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A website is an investment. Therefore, it should have a Return on Investment (ROI). You create a website so that it helps your business grow either by serving your existing customers or attracting new consumers. This means that a website with no ROI is useless.
A website can therefore only be deemed “effective” if it can give you returns. However, having an effective website is not easy. It requires a lot of effort.
Here are some things that you need to consider for you to have an effective website;
Goals define whether you will succeed in every venture of life or not. It is the same with a site. The reason that prompted you to have one is the primary goal and must be broken down into smaller goals. Your website goals are what defines what you want to achieve with your website. What problems do you want to be solved through your website?
Do you want to serve existing customers with new products and services? Or do you want to attract new customers? Put them in black and white. If you don’t have them, it will be hard to measure the effectiveness of your website. Remember, goals will determine the structure of your website and its features to effectively reach your targets.
The “the customer is always right” rule doesn’t apply in the technological world. If you want the website to be effective you have to take advice from your developer. The things you want as a client on a site may not match the technical needs or marketability of the site. An example of this would be asking your developer to add hundreds of photos on the home page, which might slow your website.
Nobody likes a slow website including search engines as it affects the user’s experience. Remember, the website is not for YOU but for your CUSTOMERS. Many websites fail because the company wants the website to serve them, not their customers. A professional developer who wants to help you won’t always say “yes” to all your requests. As a client, your role is to make sure you get the best developers to develop your site.
When was the last time you updated your website? If someone visited your website today, what new things are they going to find? It becomes frustrating to users looking for new information when they see information from six months before.
In this competitive world, the chances are that there are also other people running the same kind of business as yours and it is, therefore, important to make sure that you always stay ahead of them. Make sure that when people search for the kind of products and services you offer, your website should be found on top of the first page of the search engine. This can only be possible if you update your website frequently to improve your search engine ranking.
Google hates outdated websites because it assumes you don’t exist anymore. The best way to ensure that your website is updated is through blogging. So, if you don’t have a blog page on your website, consider adding it now because this is where you will be publishing your latest news and updates. Apart from the latest news, you can also write anything interesting about your products and services.
Social media is a very important tool to connect and interact with your customers. But it also helps you generate more traffic to your website. Social media is where you post links to your new blog posts because some people go there to see what’s new. The chances are that you have found this link from any of our social media platforms — that’s how powerful social media is. You can post manually or you can automate it. So if you don’t have a social media account, stop reading this now and go set up one.
If you have enough money and you want to reach a wider audience, consider promoting your website through online advertising. You can do this by boosting your blog posts on social media or by promoting your product and services with Google Ads. Either way, you will be allowed to put a link to your website, hence more traffic. If you don’t have enough budget, consider blogging frequently to continue generating traffic for free.
A CTA is what you want those visiting your website to do. Do you want them to make a donation to buy a product or contact you? Then add a call to action button on the page so that your audience knows what to do. Make this clear by adding specific buttons. If you want someone to request a quotation for a product- make it clear by adding a button. Do you want them to call you? Add active phone numbers which will appear on every page of your website. Do you want them to know where your offices are and your business hours? Consider adding a physical address (preferably with a Google map) and opening/closing hours.
One way to make your website effective is to make it look professional. Make it visually appealing so that it entices people to stay. If you don’t have enough funds, wait till you have to engage a professional designer. Don’t be pushed to a cheaper alternative as it may prove not affordable in the long run if it is not helping you attain your goals. There is no way you can pay 50 bucks for a website and expect it to look like a 5k bucks website.
Hire a professional developer if you want a meaningful website. At Freelance Web Solutions, we help small businesses grow online by building effective websites and by providing them with professional advice throughout. Read the story of KB Accounting Services Ltd Here.
You can do many things to have an effective website, but let’s stop here for now. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get our latest blog updates.
