What is the purpose of your website?
Traditionally, websites were considered to be another tick on a to-do list for businesses. Brochure sites prevailed, running for long periods of time without updates or refreshes.
But this is no longer an option for business websites, not least because of continuing updates to Google's search ranking algorithm. Sites that are not regularly updated with fresh, relevant content will find it harder to get indexed by search engines and therefore be harder for your potential customers to find.
Today however, your website should be one of the most powerful tools supporting your business goals - useful, engaging and capable of attracting the right visitors to the right place, and turning those visitors into loyal customers.
"It takes less than two-tenths of a second for an online visitor to form a first opinion of your brand once they've perused your company's website, according to researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology" Entrepreneur.com
If you want to capitalise on this precious window of time and make your site work harder, we’ve put together some starting points to inspire you.
Understand Your Website Visitors
How much do you know about your online visitors?
Customer, or buyer, personas are crucial starting points for any online activity. A buyer persona is a fictional profile of your ideal customer, composed of demographic information, as well as common goals and concerns.
Conduct some research – send out questionnaires to your current customer base to get some data-driven insights. Call your customers and survey prospects for a balanced perspective. Building your personas based on these insights will tell you whether your site is delivering the right information and experience.
Understand the Customer Journey
Are you helping your customers as much as you can at each stage of the buying cycle? Consider what people do online when they are researching a product or service.
Research by Google and the CEB revealed that prospects have completed 60% of their research before they contact a company. Knowing where your customers are in the funnel will help you tailor your site content to their needs. Prospects at the top of the funnel want checklists and ebooks about your offering. In the middle, they need case studies and product sheets. Bottom of the funnel customers want demos and pricing information.
Knowing what your prospective customers want, and when they want it, will identify what site content you need, and how to structure it.
Make It Easy
Marketing software can help you to track and nurture your leads, contacting them with the right content at the right time and giving you the analytic tools to measure your success.
Choosing a package can seem complicated but it doesn't have to be. Solutions can vary greatly dependent on your needs, so get some advice on which one is right for you and start getting your site to work as hard as you do.
Do you agree with our suggestions? What changes have you made to your site that helped your business?
Getting your website fit for purpose is just one part of attracting new customers. We're going to run a series of blogs focusing on a range of topics from hosting and infrastructure to search and content so look out for future posts.
