Boost Your New Business Website with these tricks
Launching a new website is a thrilling experience. You get to finally see the results of all of your hard work come to fruition. Your visitors and potential clients get to learn all about your business, your team and your product or service.
That is if they can actually find your website…
Hello everyone and welcome back to our blog. With our second post, we’re going to look at a couple of ways to boost your new business website and ensure that you get those visits when it matters the most.
As we’ve already established in our previous post – How to create buzz for your website launch, you could have the most wonderful website ever created, but if your potential customers can’t find it, they’ll never get to see it. Which is why our team here at FOME Female has decided to put together this Website Tips series.
Today, we’re going to touch upon the 10 most important things for a new business website. And, since there’s a lot to cover, we’ll try to keep things brief. We’ll tell you what our team of experienced developers and marketers considers to be the most crucial modern websites building blocks.
But what do we mean when we say “building a website”?
Well, let’s start from the beginning. The definition will vary, depending on who you ask. Most people will think about the technical process, about writing the code and implementing the functionality. Some will relate it to the graphic components and design, while others will think of digital marketing and optimisation procedures.
However, the key to building a good business website is taking all of these components into consideration. They might happen at different times (after all, you can’t optimise a website that doesn’t exist), but they’re equally important. And, ideally, the entire job will be carried out by the same team, who understands your idea and shares your vision.
Long-term vision – Always think ahead
Plan out your website before you start building it. Before you even get to talking with your service provider, take a moment to consider the why, what and how. And, yes, most web development agencies offer marketing advice to their customers, but it’s best if you go prepared, since they will most likely have these points at the very top of their questionnaire.
- Why are you creating this website? (Spoiler alert, “just because businesses need to have a website” is the wrong answer.)
- What are you looking to achieve with your website? (Are you looking to build your brand and get established as an expert in the field? Do you want to create an online store for your products? Share information and get your message out there?)
- How are clients going to benefit from your business having a website? (What do people “get” for visiting your website?)
Getting a website up and running shouldn’t be your “end-goal”. On the contrary, it’s only the beginning. Your website’s launch is but one of the many milestones on your journey to success.
SEO & Marketing Plan
SEO and Marketing should always go hand-in-hand.
So, now that you have a decent idea of what you want to accomplish with your website, you can start working on figuring out how to get there. This is where some professional marketing advice can really make a difference because becoming successful online takes a lot of finesse. You will want to pinpoint who your ideal customers are, figure out their interests, needs and wants and find the platforms, where they spend most of their time online. All of this will aid in the keyword research, website design and content creation that will be done further down the line. If all of these elements align, you’ve got yourself a recipe for success. Always keep in mind that your goal is to create a consistent experience across all platforms from your customers.
A Good Domain name
It all starts with the name.
When choosing a domain name, we’d advise you to work closely with your development team. This is because a domain name is much more than “just the address” of your website. It will play a part in your marketing campaigns, optimisation procedures and word-of-mouth advertising. And we’ve seen more than a handful of business leaders regret not taking this seriously. A good domain name is:
- In-line with your SEO strategy
- Unique and memorable
- Related to your business and brand vision
- Aligned with your message, vision and mission
- Easily recognisable by your target audience
Professional Branding Makes a Massive Difference
Branding is the name of the game.
When in doubt, go with a professional look. This is especially important for new businesses, that are yet to establish their online presence. Flashy and artsy sounds great on paper, but very few companies actually manage to pull it off. Ideally, you will work with your digital agency to create a consistent experience for your audience between all platforms and interactions, be they physical or digital. You want them to associate the visual aesthetic in your physical office or store with that of your website.
But that’s not all. Branding also goes beyond the visuals, into the vocabulary and even mood, conveyed by a business. Ever wondered why some brands are so recognisable? Why you can immediately tell that something was made by a certain company long before even seeing their logo appear on the screen? The answer is simple – all big companies have strict style guides.
Modern Design
And while we’re on the subject of visual appeal, we should also say that your website has to reflect your business. Think of it as your digital representative.
Your “front desk employee”.
It needs to look, say and act in a way, fitting for your business. It needs to reflect your vision, mission and values. And, most important of all, it needs to stand out somehow. Because, let’s face it – there are millions of websites out there, and most of them aren’t exactly “impressive”. You don’t want to just be “one of the many”. You want to stand out from the crowd. And a modern design will ensure that you do just that.
A No Clutter-Policy
People will rarely come to your website “just to check it out”.
They’re usually there with a goal. Maybe they saw your ad or heard about you from someone, and they want to learn about your company. Perhaps they found you on Google, and they want to see if you’ve got the solution to their problem. Your website should allow them to obtain all the necessary information as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Good Optimisation is vital
No, SEO is not “dead”.
Search Engine Optimisation helps you drive “organic” traffic to your website. Organic here stands for people who find you through search results, rather than word-of-mouth, social media or ads. And don’t fall into the trap of assuming that this is only important for small businesses either. No matter how famous a brand is, SEO will always make a difference.
Mobile Responsiveness
By “mobile responsiveness” we mean websites optimised for mobile device functionality. To put it in layman’s terms: if someone opens your website from their phone, it should look (and perform) just as well as it does on their home computer. And why do you need to care about that? Well, let’s look at some statistics.
According to Statista, 50.81 of the global online traffic for 2020 came from mobile devices. And that’s excluding tablets.
As an added bonus, mobile responsiveness is one of the most important ranking factors for SEO. But, SEO or no SEO, if over fifty percent of your visitors are served a buggy, clucky version of your website, they’ll just leave.
High-Effort Content
Never create content “just because”.
Never publish content just because “that’s what you are supposed to do”. Remember that you are doing this for your audience. You do not want your visitors to leave your website feeling like they’ve just wasted their time. Yes, publishing content often is an important ranking signal for search engines, but your SERP position (position on the Search Engine Results Page) won’t do you any good if the content itself deters your potential customers.
Regular Maintenance
Digital marketing is not a one-and-done type of deal.
Like we mentioned at the start, your website going live is a big milestone, but it’s not the end of the journey. It’s the start of a new journey. And, like all journeys, this one will also feature roadblocks and setbacks of its own. Websites need constant maintenance and updates. Content needs to be created and published (ideally on a schedule). If you allow your website to grow stale, you might as well send a letter to your competitors to let them know they’re free to steal your SERP position.
In Closing
And that’s all we’ve got for you today. We hope you found this article informative and that you know now a bit more about business websites (and, if you did, please don’t forget to let us know by sharing this post with your friends and giving us a thumbs up on social media!).
As promised, we will be publishing a number of dedicated articles, where we cover each of these points in detail, so don’t forget to sign up for our mailing list and follow us on social media to make sure you don’t miss any updates!
