When you look at your website, does it make you feel proud of your business or brand? Have you put off creating a website for your business because you are unsure of where to start or who to turn to?
A Facebook page is great to have but does not make up for not having a website. A website is a large project that can certainly be time-consuming. However, not having a website or having a good website could also hurt your business. According to HubSpot, “80% of consumers say the experience your company provides is as important as the products or services you sell — including the experience they have with your website.” (HubSpot.com)
If you are in need of a website, contact us to see how we can help!
For those already with websites, Business2Community suggests that you should update your website every 1.5-2.5 years. This is suggested because technology is constantly changing and new design ideas and aesthetics change. Your website should also be updated and changed if you have any changes with your brand, products, or business.
When thinking about redesigning your website, there are certain things you should consider for the redesign. To start, you should look over reports and analytics for your website. Look at the pages with the best metrics on your current site. What do you think from these pages make them a top performer? Is there a video on it that people often click to in order to watch it?
Are there images that are eye-catching? Go through the same process for your lowest-performing pages. Why do you think their bounce rate or average session duration is so low? Is text hard to read? Is there too much text? All of these should be considered in your redesign.
Next, think about the goals you have for the website redesign. Why are you redesigning the website? Do you want it to have a cleaner, more modern feel? Do you want your products showcased in a better way? These goals need to be set, especially if you’re working with an external company so they can understand what it is you are looking for.
It’s essential to have your branding and messaging consistent throughout. This may be something that gets tweaked along the way, but it’s important to know what you want your customer to see and read when they visit your website. You want them to know that they’re on the right site as soon as they get there. A lot of people will just land on your homepage when browsing, so it’s important to have your main home page show what it is your business is all about.
It’s not enough to have a beautiful website, but you need to know your customers. Make sure that you’re speaking in a way that they will understand. Show or tell them how your product will help them and why they need your product.
Make sure you keep SEO (search engine optimization) front of mind while working on your redesign. Nothing would be worse than investing the time and money on a beautiful website only to have no one able to find it. Find some great tips on SEO from HubSpot.
Where do you stack up against your competition? It’s important to know what they are doing and this can help you find areas that you like and think work well and things you don’t like and would definitely want to avoid for your site. Just don’t obsess too much over the competition and make sure your website stands out among the rest.
Lastly, it’s important to know what your high performing content is so that you can keep it and move it to your new site for SEO purposes. When creating copy for your new website, make sure that you are using the right keywords for your pages so people can find you easily.
We know there is a lot that goes into website redesigning, as we are currently working on our own website redesign. If you need help with a website, content, or graphics, please feel free to reach out to us.
You can also check out our Facebook page for more resources.
