The impact of a well-designed website

A website is an essential business tool whether you own or are a part of a large company, SME or start up business. There are many considerations when designing a great website, with the goal of driving customers to your company pages and in most cases attracting new custom.

According to the UK government, there were a record 5.2 million private sector businesses at the start of last year and 99.9% of these were small or medium sized businesses. With over 120 million websites in the UK, there couldn’t be a better reason to make sure your website stands out from the crowd.

It isn’t always a case of the more expensive a website, the better it is. Few small businesses have huge budgets to spend. Focusing on certain key principles when developing and managing websites can certainly help towards a strong return on any investment. The good news is that, no matter what your size, you can create a well-optimised, visible and effective website when you work with the right agency.

Your website needs to be aesthetically pleasing but also business-led. You need to have pride in your website, if you like what you see then your customers are potentially going to like what they see too. That said, your website is always a ‘work in progress’ and needs to be continually updated and refreshed with interesting, relevant and engaging content. You need to make sure it always meets the needs of the customer.

Content really is king in today’s world. Adding content to your website could be as simple a task as writing blogs or adding testimonials. Refreshing the look of your site could involve changing some colours, adding a new tab – all to keep your site appealing and interesting. You can write a checklist to make sure you are always up to date with the market and make sure your site reflects these changes. Ask yourself, does your content still address and engage your target audience? Is the design still relevant and does it include up-to-date imagery? If your answer is no, it is time to update and redesign your website now.

It is crucial that your website is picked up by search engines to drive potential clients to view your business. If you think that it is only the larger companies that gain all the rankings, you would be wrong. It does require patience as it is not an overnight fix, SEO is an on-going process but if done well will ensure that you are found on searches.

If you need help in this particular field then please get in touch.

Remember, first impressions count – Branding and identifying your website is a good start to defining your company and with this in place you can add other marketing strategies to contribute in attracting new business.