Have you ever wondered why some websites seem to be inviting and engaging? Properly building your website is an imperative part of being in business. This is where you have the opportunity to tell your story of why potential customers should do business with you.
The website will be your primary branding tool since it’s the first contact that most people will have with you or your business. The following list will help you avoid mistakes building your website and create a great home base to launch, develop your brand, and grow your business.
1) Not Effectively Branding and Telling your Business Story
This is the most important part of building your home base and the most difficult to do well. The purpose of websites has changed dramatically in recent years. Websites have moved from an information medium about your business to an integrated part of your branding message.
To effectively engage a visitor to your site you have to begin with what they are looking for and how you can become a trusted guide to solve their problem. Make your visitor the central theme, not you. The movie industry is masterful at creating characters that are engaging and using a guide to tell the story. Examples are Yoda from Star Wars and Haymitch from The Hunger Games. One of the books in my library that outlines how the movie industry creates stories is Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need
Next week’s post goes much deeper on branding and how to tell your business story.
2) Not having control of your domain
This can turn into a big headache. The first site I made and secured my URL from was with a company that used a domain register located in the England. When I wanted to move the domain to another hosting company, I found out that it is very cumbersome. They are difficult to contact and aren’t responsive to requests. There were several domain registration companies that weren’t easy to use and accommodate moving your domain name. GoDaddy is the largest, and you can easily check to see if a URL is available. Currently, my favorite company for web hosting and securing a domain name is Blue Host. They have by far the best customer service center of any of the hosting companies. Anytime I have a problem, I can call for help.
3) Not owning your site
If you hire a web design company to host and build your site, you may not own your site. At the very least, you don’t have control of the site, and if they go out of business, you are out of luck. The domain name may be tied up and you will have to start over from scratch. Also, if you use some free services, you don’t own the site. So if they change their terms of use or go out of business, you will have to start all over again.
4) Not incorporating your email into your brand
Incorporating your email address in your branding adds a level of professionalism to your business. As an example, my blog site email is jim@jimnelson360.com and the radon mitigation site is jnelson@nelsonradon.com. Using free services like Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, or AOL may be convenient but doesn’t enhance your brand. When choosing a URL address consider how it will be incorporated into your email address as well. Avoid making a URL too long, or with a lot of numbers. Don’t use underscore marks, hash marks or other special characters because they are just too cumbersome to type. Keep the email address as simple as possible.
5) Not building the site to be mobile friendly.
Mobile devices are taking over the world. With the increased use of smartphones and tablets access to web information by mobile devices is still increasing. In 2013, the percentage of mobile users to my site was at 30% and steadily increasing. I think this will continue to increase over the next several years before leveling out at about 50%. Your site needs to be built so that it converts to tablets or smartphones without becoming distorted or having the buttons too small to click on. If your site isn’t built to be mobile friendly, there are a couple of services that that create a generic version of you site for mobile. If you are using a WordPress platform WPtouch is a plugin that will create a simple version of you site for mobile. Duda mobile is another company that converts your site for mobile devises.
6) Don’t Forget About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This is a topic with a lot of opinions. There are a lot of companies that promise to raise your page rank on Google, Yahoo, or one of the other search engines. My experience is that it might work for a while. However with Google changing their algorithm often on how they rank sites the SEO companies just aren’t keeping up. So the Return on Investment for using SEO companies is very low and in a lot of cases is just an unnecessary expense.
Google is currently weighting the algorithm heavily on content for ranking. So if you provide relevant content your site will rank well.
7) There is no Call to Action
Many sites forget to ask the visitor to take any action. Once your site provides the reasons a visitor should do business with you there is no place to go. This can be as simple as contact us or call today. Contact buttons located in key positions can be helpful. Words that are clickable links are a great way to help navigate your site.
Make sure you provide contact information that is easy to find on your site. The contact information should have your email, phone number, or at least a contact form.
8) Your Website is Too Congested
When building your website avoid information overload. If a site has too much information visitors will just bounce off. A good example of information overload is any of the EPA sites linked to at nelsonradon.com. There is just too much information to navigate through. Keep the site as simple as possible with a lot of white space that avoids confusion.
If a visitor gets confused on the site, they just leave. You have 4-8 seconds to engage a visitor.
9) Install Analytics
Website analytics provides you with a broad range of information to evaluate your site. It will track impressions, site visits, where the visits are from; pages viewed, length of time on the site, and other diagnostic information.
Google analytics should be installed on your site. It is a free service from Google and provides most of the information that you will need.
Web Master Tools is another free service from Google that evaluates your site for broken links, and if you have any malware on your site. This can be invaluable since google will pull your site from the search results if malware is present. If you have Web Master Tools Google will send you an email and let you know that they have pulled your site.
10) Content is Too Hard to Share
This is another area where simple is best. Don’t have too many share buttons. Select three or four that will reach 80 percent of your contacts and don’t try to use six, seven, or ten share buttons. If you have too many choices, your visitors will just not engage and bounce off your site.
The best location is on the upper right of your site and at the end of your content. When a visitor reads through your content, they are engaged, and it is helpful if the share buttons are there.
Social media can be an integral part of staying in touch with your customers. The problem with social media is that many have recently changed the way they let your contacts see what you post. Facebook, for example, has move to a fee-based system for business. Social media can be a part of your business presence but shouldn’t be your primary point of contact.
Question: Which tip can you use today to make your site more engaging? You can leave a commit by clicking here.
Quote of the Week: “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell
For more information about Radon Mitigation in homes, schools and commercial buildings visit us at www.nelsonradon.com.