The first contact most potential customers will have with your business is through your website, so it can’t be tired and old. Here are nine tips on how to refresh your website.
DON’T LOOK CHEAP
Your website doesn’t have to be a work of art, but it shouldn’t look too cheap or ugly either. “If it looks cheap then you attract customers wanting cheap; if it looks good you’ll attract a better quality of client,” says Peter Ball, managing director of Exa Web Solutions. “It’s not that hard to get a decent design, it’s probably the easiest part of a website.”
NOTHING’S BROKEN
Database errors, links that don’t work, clicking onto pages that won’t take you back to the homepage — these infuriate users mad and drive away potential customers. “It’s more important to get the basic functionality right than to have something really fancy,” says Ball. All sorts of things can cause website errors, so once a week spend five or 10 minutes clicking around your site to make sure all the links work. And if you have a web-based contact form, test it regularly to ensure that you’re still getting those business leads.
GET MOBILE
Smart phone and tablet use is rocketing, with mobile devices are forecast to comprise10 to 20 per cent of the total web audience this year, so you need to make sure your website will work on mobile devices. “Mobile users expect quick access to the most relevant information, without heavy graphics, animation, or downloads, and it’s relatively straight forwards to setup a mobile-friendly template for your website,” says Mack Nevill, founder and creative director of digital agency Evolution7. “We recommend you identify the most important content in your site and optimise it for mobile, rather than just shoehorning pages of content five levels deep into a mobile interface.”
