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November 16, 2015

What matters for business websites today

By Kate Ellis
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Can business social media sites replace your website? Do you need a responsive website? How often should you refresh your content and your website? Is Wordpress the best platform to build a small business website? Questions like these are asked all the time by business owners. We've answered many of your questions around building and maintaining a website within Wordpress in a quick recap.
Quick reasons why every business should have a website

It’s your home base, with your own content and design, and you have access to hosting. Your website is completely yours, unlike social media pages. And it makes your business more legitimate to your customers, proving yourself as a real company. It’s a great place to find and convert your leads, as your number one sales representative with 24/7 availability.

Be friendly to mobile users

First things first, you must have a mobile responsive website. Responsive does not equal a mobile site. Responsive means regardless of screen size, your website will shrink or stretch to fit any screen. It’s a better experience for your users while making sure you’re being rewarded by Google for mobile-friendliness. If you don’t have responsive, Google will ding you, which will hurt your chance to appear on the front page of search results. We know most people are using mobile devices to use the internet. Are you missing out on those viewers because they can’t read your site?

Keep your content fresh

Always answer questions on your website. Use blogs to elaborate questions that customers may ask, or potential leads are searching for. This adds to your value as a business, plus Google is now looking for web pages that answer questions.

Implement Google Analytics to determine which of your pages are doing best. You can track how long people are staying on those web pages and if they are going anywhere else on your site, so you know which pages might need a facelift or what topics your audience enjoy. You can also take one web page per week and either rewrite the content or change keywords so it’s always fresh and new. Don’t worry, one page a week doesn’t take any time at all.

While three years ago you could get away with “brochure” websites, that’s not the case. If your web page is getting dusty, brush it off and rewrite something. Think of how can you keep your website new. A great way to do this is to write blogs. And, the more content you add the bigger internet footprint you have.

Top items that may be missing on your website

One of the things that’s most often missing is some sort of lead capture. To really capture viewers, create something they would want. This could be a free ebook or another resource, something of value that they would be willing to give up their name and email for. This takes them from being a guest to someone you have access to, with their name and number so you can continue to follow-up with them, moving them down the funnel to a paying customer.

Create some calls-to-action. What do you want them to do after reading a blog? Where should they go next? Make sure you connect with your potential customers to keep them in that marketing funnel.

Don’t forget to put your social media links on your website! You want a way for them to easily find you, and if your social pages aren't listed they may not know you’re on them. Always intertwine!

How often should you refresh your website?

If you can, try to update content and web pages regularly. Because your website is your 24/7 sales representative, you want to keep it pretty fresh. Link new things from your blog, maybe an answer you have given to a question that would be appropriate for a page.

As far as a new design, a good rule of thumb is around the three-year benchmark. But this depends on your industry, you may be able to go a little slower or you might have to update more regularly. And, some things are easier to update, like colors or logos, or even refreshing images. Redesigning the whole website's theme takes longer and is more difficult.

New call-to-action

What should you be asking website designers?

There are so many offers on the internet for web designers and developers. They promise - for a few dollars - a beautiful and well-functioning site. Don’t get duped by these types of offers. When you’re looking to redo a website and are looking for a website designer, you’re going to want to interview them, so you can ask them questions. This will help you determine how you will work together, and who is in charge of what. For instance, you might be in charge of content.

Find somebody you can trust and enjoy working with over the long haul, someone who can educate you and help you know how the back end of your website works.

Make sure you know what their background is in, what their track record is, and if they have completed something with a similar scale to what you’re looking to do. Don’t assume anything. Ask if they do SEO or other technical skills. That way you know they have the ability to build what you need.

Join us on Tuesdays at 4 p.m. for #MagnetMarketers.

 

Tags: Responsive Website, Branding & Design

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