Keeping your website up to date shouldn’t be a chore nor should it be ignored. When you visit a website that has information which isn’t up to date even by a month your confidence in that company drops, thoughts going through your mind are;
- Are they still going?
- Mustn’t be successful or wanting to grow
- They obviously can’t be bothered
And its natural to think if they can’t be bothered why should I be? I don’t want to have to trawl the Internet for information on them unless this item/product is rare and that I MUST have it.
Most business owners know that having a website is essential for the company, not only to backup what you do but it’s also there to make sure people can find you. In fact, a website is much more than that! It’s a place where you should share experiences others have had with you and the experience of working with you and your company. A website should not be built but it should be “created” and moulded into a marketing tool that helps you sell your company to the audience you want to attract.
“Create a beautiful online experience” – Randy Zucherberg (iStrategy 2012; Amsterdam)
Design the journey you want the audience to take. Move them through the website by clicking on various links. Get them to read pages, posts and testimonials and look at images to make them think about things.
13% more people buy when images and words are together!
When designing your website always have in mind; “What the end goal?”. Is it to get the user to fill in a form? Pick the phone up? Book an appointment with you? Whatever outcome you want, you need to guide them to it and all things related to it.
By keeping your site up to date and engaging you will do 4 things:
- Evolve the website together with the company, brand and ethos
- You will be found more easily
- Keep your visitors coming back to see more
- Create something that is similar to the face-to-face experience
All I hear is, we want more hits to the website, people commenting on our blog posts, more emails from people interested in buying from us as well as being found naturally for the right keywords.
When creating this experience, remember it is for your audience to ‘walk past’ your on-line ‘shop window’, get to the next step and ultimately buy from you – make it easy for them and enjoyable!
Article written for The Edge Magazine (2012)
