Extreme Makeover: The Website Edition
by Danny Brown on February 22nd, 2008
With the Internet now taking over from traditional buying methods as the number one choice when it comes to your customers, having an effective website is key to your business’s success. Yet, surprisingly, research by Microsoft Small Business Center shows that more than half of company websites are out of date.
This is usually down to a variety of reasons - lack of fresh content, using old technology, out-of-date information and more. There’s nothing worse than having old information on a site that looks like it was designed in 1998. If you want to know if your website is out of date, take a look at your competitors’ websites and see how they compare to yours. If your site looks slow and cumbersome compared to the competition, you can be sure any potential customers are thinking the same. So how do you improve it?
Reduce the Pages
Contrary to popular belief, a website doesn’t have to be super intensive. The most effective sites only have around 10-12 key pages, with the rest as add-ons. Therefore, keep only the most important pages active - About Us, Services, Contact, etc - and condense any older news into easily downloadable PDF files in an archives section.
Revise the Look
You know how you keep your place of business looking as inviting as possible for visitors? Perhaps a fresh lick of paint each year, or new furniture or fixtures? Do the same for your website - overhaul any drab site design with a fresh design. Include Flash if you want to have interactive content , or simply change the template to a more modern design. There are a host of web design companies that can do this for you, if you’re unsure yourself, but make sure that you do something to make your website visually appealing.
Offer Visitors Control
It’s a well-known fact that your website only has 8 seconds in which to grab someone’s attention. With your new site design, this will be easier for you to achieve - however, once you have your potential customer, you need to make your site as simple as going into a brick and mortar store and buying something. So make sure your website is e-commerce friendly. Offer shopping carts and buying guides; make the buying and checking out process as simple as it can be; and offer a variety of payment options .
Marketing Tool
One of the most effective ways to keep your site up-to-date is to involve your customers with the process. Offer them an option to subscribe to a newsletter. Have a follow-up email thanking them for their business and asking how the buying process was, and how it can be improved. You can them use this information to streamline your site even more.
Use a Content Management System (CMS )
Early websites relied purely on HTML for their design and content. Now, however, there are numerous CMS systems that allow you to easily manage your website’s content. You can upload new files; update your sales page, and much more. Some of the best include Joomla or WordPress - have a look to see what’s easier for you.
There are other ways to modernize your website, but these are some of the most basic yet effective. Keeping your site fresh will also help you increase your search engine ranking, so make sure you update it regularly, and check on your competitors to help you stay ahead.