In part one of this article, I outlined the importance of strategy to a successful website – most especially as a foundation to build and set the right objectives and capture the requirement side by side your business goals, effective use of call-to-actions, the place of contents, the visual design, why user experience and a perfect landing page are game changers for success. In this part, we focus on why you need a mobile responsive site, content management system as a tool for effective content marketing to attract the right traffic, social media, search engine optimization and marketing. These additional 7 steps are crucial post launch activities to help you reap returns on your website investment
9. DESIGN FOR MOBILE EXPERIENCE
One out of every four internet users uses a Smartphone or mobile device to access information online. This means you can’t afford to have a website that render well on desktops and laptops only but performs poorly on mobile devices. In today’s business eco-system, mobile rules! You have low chances of being found or considered on Google search if your website is not adaptable to mobile device viewing and enhanced for small screens. As a matter of fact, it has to be mobile responsive – fit for purpose on small screen devices. It mean the design presentation, content layout and functional features has to be planned and delivered in the most enhanced version and effective way for different screen sizes as well as modes: portrait or landscape layouts.
In simple websites adapting the content and design, making them responsive will suffice. But for larger and complex sites you will need to further adapt your functionalities and make it suitable for good mobile user experience, usually this requires a separate mobile version of your website to meet this requirement. It’s important to let you know that more online buyers make their purchase through a mobile device, so it’s not an optional features rather a must have.
10. BUILD ON CMS PLATFORMS
Web design service has evolved over the years from simple html to more robust, feature rich CMS and eCommerce platforms which help you to deliver enhanced usability, efficient user interaction, search engine optimization and easy content management. With the right platform, the overall performance, stability and scalability of your website are guaranteed.
You will save time on content publishing, less effort on search engine optimization and less experience with finding and fixing bugs on your website. Most CMS platforms also demonstrate strong defense against website hacking and attacks. Key point to consider when choosing a CMS platform includes size of user community, ease of content editing, portability, search engine readiness and site load times. Your web design agency should be able to guide you on the best fit platform for your project requirements.
11. PLAN YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
Doing business online without any doubt is a treasure hunt opportunity and every business should strive to find the sweet spot and get on-board. However, business owners must understand that the battle to win the game and get customer’s attention goes beyond just having a beautiful website. You have to develop and experiment different strategies to discover the most effective approach to reach your target audience. This include planning how to push your content out there in order to attract the right traffic from multiple channels such as search engines, email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, SEO search engine optimization and social media – this will in turn generate leads and sales conversion for the business.
12. OPTIMIZE FOR SEARCH ENGINES
Working out your site visibility on search engine is a critical step towards making your online presence profitable and rewarding. It’s a continuous process that requires dedicated resources and tactical optimization to ensure your target audience can seek you out when searching for products or services you provide. SEO helps search engines to find, profile and archive your website using keyword that are associated with your industry and what you do.
This in turn makes you readily available when customers search for information about what a service you provide or a product you are selling. Simple search engine optimization involves using keyword in your copy, presenting your important messages in text format rather than including them as part of an images or animation, including title, description and keyword Meta tags on your pages. For more comprehensive SEO you may require the services of an expert to work with you in achieving your business goals.
13. GO SOCIAL MEDIA
Truth is you don’t have to like social media, to grow social in business today – it’s not an option anymore it’s a must – you just have to be social. Social media is a good source for attracting traffic to your website and pushing your content out to your target audience in a way that no amount of marketing and advertising can achieve. Ensure that all your important content pages have the social sharing feature to make it easy for site visitors who find your content interesting to help you share and spread. But beyond this, a social business is the choice of modern day customers.
A social media presence will afford your business the opportunity to interact more with prospect and showcase your great customer service, products and service beforehand. This gives you an edge and help you leverage the social media channels to imprint your brand value as an industry leader and trusted choice partner for your industry service – on your target audience’s mind and turn them into ambassadors. It’s important to note that social media is free and affordable when compare to the traditional marketing tools and channels – it’s very rewarding with high ROI.
14. START BLOGGING
Everyone is familiar with blogging this days, you have heard about Linda Ikeji, Bella Naija, Olori Super Gal OSG, Omojuwa and a host of others. But still don’t understand why a business should be blogging, well too bad you have no choice. We live in a knowledge sharing age and it is a key success metrics for your online presence. Start blogging to educate the visitors – your audience: about your business, company information, press releases, relevant happenings and new developments in your industry, your products, services and solutions or industry specific events.
A corporate or business blog is a good platform for your customers to interact with one another and share knowledge – in all it helps you build a growing community of brand influencers who will be happy to evangelize about your business to other prospective customers out there at no cost to your business. Remember no marketing systems works better like a word-of-mouth referral. A well authored blog over time turns into a repository of valuable content and can become a value-paying digital asset with highly rewarding windfall such as enjoying high organic (direct) traffic from search engines and back-links form other sourcing and content delivery websites.
15. WORK WITH A WEB DESIGN AGENCY (TEAM)
Web design is one of the most proliferated business practice world over and there is really nothing bad about it. However, there is the gap of several run-of-the-mill designers doing it as a side fling. These guys don’t subscribe to any professional rules or ethics, they are the ones you call “anything goes”. You know why? This is so because it’s far too easy to get a free web template somewhere online and put your name, logo and information on it and call it a website.
First rule for a successful site is never run a business website on free web template or hosting etc. In the immediate short term it might proof cheap but it cost more to you on the long term, that puts your business at greater risk than you can imagine. If you are not ready then don’t go the cheap route, good things don’t come cheap you know! Work with a web design team that is willing to partner with you to achieve your business goals for the website.
It pays to invest in working with a professional and quality web design team than a roadside designer because it saves you time and resources in the short-term and money in the long-term as well as help you deliver on your strategic business goals. Choosing a good web designer or a design agency can be a daunting task but there are few things you should look out for beyond the proposal and quote.
- Review their portfolio of past projects to get insight about their experience and craft.
- Ask questions about how much or what value existing clients are getting from past projects.
Don’t make your project a one-off; it’s bad for your business. Be willing to pay a little premium to maintain a partnership that will make your website a successful one and grow your business. If your business grows, you make more money and it’s won’t be a bad thing sharing a part of that to keep your winning team together.
CONCLUSION
The journey to make your website effective to showcase your brand’s visibility and extend your business outreach is not a one-time event; you have to commit a lot of resources – time, strategy and dedication to achieve the overall goal of consistently appealing to your online audience. A brilliant, smart looking, informative, usable, accessible and discoverable website is key to a successful business online.
If you will like to learn more about how to make your new or current website meets the recommendations above, send us a mail at info@itrdntechnologies.com or click here to send us your web project inquiry.
At ITRDN Technologies, we help businesses leverage digital transformation to accelerate business growth, achieve strategic outcomes and a rewarding experience. Contact Us Today! Complete the form at our website to request your Free 30 Minutes Web Strategy Session on 0802 660 0125 or email info@itrdntechnologies.com. No-String Attached!
