Last month I talked about the importance of having a website, this month I want to share with you some helpful tips to consider when you want to bump your website up a notch.
First of all, your website is out there for the whole world to see, it is your store front showcasing your company, product, or service. For most visitors it is their first impression they get of your company and yes, people do judge a book by its cover. If your company’s website looks like a typical off the shelf template and is confusing to navigate chances are your visitors will leave your site as quickly as they got there. Don’t cut corners, saving a few bucks by having your neighbor’s computer whiz kid design your site may not be the best way to approach your project. Another area that is just as important as the design is developing the text content. Your message should be short and immediately convey value to the visitor, consider getting a professional copywriter to script out the text for your new site.
You don’t have to have the slickest bells and whistles website in the world but you should give your site a professional image and stand above your competition. This will involve doing some homework and research to study the weaknesses of your competitor’s websites. Here are some of the things you might want to look for:
- Does the design of your competition’s website have a professional look to it or it is overloaded with useless links?
- Is it easy to buy or to find someone to contact on your competitors site?
- Is their products and services section include information on the benefits of using their products vs. features?
- Is their text written in an appealing and engaging way?
- Does their site have a good balance of graphics, text and white space?
- Are their adequate links to get more information or are they difficult to find or non-existent?
- Is their site designed to take advantage of search engine optimization? Does it pop up quickly when doing searches on Google or Yahoo!?
- Is the site slow to load, even on a broadband connection? Some sites with an introduction page can be annoying and slow down navigation.
After reviewing some of these items you can make a list of some of things that you may want to do to improve your website. Also think about your unique value assets. This takes some soul-searching. It takes some thinking. What do we do best? What do we love doing? Where have we received the most tribute? Are we faster, less expensive, more responsive, cleaner, lighter, hipper? Are we friendlier or easier to do business with?
After you have identified your value assets then consider:
- Having your website designed by a seasoned professional
- Getting a professional copywriter to write or edit your text. Good website copy is simple yet entices the reader to continue.
- Hiring a consultant to test the usability of your website. Does it view well from various browsers? Walk through and test your customer experience.
- Setting up a blog or a forum on your website to talk with your visitors and customers. This will help keep your content fresh and give people a reason to return.
- Regular checking your placement with critical keywords. Have a search engine optimization specialist create the initial strategy including what other sites link to yours.
- Improving the navigation of your website or getting a professional designer to help.
Your company’s home page should be the visual hook to grab the attention of your site visitors. You have a very short period of time to get and hold their attention. A well designed home page should be clean, simple, and professional. The cookie cutter homepage templates can be detected immediately by visitors.
Website accessibility is very important. Be sure to take into account text size for readability, including those with vision impairment. Place styled text over the images on your web pages. This will make your site more accessible and more search engine friendly too.
Be sure to create a plan that keeps the content fresh and updated on your site. Even BtoB service providers should post new or updated content at least every three months.
I hope that some these items are helpful to you in planning your website strategy. You also need to determine budget and what you can do within your financial boundaries. If you need assistance, you should be thoughtful in picking the right people to execute your plan and goals.
Today, there is no reason for any business not to be online in a professional, powerful way. That way, when a customer wants to find your menu of products, they will. If not, they'll go somewhere else.
If you need some help with your website plans, please give us a call for a free site analysis and consultation.
Thank you for your time and interest.
John E. Hornyak
CEO/Director of Business Development
X2Media, LLC.
216-373-7666
No comments:
Post a Comment