Wise up to the web
Wise up to how the web can help your business
As a marketing company we know how important a website is for every business. Many companies put a website up on the internet and forget about it. Then a few years down the line, it’s out of date and no longer reflects the business you are today.
If this sounds like your company, take a look at the information below to see how you can make your website work for you.
Looking Good?
The design of your website is vital. You may have relevant content and offer brilliant products or services but if your site is not appealing and looks amateurish, no-one is going to stay around long enough to find out.
The look of your website should reflect the type of industry you work in and appeal to your target audience. If you offer a professional service your website should look professional, clean and organised. If you own a beauty salon your site should look more fashionable and informal. You also need to keep your design consistent with the look and feel of the rest of your marketing material so you are protecting your brand.
If you are looking to develop your website in the near future, make sure you choose a designer who produces bespoke web designs. Take a look at their portfolio. Do their websites all look very similar? They are probably using off the shelf templates. You want a website that is unique to your business.
Are you talking to me?
When you are happy with the look of your website you need to think about the content. Web content is something a lot of businesses do not get right. The biggest mistake is to write what you want to say about your business or products and services, rather than what your customers want to know. As a professional in your industry it is so easy to fill your website with technical terminology and buzz words that probably don’t mean anything to your customer.
Take a look at your website from your customer’s shoes. Do you pass the ‘so what’ test? It’s quite difficult isn’t it?
If you have the budget, ask a copywriter to write your web content for you. It’s not as expensive as you might think and it’s well worth it. They will find out the key messages that you should include in your website and produce copy that is content rich. They will talk about your products and services in a way that sells the benefits of your company, rather than just list the features.
If you can’t afford to pay for a professional writer, colleagues to read through your content for you to make sure they understand what it all means.
Need a map?
Websites that are difficult to navigate and overly complicated will lose visitors very quickly. We all work very hard to get visitors to our sites so don’t lose them because of a poor navigation. You know yourself when you go on a website you want to find the information you are looking for really quickly. If you can’t you get frustrated and leave to go on another site. Is your site sending potential customers scurrying to your competitors? So if a potential customer lands on your website you need to make sure that they will be able to find what they are looking for in just a few clicks.
Make sure your key products or services are clearly stated in the main navigation bar so it is obvious to your customer where they need to go next. And more importantly make sure there is a clear call to action on every page. Once your customer has found what they are looking for you need to tell them very clearly how they can buy, how to book or how to find out more! Sounds common sense doesn’t it, but you’ll be amazed how many times these things are missed. And that means missed business. Go and check your website now!
Shout about it!
OK, so now you’ve got a great looking website that is jam packed with useful information and easy to navigate. All you need now are potential customers to look at it! So tell your customers, put it on your email signature and print it on your business cards and leaflets. But most importantly you need to consider Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Pay Per Click campaigns.
Your website isn’t going to magically appear at the top of Google just because it looks good. Search Engines are complicated things and they will rank your page based on a number of different things, including:
- Age of your website
- Visibility of content
- Structure of your website
- Page, image and title tags
Search Engine Optimisation can take time, so Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns can be a great way of achieving some quick wins. Located on the right hand side of the screen when you do a Google search, advertisers pay for their adverts to be displayed when certain words or phrases are searched for.
If you get it right, a website can be an invaluable marketing tool for your business.
First Impression can help you through every stage of designing, developing and building a new website and promoting it with SEO and PPC campaigns. We’ve got the experience and track record, and we’re cost effective.
Call us now to find out what we can do for your business on 01457 857111 or contact us on contact@firstimpression.co.uk