Having a website is great.
It means you have a 'shop' that is 'open' 24 hours a day and 7 days per week.
This is great but only if your website is up to date and relevant for your business. I looked online today at a business with whom I used to work and their most recent article on their news page was from 2009! Clearly that website needs updating. You won't earn any brownie points with Google either for being out of date and stagnant. In fact, a website that has been left alone too long could be detrimental to your business. If information on your site is incorrect you could lose customers as a result.Consider this:
A shop in a street could be open from 9am until 5pm. With 1 hour for lunch this would be 7 hours per day. If the shop is open 5 days of the week then that is 35 hours per week.
There are 24 hours in a day and 7 days per week which is 168 hours per week.
In this case this shop is open for just under 21% of the time. You need to be reaching customers a lot more than this so why would you spend all that time and money getting a brilliant website designed only to neglect it and let it churn out incorrect information to your potential customers?
Once you decide to get a website built you need to ensure that you keep in 100% up to date with your products, services, prices,events, special offer and whatever else you need to shout about. You wouldn't expect to find food on the shelves of a supermarket which is past it's use by date and your client will feel the same way about your business.
It is worth making sure that you understand at least the basics of how to update your website information.If you are working with a website designer then you should be able to get some tuition from them to enable you to amend your website. This will save them time to an extent so they will be happy to help.
Alternatively if your website designer is managing your online products for you then you are responsible for keeping them updated with developments with your business. They will contact you from time to time to ask how things are going but you are the one who needs to tell them what to amend as required.
Consider that your website is an investment in your business and you intend for your business to be trading for many years to come. Using this optimistic premise it is likely that your business will grow and therefore so will your website. As you add products, services, staff members, offices or more then make sure you can amend or instruct your designer to amend your website to reflect your growing business.
Another thing to consider with your website is that is has the right pages. We have covered how to lay out a homepage. Consider also the following:
- ABOUT PAGE - would it benefit you to tell your clients all about you and your staff or business?
- GALLERY - do you fit blinds? Landscape gardener? Photographer? You need a gallery. Visual stimulation is what sets you apart from your competitors.
- TESTIMONIALS - nothing will advertise you better than word of mouth; and who better than your customers to tell potential new clients how awesome you are?
- CONTACT - the end goal of your website will likely be to get customers to call you. Make sure you have a page dedicated to this. Search engines like it too.
- BLOG - You're reading this, aren't you? People like useful info. Search engines can also lock onto blogs as searchable pages. Either get writing or get someone to do it for you.
Remember: your initial website project should cover all the right information at the time of being built. As your business develops then make your website develop with it.
At Full Circle Website Design we don't just build websites. We manage them too. Our passion for your business will show in how we maintain your online products so that they flourish in the right way and in the right places. If you would like to discuss an online project in more detail then call us for an informal chat on 07825559642 or email fullcirclewebsitedesign@gmail.com