A great website is a necessary tool for converting customers and creating revenue. When visitors arrive to your site, they first notice the obvious things such as design and how up to date the content is. If you are not keeping your website fresh and if visitors don’t like what they see at first glance, they will leave.
To find out whether or not your website is making your company shine, start by asking yourself the following questions:
How well do my graphics reflect what my company is about or is doing?
Do you have outdated images and pictures from years ago, is your branding old and are videos and images from old marketing campaigns still showing days after the campaigns are over?
Are my social media pages passing the same message as my website?
Your social media needs to have a design and message that is consistent with your website. If things look different, people will comment about it and this will make it look as though you are not taking your business seriously. It could also create doubt about your authenticity.
When was the last time I conducted a review of my website?
Not only should you personally review your website constantly, but you should also get other people to review it. As long as you ask, people will tell you if they don’t like something about your website such as: they found it difficult to get around, pages took too long to load, they don’t like the colours or pictures and many more.
Having said that, here are a few tips on how to ensure your website is makes your company shine:
Update your website’s design
New and updated designs are being released every day. While it’s not advisable to change the design of your website too often, update it once in a while to keep it looking fresh. Below are some key qualities of a great web design:
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- Visual appeal. Your website should have good use of colour, professional looking fonts and high quality graphics.
- Simplicity. Visitors should have an easy time finding your message and navigating from place to place.
- Functionality. Everything should work the way it’s supposed to. Error messages, links not opening, links leading to the wrong pages, lack of product descriptions, pictures missing where there should be some are all indications that your business is not reviewing and updating its website to give a good user experience.
Update your landing pages with your unique value proposition
Even though there are thousands of other businesses offering the same service or product as your company, there has to be something that makes your business unique.
But your company could be selling itself short if this message is not coming through clearly in the landing pages. Whatever your unique quality is.
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- Repackage it in a strong header message to attract more attention to it.
- Bolster this message by promoting it on your other media such as email, newsletters, print and social media.
- Optimize your website to ensure that search engine results lead to the updated landing pages.
Review, update and create new content
Content is what attracts people to your website; as long as your content stops being current and relevant, they will look elsewhere.
Update your blog, get new images and upload new videos. If you have old content that is still relevant today, update it with current data and information and re-share it.
Add Social media buttons to your website
The importance of social media in today’s business world is increasing. When people find something shareworthy, they want to share it. Having social media buttons on your website allows visitors to engage with others by sharing.
Get fresh Reviews, comments and testimonials.
Current reviews and testimonials help to build trust in the following ways:
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- They show that customers have indeed visited your website, used your products or services and found them satisfactory both from a price point and usability perspective.
- They are a marketing tool in that someone else is actually recommending your product to others.
- When you respond to reviews, this demonstrates that you engage with your customers and hence you can be trusted to respond to issues as they arise.
Testimonials and reviews also make great content for you to share, tweet and retweet and hence keep your engagement current.
Optimize for different platforms
More people today are accessing the internet through their mobile phones than on their desktops. Having your website available and optimized for different devices and browsers is a great way to ensure you take advantage of the flow of visitors using mobile.
Bottom line
You have to bear in mind that for customers, first impressions matter when it comes to a business website. Just like they wouldn’t enter your physical shop if it’s dirty and disorganized, is the same way they won’t want to have anything with your website if it’s not professional looking. People and companies will only do business with you if you bother to keep your website looking professional and make the elements discussed above available.
