What does your website say about your business?
How important is it to you? Does it drive sales or is it merely an online brochure that people may visit once they have already met you? Knowing what you want out of your website and what you want it to do for your business is key when thinking about the design and creation of your site.
Whatever the ultimate goal of your website, it’s essential that it’s user friendly. Easy navigation and obvious page names will help visitors to work their way around your site and will lead to lower bounce rates, higher time spent on the site and repeat visits. It’s essential to ensure that visitors leave your site with the information that they wanted, whether that’s prices, product information or an understanding of your terms and conditions.
Where possible, visitors should be able to see your contact information
regardless of what page they are viewing. Make it as easy as possible for them to get in touch with you – this ultimately may lead to a sale! Don’t forget your “call to action”. Be clear about what is it you want people to do on your site? Do you want them to contact you? Do you want them to visit you at a physical location? Do you want them to buy something or sign up for something?
Think carefully about your copy in relation to your audience. Small sections of copy will engage your visitors far more than pages and pages of solid text. Copy should be written in a language suitable for a reading age of 14 to 15 years – surprising but true!
Ensure that if you want to link a page back to another page, the link is clear and visitors know where they are heading. Smooth transitions through the information will ensure that visitors don’t get frustrated and click the close button!
Remember that if you are anticipating repeat visits you will need to ensure that there is a reason for people to return to your site. Interesting and regularly updated content is essential in encouraging visitors to come back. If you write a blog, include it on your site as an easy way of adding new content. Be sure to let your online audience know when there is new information to view – use your social media channels to push the information out or send out an e-mail broadcast.
Beware of too much stock photography on your website. There’s always a danger that your site will look much the same as many others utilising generic free or paid for stock photos. Great photos can add a really slick and professional image to a site, so taking your time to select the right ones or even paying for professional shots that relate to your product or service can be a worthwhile investment. Ensure that the photos load correctly on your site and don’t slow things down, as this can be really frustrating for visitors and lead to a high bounce rate.
On the same note, make sure your website is mobile friendly and can be viewed clearly on a mobile phone and tablet. More and more people are using hand held devices to view the internet nowadays, so this is a key consideration.
Monitor and analyse your site to understand how visitors use your site. This is vital as it allows you to target your information and content better. The primary way to do this is to keep a close eye on your analytics data via Google. Check the flow of traffic, look at any spikes that may show visitors are responding to outbound marketing (email campaigns, social media, adverts etc.), check what geographical area your visitors are coming from, what search terms they are using and what social media sites are giving you the best referrals.
You don’t have to spend hours working on your website to improve it. Small steps can be taken and minor adjustments made week on week. Perhaps just an hour or two a month to look at the statistics, add fresh content and take a view on any changes that need to be implemented.
Ensure that your website is promoting your business effectively and is a positive reflection of your brand. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If your website is outside your comfort zone but you know that it needs improvement or you haven’t yet got a website for your business then we’d be happy discuss how we can help. Contact us onKerry@banganderson.co.uk or view our website here.