PUT THE WEB TO WORK FOR YOUR BUSINESS
The internet offers a great opportunity and space to expand your business if you use it well.
Your website is your shop front to the world, it is where your customers will find you, research about you and then decide whether you are worthy to communicate with further.
Does that sound scary? It should do and more so if your website is not up to scratch. Today the web is littered with poorly maintained, difficult to navigate websites. Their content is out of date and they look like they have been slapped together in the 90’s.
Sites need to be appealing, informative and most of all useful. They need to be found when customers are searching for services and products you offer. One of the most important aspects to consider when developing a site is your customer’s habits, and to learn how they actually use websites
Research shows that your website needs to be simple, easy to navigate and consistent to be a success.
For SME’s, keep your website simple. You can still have a smart looking site, graphically pleasing though simple and easy to navigate. Keep your navigation consistent throughout the whole site.
Research has shown that the home button top left is the preferred position and the search box to the top right. People read a website in a F-shaped pattern. Headlines should be near the top left and the main page content at the middle left.
Contact information should be visible on all pages but avoid using a direct email link due to spammers. A form with an anti spam would be the preferred method to use on the website. Using forms as a contact method will allow you to ask business centric information prompting customers to give you the required information you need to help them.
Make sure your website is cross browsed and allow for different screen resolutions
There are many different browsers and versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox , Safari, Chrome and they all require different CSS style sheets to display properly. Just because your website looks great in IE doesn't mean it looks great in Firefox. Make sure your website looks the same no matter what browser your customer uses.
Another issue that is commonly over looked is all the different screen resolutions available and how websites will look in each. This will also have an effect on what you place where on your pages depending on the viewing real estate. The minimum resolution would be 1024 x 768 with around 20 – 30% usage and falling depending on industry. The preferred today would be 1280 x 800 pixels, this is the most common screen resolution due to the use of laptops. The majority of others screen resolutions used are above this.
Your content must be fresh and up to date with the latest about your products and services offered
A blog is a great way to keep content fresh and keep your customers up to date quickly and often. Use social media as a vehicle to help promote your business by opening a Twitter account & Facebook page to help boost traffic to your website and open up another communication channel and start to converse with your customers. Let your customers sell your products and service to their friends on your behalf. If you do the maths the potential is mind blowing, for example if you had 200 people like you of Facebook and each of those had 200 hundred friends your potential audience is 40,000. Can you afford to ignore this?
200 hundred likes on Facebook and each of those had 200 friends your potential reach is 40,000 (200 x 200 = 40,000)
When using Twitter & Facebook to promote your blog and website it is important that you create headlines that give them cause to take action right then.
Having a fantastic website is meaningless if no one can find it. You need to tell your customers and continually promote your website as you would with your business. There are many mediums to do so, online directories, industry based and association magazines, newspapers, radio and television, word of mouth and of course online through search engines and social media.
In Australia Google is the main search engine that you should focus on as it is responsible for over 88% of all searches on the Internet.
There are 2 options available to you for advertising on search engines.
- The cheapest way (FREE) is to optimise your website with well written content using keywords that your customers would use to find your products or services while searching.
- Buying keywords on search engines that bring your site up when they are typed into your search engine. This is a bidding process and depends on what you are willing to pay to what position you hold.
Research shows that more than half of all online transactions are abandoned before completion
Once you have got visitors to your website you will want them to either buy something you sell or engage in the services you offer. Research shows that more than half of all online transactions are abandoned before completion, often because the information they need to give is either too much or too hard. You need to decide - is the sale more important than gathering certain information and can you refine the process.
Offer customers a safe and secure environment
If you’re selling online you require an on-line merchant facility and a payment gateway, either your bank or a 3rd party business. It is important that you offer your customer a safe and secure environment by using an SSL certificate that encrypts personal credit card and personal details. This helps your customer gain confidence in your website.
The service your customer receives will determine whether they gain confidence, recommend you and most importantly whether they come back again
And last but not least get their products to them quickly. Your service must be of a high standard, quick and transparent. Customers need to know when their products have been sent and an estimated time frame for expected delivery. This helps create confidence. Customers want the ability to track their goods when necessary and an easy way to contact you if they have any questions or if problems arise. If the product is damaged or you sent the wrong item or maybe it is the wrong colour or size, make it easy for them to replace or return the item. You need a good returns policy.