In this White Label blog, Web Project Manager John Hill, offers advice on getting the best from your website…
Websites for leading brands, global companies, start-ups and charities all are in a day’s work for White Label and our high-quality, digital products are clear to read, easy to navigate and reliable.
However, functional doesn’t mean unattractive and our in-house studio has more than 65 combined years of design experience. Web design is ever-evolving so it’s important to stay on top of new technologies and trends, and with that in mind, here’s my top tips for success:
- Remember websites have a shelf-life. You’ve got to treat them like any other promotional material and you’d certainly have a new flyer printed with new information within that time. Another analogy can made with a car. You wouldn’t run it into the ground. It needs maintenance, it needs updating and sometimes replacing. However, by choosing a platform with room for further development you can help futureproof your online asset.
- Think ‘mobile first’. Websites created without phone technology are ranked lower than fully responsive websites. Make sure your website is designed mobile first and works across all devices and resolutions. Modern sites use all available space and scale down with the screen. 85% of adults think a company’s website, viewed on a mobile device, should be as good or better than its desktop website – that means no pinching or zooming.
- Keep an eye on your competitors. Have they recently updated their website? Are you falling behind? Is it time to have refresh/redesign? A good content management system (CMS) can make it easier to keep your website upto date, for example posting news, adding navigation items, changing offers, this can free up time to scope out the competition.
- Ask yourself, ‘is my website still doing the job I set out to do when I first got it?’ Your business may have evolved during lockdown, for example. You could be selling more products online, or perhaps you need a web-based, appointments-booking system.
- Check your stats, find out what’s working well and what’s not. An agency can produce traffic reports on your behalf and suggest reasons behind the figures, if you don’t have time yourself. There are all sorts of things to look at including sessions by page, users by location and bounce rate by channel. Google Analytics are often built into a website’s CMS as is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). However, a further SEO management campaign would ensure your website receives the best possible ranking within the search engines – if this is your aim.
- Get your key messages across straightaway on your homepage. It’s a rule of thumb that you have about three seconds to capture the viewer’s attention. High-resolution professional photography, snappy text and smart infographics can create a really good look.
- Increase dwell time. According to Contentsquare’s Digital Experience Benchmark Report, the average time on any page across industries is 62 seconds. Maintain or increase this by ensuring there’s enough relevant content to read because there’s nothing worse than just a paragraph on a page. Make sure you are keeping visitors on your website, make sure you have plenty of internal links on pages, giving the visitor the opportunity to jump to another section of your website. News posts get picked up more and shared around if you write about something broader than what you actually do.
- Refresh your website regularly. If you have a great website but never update your channel, how will you generate repeat customers? Draw up a content schedule, have some compelling ‘evergreen’ copy in the bank, respond to industry trends, offer advice, expand on your USP as a starter for 10.
- Make sure your social media is current. If your social media feed displays on your website and no-one has tweeted in a year-and-a-half, it doesn’t give the customer much confidence to go and use your services. Enlist an agency to create relevant content and help you make an informed choice about which channels to use. Did you know more than 80% of accounts on Instagram follow a business while LinkedIn posts with images receive 200% more engagement than text-only posts. News and social media feeds can be integrated to keep the pages ‘alive’ and draw returning traffic. These updates would also enhance the site’s Google rankings.
- Consider online marketing and PR. You could schedule a regular e-bulletin with a pre-set design template for regular news updates via a mailing platform. Responsify found 70% of internet users want to learn about products through content versus traditional advertisements. The survey respondents also named their top five B2B content marketing tactics: Social media content 92%; eNewsletters 83%; articles on your website 81%; blogs 80%; in-person events 77%
With a growing team of specialists highly-skilled in graphic design, brand management, website delivery, PR and events, White Label can support you with everything mentioned.
Three of our flagship websites are highlighted below and if you’d like talk to us about your website please, click here. to email me.
Built as an amalgamation of Hammersmith BID’s two previous sites for corporate and visitor/destination sectors. It features a Privilege Card system displaying latest offers from businesses. Users can sign up for the card online. It also has a full events calendar.
A digital conference website with an events-booking system and a “latest news” ticker. The design focuses strongly on colour and shapes to create a modern, striking look.
A new university centre website with a full-width modern, clean design that is easy to navigate across all devices. We created the logo, brand and website. It’s an example of starting with nothing and how we can provide all services in-house.
