valuable to About HR – call me! We love the flat design design, the simplicity of the structure and the colour!

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Social media + graphic design internship

Do you have basic design skills and love coming up with content ideas? This is the position for you!

We are Fish Tank Creative, an innovative Brand and Design agency based in the buzz of Chippendale. We are offering an exciting 12 week internship for a Graphic Designer with also an interest in social media to join our young and dynamic team.

Generally you will be assisting with developing content and designs for Fish Tank Creative’s social media and marketing aswell assisting with client design projects.

Skills
  • Capable of using Adobe suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc)
  • Be familiar with social media sites Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and more
  • Ability to research and develop content for social media and blog posts
  • An interest in social media and branded content
  • Some web design skills (e.g. HTML and CSS) would be WONDERFUL but not a must
  • Familiar with EDM’s is desirable but not required
Tasks
  • Updating our website with new content
  • Coordinating our email newsletters based on an existing template
  • Generation of content weekly for the Fish Tank Creative social media pages and blog
  • Creating Photoshop mockups of completed client work for Fish Tank Creative website
  • Participating in creative brainstorms and ideas creation
What we can offer you
  • Fun, friendly and supportive environment
  • Valuable small business experience, the perfect place to kick start your marketing/ design career
  • Work reference on completion of internship
  • Content for your portfolio
  • The chance to develop your social media and content production experience
  • Flexible working hours
  • Watch your designs come to life on our real life projects
  • Put the skills you’ve picked up in university/TAFE to practice. 

The role will require a commitment of 1 to 2 days per week, working from our studio in Chippendale. This is a great opportunity for a current student or recent graduate who is working part-time. Email hello@fishtankcreative.com.au with a cover letter, and a pdf folio of your work. A member of our team will be in contact if you have been short listed for an interview