What is the purpose of your website?
A website is a very important part of maintaining a strong web presence. But, if you want it to be effective, you need to think carefully about its purpose, and how you can design it to meet those needs. Websites have come a long way since the 90’s, and there are lots of ways to optimise yours to entice the kind of audience and customers you want. So, let’s explore some of the factors you’ll want to consider when building your website, to make it the best it can be.
For the customer
Certainly your website is yours, but it’s not for you, so much as it is for your visitors. Let’s explain: your website needs to be able to give the visitor exactly what they want, with minimal obstruction in between. The more difficult it is to find what they want, the quicker they’re going to leave your website for elsewhere. Therefore, your website needs to be structured in such a way that it can guide people to wherever they want to go intuitively.
Depending on the nature of your business, the function of your website may change. If you do business with different industries or sectors, it might be worth creating separate landing pages for each. That way, your site will feel more purpose-built for them, and they will be more willing to interact with it further. If, say, much of your work consists of meetings or speaking events, though, you need your website to be structured around making it easy for visitors to book and access those instead.
Analytics
Using statistics will tell you a lot about how your website is being perceived by its visitors. Google Analytics is industry-standard, and can give important insights into what is working with your website and what isn’t. For example, you can find out about which of your visitors are new, how long they’re sticking around and how often they’re interacting with your website the way you want them to. If any of these analytics aren’t where you want them to be, you can formulate a plan to find ways to improve them. Whether that be optimising your calls to action or using Google ads to drive new traffic to your website, the detail offered by these analytics make it possible to hone in on what needs changing and make it happen.
Integration
While your website is important as the anchor of your web presence, it shouldn’t be the only part of it. To drive traffic from the right people, you need to consider how you integrate it into your wider marketing and business strategy. You can target specific sectors, for example, with email marketing and social media campaigns, sending the recipients over to the unique landing pages we outlined above.
If you are running an e-commerce business on the other hand, the returns you get from your own website are much higher, which means that directing your customers there is in your best interests. Overall, a website offers a lot more freedom to present your business how you want, in the way that you want – more so than social media platforms. There’s a lot more potential for creativity – if you know how to make the tools work in your favour.
If you need a website designed bespoke for your unique needs and requirements, we’d love to help you out. As part of our creative process, we like to get to know you and your business and find the best way to ensure your website is built expertly for purpose. Get in touch with us today.
