Your website is your store window. It’s a way for people to see what you are selling, what your business does, and even a way for you to make money. It’s crucial when it comes to your marketing, and if you want to grow your business, your website needs to be absolutely perfect – you don’t want potential customers to arrive, take a quick look around, and then leave again. You want them to stay and hopefully buy. You want them to enjoy your site and have faith in your business.
This means that your website needs to work for you. It’s not enough just to have a website and then never do anything with it again – you need to make sure it is looking good, working in the way it should, and that it’s up to date and accurate. Here are some things you can do to help yourself in this regard.
Fix The Technical Issues
A website that doesn’t load properly or that has broken links, or one that is out of date and therefore cannot do what you or the customer wants it to is going to look bad on your business. A ‘broken’ website will give everyone the idea that you just don’t care, and that will go a long way to making people shy away from buying from you at all.
In order to make your website something that people like visiting, you will need to ensure every link is working well, all the images load quickly, and that any technical issues such as a contact form that freezes are dealt with quickly. Start with a technical SEO report, as this will tell you what the issues are on your website and give you a list that you can work through as quickly as possible.
Good Website Navigation
Having good website navigation is something you definitely need to make a priority. If your customers can find what they are looking for quickly and easily, they are less likely to become frustrated and leave to look somewhere else. Having menus that are easy to read, and that point people in the right direction is crucial to a good user experience, and that is crucial to building a good online reputation.
Not only that, but good website navigation will actually help to boost your search engine rankings too.
Call To Action
A call to action, also known as a CTA, is a phrase that essentially tells the customer what to do next. You can place a CTA on a button, making it all so much easier. These buttons could be, for example:
- Download
- Get a quote
- Contact us
- Go to checkout
The key to a good call to action is to start with a verb (it will sound more urgent, this way) and to make it short and snappy. The customer, who might have been wavering, will see the CTA and click the button, moving onto the buying or contact stage of their website visit.
Social Proof
Social proof can be a great way to persuade people to sign up for a newsletter, download an eBook, get in touch with you, or simply buy from your website.
Social proof can start with quotes from other people in your industry, or influencers who have used your products or services and been happy with them. This kind of impressive testimonial will always go down well, and anyone who might have been unsure will be more likely to be persuaded to take action after reading these testimonials.
Testimonials from other buyers, those who aren’t well known, are also important. However, it is unlikely that anyone is going to go to your website just to read your testimonials or review page. Therefore, don’t have a page specifically for testimonials; instead, place them throughout the website on other pages so that a potential customer can’t help but read them. The message will sink in as they work through your site.
Mobile Friendly
It used to be the case that most people would access the internet via a laptop or even a desktop, but these days that is shifting. More people than ever are using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to get online. In fact, this has become so prevalent that Google even changed the algorithms on its search engines, and sites that are mobile-friendly are now ranking higher than those that are not, no matter how good the content is.
Making sure your site is mobile friendly is a relatively simple task (especially if you hire a professional to help you) and one that will help you hugely when attracting customers.