How would you rank your business website when it comes to effectiveness and winning over current and potential customers?
In answering that question, think about the time and money you have sunk into your site, whether you are a long-time business or one of the new kids on the block.
Remember, your website is oftentimes the first contact between your brand and the public, so you want to make sure you get off on the right foot with consumers.
Many Eyes Are Watching
Start and end the website review process by looking at the following:
- Look – Are you happy with the appearance of your company site? If not, what needs to change about it? While the content of your site is also of utmost importance, the look of the site can’t be neglected. Give consumers reasons to not only want to visit your site, but refer it to their friends and family. If you are a little short in experience and/or time when it comes to finding the right imagery and/or infographics, hire someone that can handle those tasks. You may decide (depending on the size of your business) to do the hiring within, though outsourcing such needs is always an option too. Lastly, the site’s appearance should not remain stagnant for months-on-end. Updating the site, giving it a refreshing look from time to time etc. will always prove to be necessary tasks;
- Content – What kinds of content you place on your website also will have a major impact on dictating exactly how much business comes your direction. It is important that your content (notably what runs on your company blog) is not canned material, but has real meaning to it. The content should be useful to consumers, especially those considering your products and/or services. Give them something they’re not going to find anywhere else; meaning your business will be the source (notably your website) they come to. Also be sure that your content helps improve your search engine ranking (see more below) if you are currently struggling with this. Where you rank (most notably on Google) should always be a priority with your business website initiatives;
- Ranking – Speaking a moment ago about where you rank on Google, do you take the time to check such numbers regularly? If not, it is something you should include in your regular plans. When you put a number of pieces in play – content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), social media (see more below) – you have a great opportunity to improve upon where you rank on sites such as Google and even Bing. Also avoid some of the ways that ranking can be damaged. These include practices such as duplicate copy on your site, updating your site infrequently, being viewed as a spammer and more. At the end of the day, you want your brand at or near the top when consumers do searches for your product or service, be it home/life/health/auto insurance, divorce attorneys, Texas license plate lookup, furnishings for your home, rental cars/hotels/flights and so much more ;
- Socializing – As great as your business website may be, what if basically no one knows about it? If you think that isn’t possible, think again. You need to have a solid social media component to your website’s marketing plans. This means being active on at least what are generally regarded as the top sites – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. You can’t be all things to all people, but you do need to push your social media agenda as much as possible. One important aspect of doing such is sharing what others in the business community have to say about your respective industry etc. When you share what others are saying in their blog posts and more, they tend to want to do the same for you. By doing so, you’re getting your website out in front of countless eyes, some you may never have even known or thought about.
If you’re perfectly happy with your website, that is fine.
The hunch is, however, that there are one or more things on the site that you can do better.
Ask yourself, is it time for a change?
Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com
About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business and marketing topics on the web.
