I’m a small business, why do I need a website?
Well, there are many reasons why – not only does it act like an online ‘shop front’ for your business, but in this day and age, and with the rise of younger consumers it is generally expected that businesses will be online. If a consumer cannot find you online, this leads to dis-trust and makes it unlikely they will buy your products or use your services. 87% of consumers turn to search engines as their FIRST stage of the process when in need of a product or service, and 68% of consumers use search engines to research longer term purchases or services. If you’re not online, you’re not capturing consumers at the start of their purchasing and consideration process and therefore you have a very slim chance of being one of the final choices at their buying stage.
Aren’t websites expensive? I can’t afford one really.
You need to consider a website is an investment, not a cost. The price really depends on what your requirements are. Remember, having an online presence is better than not at all – can your business afford to miss out on 87% of consumers?
There are many options to consider with a web build, but just think about your key goals first – if you are looking for leads (phone calls, emails, enquiries), then a non e-commerce website will suit you fine (One where you cannot buy products directly off the site). These also involve less investment than an e-commerce store and act like an online brochure for your business, products and services. It’s the online equivalent of a leaflet drop!
If you are a retailer, an e-commerce store can open up your sales opportunities vastly – over £279billion of sales were made via a website in the UK in 2017 (Data released 2018). However, before delving into an online ecommerce store you need to consider your own logistics – is your business ready to ship products to consumers? And of course, collect and transit damaged or warranty related items back? If so, a well built, easy to navigate and simple website where users can easily find what they are searching for, and a short, easy purchasing process is ideal. The checkout process needs to be as simple and quick as possible to avoid people abandoning the purchase.
If your not ready for online sales, it is still best to get online. You could go for a ‘catalogue’ set-up. This is basically a website which lists products but does not have a shopping cart or the ability to buy. Use strong calls to action to try and drive the online viewer to your store to purchase.
Ok, so I want a website, what should I do?
First, decide on your goals. This will help the consultant and agency guide you through the best type of website to go for. Using an experienced agency like us takes a huge strain of you. We have helped many clients like you to take the first step online, and are well rehearsed in what to do to help achieve your goals and fit within your budget constraints.
What should I consider when getting a website?
Without being too technical, the term SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), is the technique used to get your website found in search results on search engines like Google or Bing. This is broadly split into two areas – ‘on-site SEO’ which is the factors to consider within the build of the site, and ‘off-site SEO’ which are things you can do externally to help get your site ranked, such as building quality links from other websites to yours.
When building a website, the ‘on-site’ or ‘technical’ SEO is what you need to consider. Getting the website right at the start makes it much easier to implement an off-site strategy longer term. It also gives you the best chance of getting a good position on search engines and driving ROI from new customer finding you online.
In my opinion a few of the important considerations are below;
Think mobile first – smartphones account for up to 60% of searches made on Google, and as mentioned earlier 68% of consumers use search for long term purchases – out of those 68% of people a staggering 97% of those use their smartphones to do the research. Your website must be mobile responsive, which basically means it adapts to fit the size of the screen it is being viewed on. This makes it easy to navigate and use regardless of the device the consumer is using. Google penalises websites that are adaptable to all devices which makes it harder for you to get found.
Write good content – always try to write the content so it is easy to read and relevant to the product or service on that page. The general rule of thumb is that each page should have a certain topic or theme. Try not to put two services or products on the same page as that can confuse search engines. Be careful not to cram too many ‘keywords’ onto the page either. Write content for the reader, not for search engines. Your keyword density (words related to the topic/service/product you want this page to be found for) should be around 3% of the overall word count. Otherwise Google could consider it as a ‘spammy’ page.
Ease of use – Have you heard of the anagram KISS? Maybe not, but this is so relevant for web design – keep it simple, stupid. The website needs to be clean, easy to navigate and easy for users to find what they want. Ideally use a search bar if you have product listings, or display your phone number at the top of each page if you are looking for enquiries. A handy test is the ‘3 click rule’. If you can’t get to what you want in 3 clicks, the website needs to be simpler.
Page load speed – A major factor in Google ranking is the speed the pages load. Make sure the images are compressed for web use, and ask your agency about using a cache and a CDN network to help decrease loading times.
Meta titles and descriptions – These are essentially bits of text that are ‘tagged’ within the website that notify Google what the pages are about. Then, the main content or paragraphs on those pages should match what the ‘meta title’ is.
Alt tags – When you upload images to a website, Google cannot recognise them – it ‘reads’ words. However, you can ‘label’ images with Alt tags which effectively tell Google what the image is. However, the image should match the theme and content on the rest of the page.
SSL certificate – An SSL certificate basically encrypts any information that you input into a website (card details, email addresses…etc), so that it goes directly from the website you are on to the server. Without an SSL installed, potentially a hacker could get in between the website and the server and steal that information. You can tell if a website has an SSL as a padlock will be displayed in the browser (the area where it shows the www.example.co.uk at the top of your browser). SSL’s also have a factor for being ranked on search engines and Google’s browser Chrome now warns users if a website is not secure which would cause the consumer concern and they would be likely not to use your website.
There are many more factors that go into building a good website, and as a business owner it would be an overwhelming task to research and consider them all. That is where we come in. Visit Media offer expert web design for all businesses, from simple service providing websites to technical custom built e-commerce. With 53% of affluent UK consumers purchasing online, you really cannot afford to miss out.
Contact us to start your journey!