As part of my business, I advise people on their websites – but sometimes it’s really hard to get through to them about why certain things are important and other things aren’t. During my consultancy career, I’ve encountered a lot of clients who don’t understand that to see results, you have to invest in the right practices.
For many businesses, websites are their chief marketing and advertising tool – yet there are several small businesses out there which expect them to work as if by magic, when they actually need a lot of careful planning. It is vital to consider who are you trying to reach with your website; and what do you want to say to those people. For example, a builder in Manchester may want to particularly focus on building extensions. This means he has to think about the people in his area who want extensions and what will appeal to them – then communicate those things via the website’s copy and images.
It’s also important to make sure that a website design incorporates search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques to ensure that people can reach it in the first place, via internet search engines such as Google. It’s no good having a great website if people can’t find it! This means that the structure of your website and the words you use need to be geared towards search engine detection tools and search phrases that people are likely to use.
It all sounds very obvious, I know – but it’s amazing how many people manage to create a website that looks impressive, without properly communicating what their services are, or making their website easy to find.
