FEATURE
COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING
Don’t waste money on your website
By Sharon Stevens-Cash (pictured), marketing director at Gravity Digital Ltd
organisation has to attract sales and enquiries. Another way of putting it is that
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websites are your most loyal and knowledgeable employee, available 24/7 and should have the answers to just about everything. So treating your website well,
and maintaining the information and software, are essential – especially as competition for web space is increasing. Now, more than ever, we are
operating within a “digital-first” world where much of our day-to- day business is online – so if your website isn’t up to scratch, it reflects on your brand.
HOW TO AVOID WASTING MONEY ON YOUR WEBSITE The first thing to do is to make sure you don’t waste money on a website. Whether it’s a new website or an existing one, some businesses don’t invest enough
time, resource or money, and that’s often when problems begin. Here are a few things you can do to give your website a health check:
Speed - speed is everything and a slow website is a big turn-off. Search engines rate a website on how fast it is, and this could determine where you appear in searches. Speed is determined by hosting, content, coding and general build.
Maintenance - just like an engine that does a lot of mileage, to keep it in the best condition a website needs regular maintenance. This means regular security and software updates, it’s far better to keep a website maintained than to try and repair any damage after it has happened.
Experience - when somebody lands on your website, it reflects your brand and should immediately describe what your organisation offers. Put yourself in the place of the visitor and regularly review how the website looks, the images and the language you use – it takes less than one second to form an opinion about your company from a website, so first impressions count.
Responsive - many websites are viewed on mobile devices or tablets. The website should be designed to be responsive – this doesn’t mean just shrinking it down, but ensure you present the right information for people on the move.
Analyse - make sure you have analytics installed so you can extract valuable information about how people use your website.
60 business network November 2020
ebsites are the single most important marketing tool that your
Your website should work as well on mobiles and tablets
Understand how Google rates your website - Google is the largest search engine and it studies every detail of how people interact online. Google tracks every click and you can gain informative insights to help influence your online presence. For example, understanding how people arrive at your website gives an impression of how to focus, or re-focus, your marketing activity. This includes social media, email marketing, SEO and digital adverts.
Overall, make sure your website
is effective and don’t waste money on getting a cheap website or template, because it might just not make the grade and you may then be faced with spending money on bringing up to scratch. Here are a few stats on why your website is so important:
• 90% of people don’t trust websites that have mistakes or are slow to load
• 90% of people who phone, email or visit your business will have visited your website
• 60% say that they wouldn’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website
• 85% of customers look and compare online before making purchase decisions
• 40% will stop looking at a website if it is unattractive
• 50% of people expect a maximum load time of two seconds.
However, it’s no good having an
attractive fast website if no one knows it's there. Websites have to earn their place
in rankings, so the right SEO structure helps you manipulate how your brand appears in search engines to create the best first impression. Also, keeping your social media and wider marketing messages consistent and clear are just as important. To generate sales or leads online,
focus on making the website look and perform well, centred around the customer experience. Try not to think about your
website as a cost – instead think of it as an investment. You spend money to make money, so spend wisely.
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