As businesses start to struggle due to the recession, they must ask themselves “Am I getting the most out of my website, is my website really working for me or against me?”

In this 3rd part of the article we’ll aim to give you some advice on how to get your website working for you post launch.

When your website has been created then the simple rule is actively use it. Simple things, such as regularly updating blog or news content, ensuring links are relevant and working and using good quality images will make for a more positive and capturing user experience.

Regularly updating a site with relevant content may also boost your website’s search engine rankings. Sometimes looking after a website is a burden and so It may be worth hiring a specific company to manage your website if it is considered a key part of the business. This is something we can help you with, just ask.

Once you’re site is live you need to get people to it. Don’t rely on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to paper over the cracks. Optimisation is an important consideration when planning the structure and design of your website. It shouldn’t be used as a shortcut to improve a site’s ranking if it hasn’t been built well or is being used incorrectly. Also, you may well be paying out a great deal of cash for very little return and some SEO techniques employed could result in your site being blacklisted by the search engines.

As the saying goes, not all that glitters is gold. Promises of guaranteed positions are worthless and false.  Remember also offline activity such as PR and advertising can drive traffic to your website, but the strategy must be co-ordinated accordingly.

As technology changes rapidly, an old site with poor functionality may dissuade users from paying you a visit. Therefore, you may need to accept the fact that you should update your original site to maintain the levels of interaction.

So back to square one, well not quite but find a good web design company in the first place and you won’t go far wrong. You will have a great website and one that really works hard and pays for itself in no time at all.

Of course if you want to talk to us about your requirements for your online marketing then we’d love to hear from you, contact us now.

As businesses start to struggle due to the recession, they must ask themselves “Am I getting the most out of my website, is my website really working for me or against me?”

In this 2nd part of the article we’ll aim to give you some advice on how to work through the website design and building stage and help you navigate the tricky path of getting a website and making it work for you like a hard working employee.

Firstly It is essential that you know your audience well. If you don’t know who might buy from you then it’s hard to explain to your designer (hopefully us) and for them to best preset a website that will work with that audience

You must ensure that your site is designed well. Functionality is about how the site works, design is about look and feel. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to love the site. If you’ve picked the right design company they will be building a website for your business’ audience not for you.  Put some trust In your designer that what they are doing is in your business’ interest and that they only want to make your business a success.

Remember design is subjective therefore it is likely that someone will dislike whatever route is chosen. As long as design doesn’t offend anyone, then you’re doing OK.

Throughout the building of your website, get your friends to test it. If you’re building or working on a site there is a risk that you’ll become accustomed to it, making it difficult to objectively assess userbility and accessibility. Test it again.  Work with the design company to put things right and listen to their advice. No design company is perfect and errors will occur but it is the desire to correct them that will set companies apart.

A website needs to be simple to navigate and interact with so you must make it as easy (and safe) as possible to use. Visitors need to wowed a little but not put off and feel comfortable whilst moving around the site. There are so many good sites out there that a user will quickly leave a poorly presented site and probably never return. The hard fact is – get it wrong and your competition will be getting the customer and his/her money!

In the next article we’ll look post launch things to make your website work harder for you.

As businesses start to struggle due to the recession, they must ask themselves “Am I getting the most out of my website, is my website really working for me or against me?”

In this 2 part article we’ll aim to give you some advice on how to achieve the above and help you navigate the tricky path of getting a website and making it work for you like a hard working employee.

So firstly make sure that your website is built properly. You must either be clear about what you need or be willing to spend time planning the site with a reputable web agency such as us.

The planning stage is the most important. Once site building starts any changes can cause serious functionality problems, delay the launch and of course increase the costs.

Web design companies such as us have a responsibility to educate clients because many don’t understand how a website works and don’t consider the complex array of mechanics that can occur in the back end of the site. A client must be prepared and willing to learn for this process to be effective and of course for the website to be a success for them. This is why from the outset we provide a project planner document that allows people to work through and think through a series of questions that helps us assess their needs.

So many times we are approached to quote for a website and people have no plan, no business plan even, have no post launch marketing plan and on top of all this they want it tomorrow! Of course a good website design company would be so busy that it can’t deliver website design projects at the drop of a hat.

Depending on the size of your project and requirements you will need to leave at least 6 weeks from paying a deposit till the launch of the site. Longer if you need to plan press releases and other launch PR.

Remember you need to allow time for the quoting, organising the deposit, the design process including your requested revisions, then the build process, organising your copy/copywriter, organsing product photography, testing period, last minute revisions and additions and then any final launch snags.

We live in a world where everything is ‘instant’ but for a good website that will work it’s no that instant so plan plan plan is the key.

Also, know when to stop planning and start building. Websites have an infinite range of possibilities but, if you keep changing things you could have the world’s best website that no-one will ever see.

In the next part of this article we’ll look at the design and build stage and how these things need consideration to make your website work harder for you.