It’s amazing how much business in the modern age is conducted solely online. Consumers have a wonderful opportunity to purchase anything they so desire, simply by finding a website, clicking “Add to Basket,” entering payment details, then waiting for the parcel to arrive. This shift in consumer spending and buying habits has seen the rise of exclusive e-commerce businesses, where the products and services they provide are only available via a dedicated website.
It’s for this reason why every business needs to ensure their website is not only attractive and appealing but also extremely functional and accessible. Consider your business website: are you making the most of it? Does it bring you the profit and revenue you hope for? If not, why not?
The following article will discuss how to assess your current website and what changes you need to make to improve it.
Reviewing Your Current Website
The logical step before rushing in with significant changes is to assess your current website to see if and where you need to try something new or eliminate an aspect. However, this can be a challenge for a novice website owner. How do you discover what is working and, most importantly, what is not?
The answer lies in a few factors, including:
- Usability: How quickly does your site load? Slow loading times not only frustrates users but it will also affect your SERP ranking. Does every link work? Can every piece of information be found easily?
- Engagement: How many users convert into buyers? How many hits does your website see each day? How many users bounce straight from your site to another? Also consider how many people comment and like your blog posts, should you have a blog section.
- SEO Rankings: How high does your website appear in the SERPs?
- Readability: How easy is the font to read? Is the font an appropriate size? Importantly, how relevant is every piece of content on your site to your reader?
Once you have carefully assessed your website, you can move forward with ensuring you are making the most of your website, as outlined below.
What Changes to Make
Increasing Usability
Usability is a crucial aspect of any website, and as such, it should be tackled as a priority should your current site be lacking in any way. It is the practical side of any great website design, taking into account elements including site speed, security, specific features, and navigation.
To increase usability, you need to approach your website as a user first, not the owner. Ask yourself, if you were visiting the site for the first time, could you find what you are looking for easily? Check and double check every link on the site, and if you currently don’t have a search function, add one. A search function enables users to quickly discover whatever they need, by merely typing a query into a search bar.
Usability also refers to security. Users must feel secure when they are visiting your website, especially if they are making a purchase. If security is lacking, consumers will not trust your brand, losing you a valuable sale and even your reputation can take a hit. Therefore, make security a priority, implementing all the best practices.
Increasing Engagement
Without engagement, your business website will not be fulfilling its prime objective: to turn a profit and keep users coming back for more.
Design can play an incredibly important part of engagement, but so can additional elements including the content you create and post. Great content is the backbone of many digital marketing strategies, so ensure you take the time to create high quality, highly relevant content to post not only on your own blog but on guest blogs too. Link building is a prominent way to increase engagement, so don’t hesitate to use it to make the most of what your website already offers.
Increasing SEO Rankings
SEO is highly critical for any website. Without appearing highly in the search engine result pages, you will not be found by your target audience.
“It’s estimated that most searchers don’t look further than page 4 of Google, so if you feature on pages 5 and lower, the likelihood of your target audience discovering you drastically reduces.” Jon Monk, Max Your Web
You can increase SEO by implementing the latest techniques, ensuring you adhere to Google’s algorithm, and being aware of all elements which incorporate an SEO strategy. Site speed, for example, isn’t only a usability issue. It also affects your Google ranking. Similarly, links are one of the most vital SEO ranking factors, making backlinks a crucial element. Of course, you do not have to go it alone when you are developing this campaign.
Increasing Readability
When you post content on your website, its main purpose is so users can read it. Therefore, if they struggle to, due to the font colour, size or blending into the background, it will have a negative effect on both engagement and profitability.
Increasing readability may be one of the more straightforward changes to make. You can adjust the font you use quickly, especially if your website is hosted on a platform such as WordPress. Alternatively, if you love the font you use, but it’s difficult to read, why not opt to change the background colour? By doing so, it may make the text more prominent, making it easier to read.
Why a Website is So Important
Your website is your business’s digital storefront. It’s always open; it’s always visible. When you close your business doors at night, your website does not. Therefore, it’s in your company’s best interest to ensure it’s working in the very best way, and you’re making the most of every area of your website.
Having a brand identity online will help you to attract your target audience. Even if you are on a tight budget, you can create a logo using a free logo maker tool. A designer-quality wordmark logo will help to elevate your online presence.
What’s more, your business website builds your profile and reputation. By creating and designing a highly usable, appealing and engaging website, you stand a greater chance of attracting your target audience and holding their attention. As attention spans in the 21st Century are diminishing, if your website doesn’t grab the attention of the visitors within three seconds, they will bounce elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
Making the most of your business website is a crucial aspect of your company’s growth, profitability, and longevity. The above points outline where you should focus your attention to ensure your site is practically perfect in every way.
Photo Credits: Pixabay