Businesses in the 21st century need to be online. This is no revelation and it’s something that 99.99% of business owners already know. However, as with everything, there are right and wrong ways to go about it.
Simply throwing up a website and hoping for the best is still commonplace and many companies are missing out on the unbelievable resource that they have at their fingertips.
Our friends at Host1Plus, a leading VPS hosting service provider, share top 12 things that you can do to make your online presence shine. Let’s get started:
1. Keep it simple
Although you do not want to publish a bland website there is a great deal of merit to keeping things as simple as possible. Overly complicated and cluttered websites are old hat these days, so keep things down to a minimum by removing any unnecessary images or text from your site.
Equally, your message needs to be clear and concise too. Anything that causes a visitor to have to stop and think about what you are trying to get across probably needs to be looked at; people like easy to understand instructions when browsing online – be it business or personal.
2. Stay on top of site maintenance
As time goes by your website will naturally change and evolve. Updates will be added and external links may no longer work. Keeping a regular maintenance schedule will ensure that your site is always in top condition.
Things like broken links can affect SEO and hurt your performance in search engine results. Similarly, having multiple fonts and different colours across all of the pages on your site will hurt your branding. Staying on top of these seemingly minor issues can help your website look and perform in a professional manner.
3. Keep up to date
Another mistake that many companies make is to set and forget their websites. Creating a website takes time, but it is vitally important that your online presence looks fresh whenever some decides to visit.
So, if you have not updated your site for a few years now might be the time to give it a makeover. It doesn’t take long for a site to look out-dated, and a tired looking website is not going to garner trust from your prospective clients and customers.
4. Stay current
If you’ve ever wondered why every other company has a blog these days you need to pay attention to this tip in particular. Adding a blog to your company website can help tremendously when it comes to promoting your goods and services.
Firstly, you can write about your products or what you can offer clients, using the blog as almost an additional sales page on your site. This could make the difference between someone choosing to use your company as opposed to your competitors, so it can be a powerful tool.
Secondly, search engines love regularly updated websites. By adding a blog or a news section you will be able to constantly make changes to your site and prove to Google et al that you are an active business with the authority to share information in your specific field. This means better search rankings for you, which, in turn, is likely to mean greater profits for your business.
If you do decide to blog it is vital that you commit to doing so regularly. Nothing looks worse than a blog that tailed off in 2011 never to return. Commit and deliver, even if it is only once a month.
5. Check your hosting
Another factor that can affect the way that your company website performs in search results is the speed that each page loads at. This can be affected by a multitude of factors: image sizes and poor coding are just two culprits.
Your hosting package can dramatically increase how long your site takes to load. If you are stuck on a shared server your site is likely to experience slow load times whenever your traffic increases – just when you don’t want things to go wrong. If you really see a spike in traffic your site could crash completely – no website, no sales…disaster!
Reputable VPS hosting providers can help as they use a hybrid system, which give you the best of both hosting worlds. You get the speed and control that you would with a dedicated server, at a price that is only a little more than that of a shared hosting package – perfect for all small to medium sized enterprises.
6. Make sure that you are contactable
There has been a disturbing trend lately that makes it as difficult as possible for visitors to find the contact details on a website. No one likes spam, but having no sales is a whole lot worse!
Make sure that you have a contact form that works on your site and for a belt and braces approach, add your email address too. You should also clearly state your phone number and physical address on the site as well. Failing to do so simply makes you look shady, like you have something to hide. Do you think that’s a good first impression to make?
7. Be responsive
If you had your company website built a little while ago you should check that your site is compatible with the latest devices on the market. By not having a responsive website you are affecting your chances of tapping in to the mobile market, and that market is growing at pace.
Over 50% of all internet searches now start on a mobile device of one sort or another. Can your business really afford not to make the most of this trend? Especially as mobile usage is expected to grow further over the coming months and years.
8. Know your metrics
Having a website is one thing, but knowing how it is performing will take your business to the next level. It is vital that you know exactly how your visitors are behaving once they hit your site. Things like A / B testing and heat maps can help you ascertain what is working on your site and what isn’t.
You may find through your testing that a certain colour call to action box isn’t performing as it should and a change could bring about an improvement in conversion rates. These improvements needn’t be huge to be worthwhile. A 0.5% increase in conversion can mean a lot to a business if you are attracting 100,000 visitors each month.
9. Be social
Social media has been around for a while now and the big names have firmly established themselves as major players in the online marketing world. Companies have cottoned on to this fact and more and more are now using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter in order to get their message out to the masses.
Utilising sites such as these makes sense regardless of the type or size of business you run. If you have a market, that market should be using social media in one form or another. Tapping into groups and targeting the right people could build your company an audience that prove priceless in a very short period of time.
10. Allow your customers to create
User generated content is huge at the moment; people just love to hear what other folk have to say on a certain topic or product. It gives them a sense of reassurance if someone who doesn’t have to toe the company line stands up for their product or service too.
The easiest way to incorporate user generated content into your website is by allowing visitors to comment on your blog posts or by providing them with a platform to leave reviews about the goods that you sell. Similarly, if you run a more service based business you can include testimonials from satisfied clients to show prospects that you serve your customers well enough to warrant a virtual recommendation from them.
11. Add a video
If you have any chance to add a video, do it. Video is taking over the internet, and with Google now owning YouTube, sharing videos on your website will also help you in search rankings too.
Make a product description video about what you sell, or create a fun clip of your employees at work. As long as it’s original and entertaining, it’s worth including on your site. Content matters, and video is the way to go.
12. Strip down the advertising
If you are serving adverts on your site it is important that you do not make them too obtrusive. Things such as auto-play videos are extremely annoying and a sure fire way to make your visitors hate being there. This means they’re likely to click on the back button and head for one of your competitors.
Is your advertising revenue really that important to your overall bottom line? If the answer is no, get rid of the ads. Your site will be better for it.
There you have it, 12 actionable tips that you can use to improve your business website. By making use of these hints you will see a marked improvement from your online efforts. So, get started today and allow your website to do the hard work for you.
