Your website often forms the bedrock of all your marketing. It’s where you send people to find out more, it’s where you carefully craft your copy to help people find you online. It represents who you are. As a marketing consultant, I’ve worked on many of my clients’ website, creating them from scratch, refreshing and in some cases just maintaining, so how do you create a great website and what do you need to consider?
Know what you want to achieve with your website
First and foremost, it’s about knowing what you want to get from your website; Google rankings, credibility, online sales, improve customer service? What is the objective of the website? Start with this and make sure it ties in with your overall business strategy.
If you’re all about maximising your existing customer base, your site will need to be as much about retention as an acquisition tool.
Make sure you can measure this objective e.g. x new customers who have completed the website form in y weeks.
Keep your ideal customers in mind when building your website
This is one of the hardest things to do but is probably one of the most important. It’s not you that is using your site, it’s your customers. So think carefully about who your ideal customers are and what they are looking for. What are they wanting to find on the site? What are their pain points, how you can solve them? From a content and experience perspective, this is at the centre. Everything else is built from this.
Consider what imagery represents them. Don’t have lots of young people if you’re selling to the 60+. What designs are they going to like, what navigation and user experience will make more sense to them? What language and words will they use? What words do they use?
It goes without saying that websites need to be mobile-friendly don’t forget to take into account how your customers are interacting with you.
Plan out your Website
This might sound obvious, but the desire to get going and start creating can get too much! I usually start with a hand-drawn map of the site. Identify the key pages and high-level content. What are you trying to achieve with each page and what is the overall message? Then go back and review the site map. Does the navigation make sense? Does the content flow? Will the user find what they want and easily?
You may find you have too much copy or not enough on one page. Can you rearrange it with other pages to make it work?
What about design? Is your brand clear? Does it shout your brand in terms of look, but also feel? Do you have a balance of imagery, videos and copy? Does the overall look and feel represent you?
Identify Your Key Words Before Building Your Website
All too often, keywords are left to the last minute and it’s a challenge to ‘stuff’ them into your content and meta descriptions. Breaking news – this will not get you the right results. It might get you some uplift in rankings, but when the customer visits your site, are they going to get a great experience, find what they actually need or just some keywords?
Before you create the website, plan out the site, with keywords for each page. Research what your target audience is searching for using free tools such as Answer the Public, Ubersuggest and Google’s keyword planner. Make sure you’re URLs contain your keywords as well as the main content and the meta tags and descriptions.
Give your website regular attention
It’s a bit like the Forth Bridge, finish one end and you need to start again at the other. You’ll find that your website evolves as your business does. You can’t just create a website and then leave it. Noone cerates a shop window and then doesn’t change it. For example, you can include updated information on your latest product offerings and information. Google loves fresh content, so whether it’s a regular blog, or you’re adding more pages over time, this will help your Google rankings.
Keep your technology up to date, whether that’s updates on plugins or the latest website automation from Mailchimp. Also, don’t forget to keep an eye on the latest website regulations such as cookie and data processing legislation to make sure you are compliant.
Hopefully, these are all tips that you can activate and questions you can ask yourself. They will help stimulate debate and will help you create an amazing or update an existing website for your business. I'd love to hear your thoughts and tips too.
If you need any support with finding your ideal customer, planning for your website, website re-design or a copy update, please email or contact me.
Claire Best, Claire Best Marketing Ltd