Tips on creating a website for your business

Your website is an important piece of your digital marketing strategy. It may serve as a focal to gather information or the actual destination where a sale takes place.

It’s an opportunity for a visitor to discover what makes your brand unique, to find the information they’re looking for, and to guide them in their decision to buy or to donate.

Why you need your website to be effective?

You may have all sorts of marketing campaigns running, ads on Google.com, posts on facebook.com, blog articles, all of it is bringing in new customers that eventually end up on your website.

All of that attention on your website makes it one of the most valuable pieces of digital real estate that you own.

The better you’re marketing, the more visibility your website has.

Online consumers of today are fickle, and that’s because digital interactions are so commonplace, so people are spoiled by companies that are doing it well.

They’re used to things just working, and they expect that the information they want will be available and accurate.

When it’s not, they’re disappointed, and credibility is lost for whatever brand they’re interacting with, internet on mobile people used to go to cafes where they could find technical people to help them but now with all the COVID19 that came with social distancing people need to do everything themselves.

Therefore, if your website isn’t good, you’re going to fall further and further behind as the landscape evolves and that’s the truth. And if your website doesn’t work on mobile, you’re already behind. Chances are, there’s a competitor with a better online experience and your customers will seek them out if they’re fumbling with yours.

Your website doesn’t need to be perfect, it needs to be successful.

So let’s dig more about how to make sure your experience is good enough.

Online marketing and the success of your business online, an effective website should provide the following three experiences:

1. Simple,
2. Well thought out
3. Highly functional.
4. Intuitive

It should be intuitive and eliminate any and all barriers, so your visitor can accomplish their goals effortlessly.

In the marketing strategy, we provide to our clients, we’re aiming for shared value. It’s the same with your website. Your business goals and the needs of your target market should overlap and while we’re drawing similarities to your marketing strategy, we’ll also point out that your website only needs to appeal to your target market, so spend your effort and time designing it to work for your target audience.

Best questions to ask yourself when evaluating your current website

As you evaluate your current website design and content, take some time to ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is your website responsive and mobile-friendly?

The number of people using their mobile devices to browse the Web is staggering.

So design with mobile in mind. Now, and that will help give you some more ideas around the topic of being mobile-friendly.

2. How long does your website take to load and does it load properly?

The next question is; does it load properly in all modern web browsers? If your site looks one way on Safari for Mac, and another way on Chrome for Microsoft Windows PC, you’re not really controlling the experience, test it out on all of the different modern browsers.

We recommend browserstack.com, you may also use free website developer options on a PC or Mac with Google chrome installed to test your website in a few steps:

• First, visit your website
• Right-click
• Select Inspect (Ctlr + Shift +I on a Win PC or CMD + Shift + I on a Mac)

As a way to quickly test your website across platforms.   Does it answer all the questions your target audience or users have or may have?

Additionally, now it is a proactive practice to use your first-hand data i.e. write down things your customers/people ask for via phone, email, or even in your place of business.

You can check to see if those answers are easily found on your website, and if they’re not, then you should put that information online, don’t leave your website, visitors, with questions in their minds.

Next, is the site reflective of my brand?

Within the first couple of seconds, people are going to decide how the site feels to them. You need to make sure your brand is carried through. Luxury brands need to feel elegant, whereas discount sites can focus more on current sales. Make sure your logo, tagline (elevator pitch or narrative statement), and color scheme all reflect your brand. You definitely want things to be consistent.

Is your website design and content up to date?

Nothing is worse than information that’s out of date. It creates concern with people, so be sure to keep information current. If you have a blog, you should be using it weekly.

• Are all of your services and products easy to find?

It is because Online marketing is so niche, your targeting audience is likely looking for something specific.

• Can they find it on your website?

If they can’t find it, and they call, and you say it’s a service or product you do offer, it needs to be on your website.

• Are all of your policies easy to find?

That is to say, if you ship or handle returns, can the user understand the process clearly? Will they know how long shipping takes? When they can expect a callback or a product to arrive? You need to provide ample feedback so a user knows where they stand in the process.

How does your website compare to your competitor?

Finally, one of the best criteria for your site, is how does it compare to your competitor? Are you proud or jealous? If you’re jealous, it’s probably time to seriously consider whether or not you need to patch up your website. Leverage your relationships with existing customers and colleagues as a way to get feedback on your site.

Ask them what they like, what they don’t like, and for any ideas. As you go about creating an effective website, we also recommend hearing from someone outside your circle.

Contact us to check your business website at no charge, we‘ll have a real person spend five minutes on your website, and give you honest and unbiased feedback.

As we discussed earlier, your website is ultimately the most valuable piece and the focal point of your digital marketing strategy. Take your time and conduct a non-biased or honest evaluation.