CREATING AN EFFECTIVE WEBSITE FOR YOUR COMPANY

In this digital dominated age, a website is a necessity for fledgling and well established businesses alike. A website may be the first port of call for customers or investors searching for the services and products you offer. Regardless of any other marketing methods you may put in place, a website is of great importance in order to get the message of your business out there and give potential clients the information they need. Think of your website as being an extended, digital version of your business card. A way of introducing yourself and your company to the wider world.

As well as the existence of your website, the quality of your website and the ease with which it can be navigated could make or break a transaction with a potential customer. How can you ensure that your website is both visible and accessible to those who will need it? We have compiled a few handy tips for you to consider:

Choose Format.

This is one of the most important initial decisions you will make regarding your website. This will decide how your content is updated and managed. If you intend on doing regular updates yourself, a content management system such as that used by WordPress or Joomla would be the best choice. With a Content Management System you simply input blocks of text and photos as necessary using a set template. Alternatively, if you have hired a web developer or have experience with code yourself, you can build your website from the ground up. Of course this option comes with its challenges and may make regular updates more challenging.

Generate Content

Next to your website’s general layout and design, your content and copy will be the key to generating website traffic. Content is what will attract and keep visitors on your website so it is important to keep content varied and interesting and avoid having massive blocks of text apart from the blog section. It has been suggested that visitors decide whether to stay on your website or go elsewhere within 4 seconds so this is good to bear in mind when generating content. You have a limited amount of time to impress your visitors, and it would be advisable to have some copy already on hand so that as soon as your website is up and running there are a few options for your new visitors to choose from.

Social Media

Social media is one of the biggest ways of generating a following these days so as well as setting up a website it is a good idea to set up relevant social media channels for your business such as Twitter and Facebook. Linking these social media channels to the blog aspect keeps your followers updated and generates some extra traffic to your website. These are also excellent tools for getting your company message out in a quick and informal format.

Maintain Content

Finally, the most important thing to remember when creating your own business website is that it must be consistently in flux. Your content must change and be updated on a regular basis as this is what will keep prospective clients returning to your website.