Having a website is a given for new businesses these days, and it’s never been easier to create your own site. Even if you don’t have professional design skills or in-depth knowledge of HTML, website builders and platforms like WordPress make it simple and straightforward to set up and manage your site and make it look good. However, there’s far more to running an effective site than making it look pretty. In order to fulfill its role as your key marketing tool, your website has to stand out from the crowd and not only attract visitors but have the necessary qualities that will make them stick around and engage with your business.
Step one – bringing in visitors
The main problem you face in raising your online profile is rising above all your competitors in a list of search engine results. You need to approach this issue in two key ways. Firstly, do everything you can to improve your site’s SEO (search engine optimization), to ensure your site is as high up the rankings for relevant searches as possible. There are some basic optimization techniques you need to master, such as using appropriate keywords, including links and getting backlinks to your site, and making sure your content is of high quality. Serious optimization goes much further than this, so you will either need to study the subject if you plan to do your own SEO or employ an SEO expert. In addition to optimizing your rankings, most businesses will require an investment in paid-for advertising. This could be through AdWords (or the equivalent for non-Google search engines), social media ads, industry or local media advertisements, or whichever other medium is most appropriate for your business.
Step two – keeping visitors on your site
You have a very limited window of opportunity for engaging visitors, and your success will be down to the impression your landing page makes when people click on a link to your site. First of all, the landing page must deliver what it promises. For example, if the link mentions a specific product, the landing page must go to the catalog entry for that product, not the home page or the front page of the catalog. There are a number of useful online tools that will enable you to improve the impact of your pages, for instance, you could use a poster maker to design a striking, professional-looking page. Every page must make its purpose immediately clear to a visitor, and present as professional, interesting, and easy to navigate. That means making an impression that encourages visitors to stick around, so pay attention to the colors, fonts, and graphics you make use of. Type that’s hard to read because it has an odd font is too small, or is a wishy-washy color will immediately put people off, as will too much text or an overcrowded page.
Your website can make a significant contribution to your business, but you need to get the design and functionality right and promote it effectively.
