wyze

It seems that these days the importance of a business’s websites is taken light heartedly.  Owners aren’t as concerned about a website as they are of their store front. They should be concerned because I can tell you they are losing a lot of business.

When looking for products or services many people turn to their trusty search engines to find them. They often don’t look much further then the first page of results. Once at your website a sale is often determined in the first 10 seconds of browsing a website. If a user thinks you have an ugly website with confusing or very little content they will hit the back button and continue browsing other results from the search query.

I know that before I go into a store I check their website; if I find the site unattractive I normally lose trust and never visit the physical store. The website to me is the face of the brand and is the most important advertising a business can have.

From developing websites for many years now I bring this down to lack of knowledge from the client in regards to what they need in a website. Most clients believe that if they just have a website everything will be ok.

So all this being said I thought I might compile a list of things to ask your web developer when getting your next website update, to keep you standing out from your competitors.

1. Stay up with current web design trends

Your websites structure and design is very important to keeping people on your website. Web design trends tend to change very fast so it’s important to update your design every couple of years to stay appealing. One thing I recommend to my clients is that they visit as many websites in their industry as they can to see what they are doing and make a list of things you like. This not only helps your web developer determine what you’re after but also helps you work out what you need to compete with them.

When it comes to working out a design and colour scheme for your website a similar approach is taken. What I normally do is visit web site galleries for inspiration. These are websites that display the best looking websites on the internet as voted by users.

2. SEO (Search Engine Optimise) your website

Having a website is pointless if no one can find it. That’s where SEO comes in; it’s the technique of optimising a web pages content so that it appears high in the search engines for the correct terms. This is a very complex topic and will need to be covered in more depth in its own post. But there is a few things you can mention to your web developer just so that they know you mean business.

1. Optimise page titles
2. Use meta descriptions and keywords on all web pages
3. Display important content headings in h1 tags
4. Use words and phrases that you would like to show up for in search engines on your page

3. Briefly explain the service you provide

There have been plenty of times I have browsed website and didn’t have a clue what service the company provided. They either explained it in industry terms that regular users wouldn’t understand or it was to vague. Make sure you explain it simply and how the user can benefit from your service. Also make sure this definition is easy to find. I feel the best option is to place this on the front landing page so it’s the first thing a user reads. It only has to be small, an example could be.

At Company Name We Do Consulting

At company name we take care of your consulting needs by offering you a great range of services from service 1 to service 2

4. Keep your products up to date

Make sure you have all your products on the website, and provide imagery for each of them. Most of the time it’s the picture of the product that sells the item. Text is important in its own right, it’s always important to provide as much information as you can on an item. Its dimensions, weight and functionality help users determine whether the product or service suits their needs and cancels any uncertainties.

5. Make your contact details easy to find

Place your contact details in an easy to find location. Normally a good idea is to place all the forms of contact on a contact us page and make this page easy to find. I see a lot of websites place a tiny little contact us link in the footer of their webpage. Another good idea is to place your contact details in your side bar if your website design has one.

Users have questions. A simple contact form can go a long way and is fairly simple for a developer to setup, give your users more options to get in contact with you, giving your users convenience.

6. Use social media websites

With facebooks members soon to eclipse the population of the United States and twitters growth of 750% in one year, it’s a very good idea to integrate social media websites into your website. This will give you more exposure and is something that even the most novice web developers should be able to do.

Use YouTube to host your videos if you have them. It gives you that extra exposure for people to stumble across your website.

7. Update your content regularly

Last but not least is updating your contents regularly. Social media sites get visited millions of times a day because they are constantly being updated with new information for users to view. Although it would be quite hard to update your website as much you should really have some form of press page or blog on your site. This gives users the impression that your business is moving steady and keeps them informed on what’s happening. This goes hand in hand with Search Engine Optimisation as search engines will visit your site more often to update their index if they see that the content of your website is updating often.

Wrapping up

I hope this helps those out there that are unsure about what they need on a website and what to ask for when speaking to their web developer. I have only scratched the surface with the above tips, I will hopefully get a chance to write about each in more depth in their own posts soon.

Leigh

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