Things change fast. So you may want to write your own website, instead of paying a professional every time you want to update it. Building your website using a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress or Joomla makes this easy for business-owners to do. But what content should you include?
Here is the last in my series of tips.
What others say
Case studies or testimonials sell you better than anything you can say yourself. So if you don’t include them on your website, you’re missing an important trick. On the Analytics for one website I produced, I found that one-third of people who visited the home page clicked the testimonials link. That just shows how much client comments mean to your site visitors!
Be professional
How you present yourself online and offline affects customer perception of the quality you deliver. If you want to come across as professional, a bespoke design will present your business much better than a free site design package. Similarly, you should avoid using a free hotmail, gmail or btinternet email address. Bespoke email addresses such as yourname@yourwebaddress.com are usually included free with your domain name, so there’s no excuse not to. And, if you use the likes of VistaPrint for your print marketing, at least pay the extra to remove their logo from the back.
Choose your colours carefully
Research colour psychology before you settle on your logo and website colours (there’s lots of advice on Wikipedia). For example, if you’re in financial services, for example, blue is a better colour to use as it means stability, whereas red means danger or debt. The decisions you make about your brand identity should be consistent across all your marketing, not just online.
Be customer-focused
Always put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Don’t bother including ‘our values’ and ‘our mission statement’. In most cases, these should be internal documents not customer-facing ones. (And, often, they only state minimum expectations anyway.) It’s better to say what you do for your customers, using language they understand and will respond to.
Pet peeve
Be sure to put the space in the phone number in the right place. For greater London it should be 020 8xxx xxxx not 0208 xxx xxxx. This is a common mistake. Again, Wikipedia gives more information. Just search ‘0208’.
A final thought
Do make sure your site works in all browsers and platforms. More and more people are browsing the web ‘on the move’. So make sure it looks OK for Internet Explorer, but also the likes of Chrome, Firefox and Safari, as well as iPads, Androids and iPhones etc.
