Author: Ian Betteridge
Date: 31/10/2009
You have a website - what now? Here's three ways you can look to improve your existing site, and make it more effective at delivering customers.
Be social
No website is an island, and one of the most valuable commodities online is links from other sites to yours. These will boost your ranking in search engine and make it easier for people to find you.
One of the best ways to get links to your site is to use social media to spread the word around. Use a blog to get across your point of view, and take part in online communities like Facebook, Twitter and BT Tradespace to make connections. If you can, give customers the opportunity to leave testimonials on your site – but make sure you don’t censor them, or you’ll lose believability.
For some hints and tips on how to use social media for small business, have a look at this video interview with Emma Jones, from Enterprise Nation.
Monitor your statistics, daily
Make sure that you have the ability to monitor statistics on how your site is being used. Install Google Analytics, and learn how to use it. It will allow you to see not only what traffic you’re getting and where from, but also track how effective different pages are in turning browsers into paying customers. This will let you learn and optimise your site to make it more effective as a sales tool.
Use rich media
You don’t need to learn to be Annie Leibovitz or Steven Spielberg, but well-shot images and video can bring your company and its products to life. Keep it simple, though – over-elaborate video can be as much of a turn-off to the customer as something shot really badly.
If you need help, BT Tradespace has produced a great simple guide to using video for business.
Make it large!
It sounds obvious, but it’s something that is often forgotten when designing a website: If you make the offers obvious, people are more likely to click on them. You might think they look ugly, but big buttons which flag an offer are more likely to get the user’s attention (and thus his custom) than something more sedate. Of course, don’t push this too far – big banners which take over the whole screen will annoy rather than entice – but don’t hide offers as small text links.
BT Tradespace is getting a revamp, with more features and more opportunities to market your company and sell to customers. For full details, have a look at the special preview site.