9 Tips for website success

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Tip 1 Recognise the differences between web and
print
Many website owners create content for their site
by simply duplicating the information in their
print materials (i.e. brochures, flyers,
proposals etc.) This is a big mistake as the
internet is a completely different medium and
needs to be treated differently to print,
particularly when it comes down to
copywriting. Websites should embrace the
technology that has been made available. Include
features in your website that encourage visitors
to interact with your site. Perhaps a forum,
blog, polls etc. Provide a search capability
either to search your own website or a popular
search engine like Google. Provide scannable and
concise text. People read slower online and
usually skim the content. Break content up, use
dot points and images as opposed to pages and
pages of text. For long sections of text, provide
visitors with an option to open the text as a PDF.
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Tip 2 Value your customers time
You only have a short amount of time to convince
a visitor to stay on your website. Do this by
having a great graphically designed home page
that grabs their attention immediately. Make it
easy for them to navigate through your site
easily and quickly. Drops downs are an efficient
method of navigation for larger sites. Provide
the most sought after information in an easily
found place.
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Tip 3 Design your site for visitors not
yourself
Another mistake website owners make it tailoring
the site to their own needs and wants. You need
to put yourself in the position of the visitors
you want to attract and provide the navigation,
content and interactivity they are looking for.
Avoid over-flattering your business or yourself
as this could turn people away. Consider hiring
an experience web copy writer to write your
content. Test your site with clients and
potential clients and see what they think.
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Tip 4 Involve the visitor
Websites that do well and have repeat visitors do
so by interacting with their visitors. They ask
for feedback and suggestions on their products or
services and act on it. Regularly communicating
with your visitors will ensure they return to
your website.
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Tip 5 Keep it current
There is nothing worse than visiting a website
that has a great layout and design, but their
content is out of date. Make sure you regularly
review each page of your website to ensure the
content is relevant and timely. Check for broken
links and missing images etc. If you have an
ecommerce website, try providing visitors with
examples about how your products can be used in
certain situation etc. Provide tips and
techniques. Utilising a Content Management
System such as the one provided by Web Circle can
be a great way to keep your homepage up to date.
You can easily log in yourself and change the
main page content on your sites pages. You can
also easily do things like display the most
recent site updates on the homepage or display
popular products on the homepage without you even
having to change the content yourself. This is
the real benefit of having a dynamic
content-managed website. Keeping content
regularly updated is also a good idea from a
search engine point of view as the more regularly
the content is updated the more relevant the
search engines think your site is.
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Tip 6 Pay attention to the design
A professionally designed website will impress
your potential clients and reflect a professional
business. Ensure you hire a talented interface
designer who will work with you to achieve the
website you want and portray a consistent and
professional corporate image. Make sure the
design is suited to your target market, and not
the designers own personal style. Avoid overusing
flashy elements that slow the site down and dont
contribute to the purpose of the site. Screen
resolution is another factor to consider. Just
because the website looks great on your web
designers 30 inch monitor, doesnt mean its going
to look the same on your visitors 17 inch
screen. The standard minimum resolution these
days is 1024 x 768 pixels and your site should
look good on a monitor of this resolution all the
way up to a 22? or above with a high resolution.
Do this by having your site at a fixed width of
around 1000 pixels and centred or have it fit the
width of the screen. Remember, visitors often
judge your business by your website and so they
should. Businesses that want to portray a
professional image invest in developing
professional marketing materials including their
website.
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Tip 7 Build it and they wont come
There are literally billions of website in
existence today and thousands more being added
every day. If you expect to build a website and
people will automatically flock to it you are
mistaken. All of the major media players have
huge stakes in the web so competition is fierce.
You need to give a lot of thought to how and why
people are going to access your site. Always
include your web address on all of your marketing
material such as business cards, letter heads,
flyers, brochures, catalogues etc. Tell people
about your site in conversation. Ask clients to
log on and provide you feedback on it. Add your
site to online directories. Use it as a delivery
medium for your news releases. Run competitions.
Do whatever makes sense to your business to get
more people to your site and get them returning
to your site time and time again.
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Tip 8 Give something away
If one of the goals of your site is to generate
business leads, you need to work out a way to get
peoples contact details. A great way to do this
is to give something away for free. Perhaps a
free eBook that they can download by registering
or perhaps subscription to your valuable industry
newsletter. Use your website as a way to get
contact details and stay in contact with
potential clients.
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Tip 9 Track Your Visitors
If you arent receiving detailed statistics on
your website traffic, you need to speak to your
web host immediately. This information is
invaluable in determining how many visitors you
receive on any given day, what search phrases
they are using in search engines and more. Once
you have this information its important to track
it each month to see how you are travelling and
implement changes/additions accordingly. There
are also a lot of website measures that arent
tracked in web stats. What about where you are
coming up in Google or how many sites are linking
to your site etc. Ask your web provider for a
full report on your sites overall performance.
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