Most companies and organizations need a website these days; customers and clients have less confidence in companies that don’t. However, putting up a website just to have one is a missed opportunity. A good website can support your overall business goals, be an important marketing and communications channel, and even make money on its own. A strong website will support your business goals, be easy to find, and be easy to use. Ask yourself these questions to help you make your website work harder for you:
- What are my goals for this site? A website can build brand awareness, provide information, collect information, make sales, and engage with customers and prospects. Your goals should determine the design and content of your site. Your Calls to Action should be prominent. The pages that directly support your goals should be featured and easy to find. Even if your goals are geared more toward sales than building awareness, make sure your branding is consistent.
- How easy is my site to find? Your site should be as optimized for search as possible, and optimizing your content for search will also make it easier for users to navigate. Put some thought into your ideal user and what they might be searching for when they find your site.
Those keywords should be used organically throughout your site (remember that loading keywords in a way that doesn’t make sense is penalized by search engines). You should provide content related to your area of expertise or the product or service you provide. Your site hierarchy and menus should be easy to understand and your content should be easy to read and organized with headings and subheads. Your pages should be tagged, your images should have alternative text provided, and you should cross promote your website and social media channels. - What is the experience like for users? Because you spend so much time on your own site, your own devices cannot help you gauge user experience. Your site will come up higher in search rankings and your content will load faster than it will for people who have never visited your site. You have a very limited time to get the attention of new visitors. Have someone else check out your site from time to time and look at your site on other people’s devices or from a public computer. Make sure your site loads quickly, that you can easily find the information your users need, and that users aren’t being bombarded with frustrating pop-ups. Make sure each main idea or objective has its own page and that people don’t have to scroll forever to find information. The design should be uncluttered and easy on the eyes. Users should be able to easily find contact information. Your site should look good and be easy to use on phones, tablets, and computer screens.
Substance and Style 