An effective website is one of the main marketing tools businesses have in the digital age, a sort of online shop front which showcases all that your company has to offer. For many people, this means something slick and attractive, which shows that your business is legitimate and professional. A website needs to look great, but it is not the only factor to ensure success, there is so much more that a website needs before it will entice customers to pay attention and make purchases.
Once the design is complete, here are some of the essential things your website needs to master, in order to expand its reach and create new business.
Business First
Your priority in creating your website should always be clearly displaying what your business does and creating a consistent brand that internet users will remember. Make sure that you give your site an identity that reflects the core values and personality of your brand, and ensure that this is shown through everything – from your home page, to your blogs, to your contact form.
Focus On Great SEO
Just because you are a smaller business doesn’t mean that you can’t compete with huge multinationals like Amazon for the top spot on Google listings. While many big companies have the budget to pay for high rankings, with plenty of thought and research you could get your website on the first page of the search rankings.
The best way to do this is to work with an SEO agency who knows how to correctly market and optimise your page for your industry and niche. Whilst this may not get you a huge amount of hits, it will be able to direct better traffic to you, making it easier for you to get conversions.
Don’t Forget Your Mobile Site
Whilst desktop internet use is still common, the use of mobile devices to connect to the internet has risen at an extraordinary rate. In 2013, mobile phones made up just 16.2% of all internet traffic globally. By 2018, this had risen to 52.2%. Use of mobile devices to browse the internet now far exceeds use of desktop computers, and the way that people browse on mobile phones is more conducive to purchasing and order conversion as well. Research shows that people browsing products online display far more intent to buy when they are on a mobile device.
For this reason, it is critical that your business site has been optimised for mobile devices. Not only does this make for a simpler and more enjoyable experience for the user, it also increases your chances of making a sale. If the customer has to leave the site and log in on a computer, they may just abandon the process altogether.
Review Your Site Regularly
Like a shop front which changes window displays with holidays and seasons, your website needs to be reviewed regularly to make sure that it stays relevant and up to date for your target market. Your business may change over time, as you understand more about your customers and their needs and interests, so this understanding should be reflected in your website.
You may also want to update your content and web pages as your business adds new elements or takes others away. A website which looks out of date or feels irrelevant is just a waste of money and will have a negative effect on your site’s ability to convert customers.
Don’t Forget Your Call To Action
If you are an ecommerce site, for example, you may be tempted to list your products, to make your site easy to navigate and then walk away and wait for the results to appear themselves. However, although you may get some sales in this way, the best way to make sales is to look carefully at every step of the sales process and make changes that make the overall shopping experience more enticing for internet users.
Conversions don’t just mean sales. Getting a customer to create an account or hand over contact details shows an interest that you can work with to eventually make the final sale. Have someone look over your site with fresh eyes from time to time, identifying pain points that you need to work on in order to make the experience more enjoyable for the customer. You may find that all you need are small, simple changes to make a big impact to your sales.
You also need to embed calls-to-action throughout your site, making them easy to see, and easy to respond to. Contact forms, purchase instructions and contact details should all be easy to find and offer a quick and simple way for customers to convert.
Choose Your Priorities Carefully
Whilst making a sale is clearly the end goal of any marketing strategy, if you focus solely on that then you have a strong chance of losing customers along the way. Your business goals should be broken down into short, medium and long-term goals, and every element of your website should be set towards meeting these.
You should work with your web designer and SEO team in tandem to ensure that these elements are working cohesively so that you can meet these goals, as more advanced marketing strategies will most likely be outside of the experience level of the designer.
Use Newer Marketing Methods
In this contemporary society your digital marketing strategy must include social media channels as well as a traditional website. Internet users are very aware of social media marketing today that they tend to view businesses without any social media presence at all with a degree of suspicion.
The good news is that social media marketing is usually free, and with the right marketing strategy it can be very effective. However, it is critical that you include your social media marketing strategy at the beginning of your website development, when setting up your website. This will ensure that, as mentioned before, your brand identity remains cohesive across all channels.
Wrapping Up
Here at Maxweb we can create, design, manage and promote your website using the latest technology. Get in touch with one of our friendly advisors today to find out how we can help your business make the most of your website. Please call us on 0151 652 4777 or email info@maxwebsolutions.co.uk and ask to speak to our website development team.
Posted on Friday, December 13th, 2019 in Web Development.
