Your gut’s telling you there’s something not quite right with your website.
It’s not that you need to commission a new website. It’s just that the current one is:
- Looking unappealing
- Not a true reflection of the business
- Hasn’t had any TLC for months
- Should be generating more interest in your business
It’s okay. Websites should evolve.
Most websites have a Content Management System (CMS), which makes it fairly easy to take control of your website, keeping it up to date, relevant and fresh.
So, we’ve come up with eight easy fixes to improve your website and make it work harder for you in the coming year.
8 ways to jump start your website
1. A visual facelift
You have seconds to grab a visitor’s attention, so the visuals on the home page and throughout the website are crucial.
Start by adding a video header to the home page.
If you’ve already commissioned a video, perhaps for a marketing campaign or corporate explainer, it’s possible to use snippets of these to create a 10 – 20 second video header. Alternatively, you can purchase stock footage, which is an extremely cost-effective way to create a short header video. Videohive and Pond5 are two of our favourites. Find a clip that fits with your brand.
For inspiration, take a look at a showreel we created using snippets of videos we’ve made for our clients. Click the image to view.
Refresh your website with new images.
Put a little time aside to critique all the images on your website. Do they complement and add to the value of the content? Do they tell the right story? Do they reflect your target audience accurately? Do they reflect your brand correctly?
There are two avenues to consider when updating imagery. You can either engage the services of a professional photographer, who specialises in website photography or you can purchase stock images.
2. Live chat
You’ve probably noticed that more and more companies are adding a Live Chat function to their website.
An unobtrusive pop up draws the eye to a box where you can pose a question and hopefully get a quick answer. There are pros and cons to Live Chat, so it needs to be considered carefully, but can certainly contribute to building the relationship with your future customers.
3. Eye catching seasonal fun
Changes to the website don’t have to be permanent, they can change with the seasons or significant events throughout the year.
Bookmark this page and plan some seasonal touches next Christmas.
4. Blog, blog, blog
You may have heard the expression ‘content is king’. Google loves websites that regularly publish new, relevant pages. It’s a sign that your business is still ‘alive’.
Blogs are also a great way to showcase your skills, explaining how you help your customers and the great results you achieve. It’s an opportunity for you to share your tips and add value.
Create a content plan, which will make the job of writing blogs much easier. You’ll then have lots of original content to share on social media with links back to your website.
5. Refresh your content
On the subject of content, when was the last time you read every page on your website?
Often, when websites have first been created the content is written under pressure of a go-live date. Businesses evolve; new products and services are introduced, new customers are won, awards and accolades are gained.
It’s time to revisit the whole site and really examine whether the content is inspiring and compelling to the reader. If you feel it’s only merely good enough, then you may wish to engage the skills of a copywriter to bring a new perspective and turn the content into something that is a great representation of your business and motivates the potential customer to take action.
You can share the job of reviewing the content by including your staff in the appraisal process. Ask for their input in their own specialist areas.
Whilst going through this exercise don’t forget to check what keywords are important for your business and what keywords you are currently ranking best for, then structure your content for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) value too.
6. Target customer groups
Looking back on the customers you’ve gained over the last year, can you see a pattern emerging?
If you’ve gained a few customers in a similar industry, you’ve probably gained some specific knowledge; their pain points, their language, their challenges. Use this new knowledge to target more people within this industry by creating new web pages and case studies specifically for this group of customers.
These new pages can form part of a specific industry sector campaign using social media and inbound marketing, bringing interested people directly to the page with links to further relevant information.
If they’ve not arrived on your website from a link in a targeted campaign, adding a search box is a handy addition to help visitors navigate your website and find exactly what they’re looking for.
On the subject of creating new pages, if you have a WordPress website you may have noticed some changes that occurred in the latest update. The WordPress 5.0 update included the release of Gutenberg editor. This can allow you to create and curate pages and content in a way that previously wasn’t readily available to users.
7. Integrate third-party software
WordPress has some great plugins that can add clever functionality to your website that will enhance the visitor’s experience.
It’s important to only use reputable third-party plugins. Some of the ones that we’ve used for our clients’ websites include:
- Event Espresso – This allows you to create an events registration form and sell tickets for your events
- Survey Slam – This creates a marketing funnel on your website.
- LearnDash – This is used in Higher Education and Professional Training for creating learning modules and impressive online courses.
8. Add video to your website
It is estimated that including video on a landing page can increase the conversion by 80%.
And, replacing an image with a video on a landing page increases the conversion rate by 12.62%.
Also, check out this Video Marketing Timeline Infographic by the Website Builder team, which shows you why videos are praised as the future of marketing and can help you keep up with this growing trend.
There are a whole host of occasions where videos will greatly enhance the interaction of your customers with your website. Think about including product videos, explainer videos, corporate videos and promotional videos.
We’ve just saved you a fortune!
Whilst we’d love to work with you on a brand new website, hopefully, we’ve given you plenty of ideas to spruce up your existing website and extend its life a little longer.
