You’re a small business that has invested in creating a website. It ticks all your design boxes, looks great and represents the business image you want to project to your customers. Now you just sit back and watch the sales roll in, right? Well, not exactly. Design is without a doubt an important part of a successful website, but it needs to do more than sit there looking pretty. Your website also needs to be working hard to drive traffic and sales; it must be responsive and fast to load and designed in a way that drives conversion.
With this in mind, we have created this handy checklist to help small businesses ensure that their website is doing everything to help build the business. Even if you’re proud of how it looks, making the below tweaks and adjustments can help it perform better. Here’s what you need to know.
1. User experience
Your website might look great, but does the user experience match the aesthetic qualities? Remember that your website may be the first impression you make on a potential new customer. If they like what they see, then great, but if it’s hard for them to navigate their way to the page or product they are looking for, this can drive them away. As well as looking great, make sure your site is clear, easy to use, intuitive and simple.
2. Fast and secure
Google has discovered that if a website does not load within three seconds more than half of all users will simply go elsewhere. Just think about it. That’s not a lot of time, but in an age when consumers expect everything to happen immediately, you don’t have long to hook them in. If your site is slow, it can be very frustrating for users, with web speed being a major factor in any site’s success.
However, as well as fast hosting, your site must be secure. That will protect your business, its data and your customers. An SQL injection attack could easily cost you all of your site’s data, meaning your site would then require a substantial overhaul. And if a breach affects your customers, this can do a lot of damage to trust and reputation. An SSL certificate is an important sign to customers that you take their safety and security seriously.
3. Optimisation
Your website might look great, but if nobody sees it then it won’t make much difference. That’s because search engines like Google rank and grade sites according to how relevant the content is. And the lower down the rankings you are, the less likely potential customers will ever find you. The first page of a Google search captures 71% of all web traffic. That’s why it is so important your text is optimised to attract traffic to your site.
Search engine optimisation, therefore, relies on you understanding what search terms your customers may use and then building your content to reflect this. Effective SEO will make your site more visible to search engines and give your beautiful website much more chance of being seen.