Do You Need A New Business Website?
A company website is its most important digital tool. It acts as a 24/7 online shop window. If a website isn’t working hard enough to drive a business forwards, then it’s time to make changes.
There are many tell-tale signs that a website isn’t maximising its potential. Some are obvious ‘paintwork problems’, whilst others are ‘under the hood’ issues.
A website service or MOT may be a good temporary solution, but sometimes a brand spanking, shiny new site is a much better long term investment.
So, let’s look at what you should be aiming for on your site and the questions you should be asking.
The 5 fundamental building blocks of a website are:
- Design
- User Experience
- Responsiveness
- Speed
- Security
Ideally, even though each of these 5 areas may overlap, they should be working in perfect harmony with each other. If that happens, a website will be a powerful and valuable business asset.
However, if your site isn’t ticking all the boxes below then it’s time for a website upgrade!
If you’re unable to answer a lot (or even a few) of the questions below. Then, contact us and we can help out!
Website Design Tips:
First impressions count. You only have a few seconds to capture a visitors attention and persuade them to stay on your site. Once they’re there you need to keep them!
So, how do you do this? You need to start asking questions about your website.
- Are you presenting a professional and trustworthy brand consistency?
- Does your site present an engaging initial message?
- Is your content purposeful, informative and accurate?
- Customer Focus: are you helping the customer as much as possible when on-site?
- Do you utilise purposeful and conversion-focused calls to action? (CTAs)
- Have you got an easily edited site to communicate with customers and search engines through blog posting?
- Is your SEO set up to take advantage of your business keyword opportunities?
- Do you display validation and accreditation badges?
Site Responsiveness:
Websites need to be accessible on devices of all shapes and sizes and be viewed on a variety of browsers. Don’t give a visitor an immediate excuse to leave your site.
- Is your site mobile friendly?
- Does it have a responsive design that makes it accessible and user friendly on all devices and internet browsers?
User Experience (UX):
You need to focus every single aspect of your website on meeting the requirements and search intent of users and potential customers. The structure and navigation of your site needs to be user friendly and intuitive.
- Navigation: Does your site have an easy and logical structure, that focuses on simplicity and clarity?
- Broken links can slow down your site, disrupt customer experience and affect your rankings
- Site depth: All pages should only be 2 clicks away at the most
Speed is Key:
Website load speeds are increasingly important for both ranking and customer experience. Each second delay means that you could be leaving customers and cash on the table!
- Is your site reliable and consistent on both Desktop and Mobile?
- Could your images be optimised to help your page loads speeds?
- Is there unnecessary code slowing down your site?
Site Security:
High profile website hacks are not uncommon. Every website is vulnerable. The best thing you can do with your site is make it as strong and secure as possible. This isn’t always easy, but prevention is always better than cure.
- Did you research how secure your hosting provider and server is? You need to minimise downtime and maintain the speed and integrity of your site
- Do you have a valid SSL certificate? If you’re not on ‘https’ your site information is not secure and it’s not encrypted. Some browsers won’t even display pages that are still on http!
- Does your site contain old or outdated functionality, plug-ins or programs that could increase the potential of it being compromised?
There’s a lot to think about and a lot to consider when you’re looking to fully utilise your website. It should work as a successful sales and marketing tool for your business.
We can help with a new business website, or to increase customer attraction and retention from your existing site. Why not give us a call or get in touch and we’ll have a chat about popping the bonnet and getting it sorted.