Keeping your website fresh
There is no better way to promote and market your business than through your website on the world wide web! But a word of caution for those of you with a dated site. Your website is in many cases the first port of call for potential clients, with 3 out of 5 people saying they would not buy from a company with a poor website. Keeping your website professional, fresh and in-line with your current branding is imperative!
We have recently re-worked our own website to improve ease of use and better represent what our company is all about. So what should you consider when maintaining, updating or rebranding your website? We have compiled a list of musts to ensure your website positively reflects your business.
Layout & Design
Your website is your digital shop window. You wouldn’t want to visit a store with a messy window display, so why would you want to visit a site with a poor design? Try to think about who your customers are? What are they looking for when they visit your website? Then what you would like them to do before they leave. This will enable you to produce a website design & layout that will help to engage visitors and ultimately increase conversions.
Speed & mobile friendly
Smart phones at the ready! We are the mobile generation and none more so than in the UK. We spend on average 2 hours a day updating accounts, searching for products and nosing around our nearest and dearest’s profiles every day. Which is why it has never been so important to ensure that your website is responsive across all devices. Load time is also key. We have all been there, waiting for a website to load for what seems like an eternity, only to find it isn’t mobile friendly! What do you do, leave. In fact Google states that 1 in 3 people will not wait longer than 5 seconds for a mobile website to load. Test the speed of your site here with Google’s easy to use tool https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/testmysite/
Usability
Getting people to your website is only half the battle, getting them to do what you want whilst there is the rest. Think about the different entry points to your website and then ensure that navigating from there, to where you want them to go is simple. You should try to reduce unnecessary steps and make it easy for the user to get from A to B. This will help to reduce your bounce rate and increase your conversion rate.
Digital marketing
A new website without digital promotion, is like buying a Ferrari and leaving it in the garage! There are many different ways to promote your website, from search engine based advertising with SEO & PPC, to targeted branding with social media marketing. Once again think about who you are trying to attract to the site. Build a demographic profile of your customers and plot a campaign to help them find your site. It may often be the case that you try different approaches and track which produces the most cost effective results.
Updating your site
Once you have updated your website, stay on-top of it. Your users and the search engines love fresh content. Keeping your website up to date with your latest news, products and services is a great way to do this. Ensuring you have an easy to use content management system (CMS) can help to reduce the amount of time it takes to update your website and keep it looking fresh.
Can we help?
We have over 10 years’ experience in producing websites that look cool, flow and convert! If you would like to discuss how we can help you improve your website then feel free to get in touch.