Why Your Business Still Needs A Real Website

It’s time to take a good hard look at your business’ online presence. The way we use the internet has changed, so when was the last time you revamped your website?

Microsoft recently surveyed 1,405 consumers about their perception of companies relating to technology and found these results:

• 68% think “modern technology” is key to the success of a business
• 70% said they were be “extremely or quite concerned” about providing personal information on an outdated SMB website
• 91% would stop doing business with a company because of its outdated technology

A good website is one of your businesses most powerful tools to convert visitors to customers. If your site is slow to load, unfinished or hard to navigate, customers will simply look elsewhere.

Here are the top five tips from Crazy Domains to make sure you website is reaching your customers.

Clean design

User experience is critical and if you want potential customers to stay on your page, you need to make it easy for them to navigate. You’ve got seconds to make an impression, so make sure it’s a good one.

Keep your design consistent, every page should use the same style, font size and colours, and your navigation bar should be simple with clear labels.

When your site changes dramatically from page to page, or you need to go through four different links to get the information you need, visitors will get frustrated and could potentially give up, leaving a bad brand image in consumers’ mouths.

Have a hero image

A hero image is a large header image that relates to the content on the page, for example a tradie might have an image of a tradesman. A hero image is an easy design choice that delivers your business message more effectively so any visitors can immediately tell if your product or service is what they are looking for.

Top tip? Use bold typography to make sure the message isn’t lost in the image.

Have a clear call-to-action

What do you want your visitors to do after they visit your page? Think about what you want to achieve and then insert calls-to-action buttons in strategic areas to help drive that conversation.

As a rule of thumb, use sentences or phrases that are short and simple like ‘Call Now’ or ‘Get Free Quote’. Make it as easy as possible for people to engage with your business, the more difficult it gets, the less likely it becomes that people will actually connect with you.

Go mobile

In Australia, almost 80% of us have a smartphone, that’s roughly 15 million smartphones in use in Australia alone*. If you read that stat and your website isn’t mobile friendly, then you should be worried.

Not matter what your business is, consumers want to connect and get what they’re looking for quickly so if you’re not optimised for mobile, you can’t offer your customers of the best possible experience. Mobile-friendly sites are crucial, and Google has already started penalising those that aren’t.

Search engine optimisation

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a way to improve your website ranking, increasing online visibility and helping to grow your customer base. There are a few ways to improve SEO, from using key words, creating relevant content and using backlinks; but this can be quite an undertaking for business owners.

Top tip? By decreasing your website’s load time, you could increase your ranking. Reduce your site’s load time by removing HTML and not confusing the browser with redirects.

Gavin Gibson is chief operations officer at Crazy Domains.