Tuesday 28 January 2014

Is your website at its optimum health?

Quite often, the day-to-day running of a small business can be all-consuming, what with keeping up with paperwork, handling enquiries, filling orders, etc.  So if you’ve had your website for a while, you may want to take stock of how it’s performing before we get too far into 2014. Now is the perfect time to give your website a health check.

Here are a couple of things for you to consider.

Is your design letting you down?
Does the design of your site need to be reviewed, to give it a more up-to-date look? If you don’t believe the look of your site matters, you’re wrong. We live in a visually-driven world and first impressions count. If your website looks old and dated, potential new customers may get the same impression of your business. Is this how you want customers to perceive you?


Are you losing customers because your contact details are hard to find?
These are vital to your business. Can your phone number, fax number or email address be found quickly and easily? Have you moved to new premises and not updated the address on your Contact Us page? It can be easy to overlook these details, so make sure this important information is up to date on your website.


Are you showcasing your best work?
Images are particularly important if they relate to the goods and services that you offer. If you’re a builder, for example, it might be worth including some photographs of recent projects to showcase the quality of your work.


Are you getting social?
Have you created a Facebook page for your business? Are you part of the Twitter community? Are you set up on Google+ and LinkedIn? Social media platforms allow you to connect easily with people far beyond your immediate customers, community, and location. If you believe that word-of-mouth advertising works for your business, then you will love social media as it takes that approach to a whole new level. Social media is the equivalent of word-of-mouth in the digital age. To read more about social media platforms click here.


Does your website showcase all of your products and services?
Product ranges and the services that businesses offer change frequently, so f you're selling something new or introduced new services, then you’ll need to update your website and make sure it reflects all that you can offer. At the same time, if you no longer stock or sell a particular product, you’ll need to remove it from your site so that you can make sure it reflects you and your business accurately.


Have you got video content?
Video content is one of the fastest growing sectors on the internet and one of the most valuable elements you can add to your website. If you want to help your visitors and customers see your products in the best light, or help them to choose the right model, then a short video is a great way to do this. 


Is your website mobile responsive?
Mobile responsive design means that the design of your website is adaptable so that it can easily viewed on all types of devices, from large desktops, to tablets, to smartphones. With more and more people searching online using smartphones, you need to make sure that your website offers them a positive user experience.


Is your content working for you?
Is your content still relevant to your business? Your website needs to convey clearly who you are and what you do. If writing doesn’t come easily to you, seek the services of a professional copywriter to produce your website content. It can also be a worthwhile experience to have a fresh pair of eyes read your existing content. For instance, have you ever re-readsomething that you’ve written several times and not noticed a spelling error, yet someone else found it immediately? Typos and grammatical errors give a poor impression of your site, but are easily fixed. it never hurts to get some assistance to ensure that your website content is as clear and effective as possible.


Is the copyright year in your footer current?
This may seem like a small and somewhat insignificant point to mention, but if your copyright date says 2007 then you are quite obviously saying that your site is old! The date being current on your website tells readers that your content is current too. 


What are your competitors doing? It doesn’t do any harm to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing with their websites. If everyone else in the industry is upgrading their sites then you need to pay attention. Technology is evolving, design trends are moving on, and the way businesses are using their websites are changing, so it’s important to have a handle on new developments. Social media too is having a big effect on how websites look and function and so this is another reason why you need to keep up to date. While you may not need a complete redesign of your website, it’s important to keep your online presence up to date—don’t let it and your business get left behind.

Written by +Denise Angus

2 comments:

  1. What a great article, very simple to understand and yet very informative.

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