As another year ticks along, you are probably wondering why your web development strategy hasn't be paying off as much as you wanted it to. Well, if you are in that situation, then you’re not alone. Thousands of business owners and online marketing companies are in the same boat; desperate to know what website management strategies they should adopt in order to increase traffic to their sites in the coming months.
You’re in luck. We have some great website promotion tips and tricks for you, that will look after you throughout the year and beyond in bringing even more traffic to your website - so, read on.
Professional Website Secrets
If you’ve been handling your website all by yourself, and it isn’t bearing fruit – you know there’s something wrong and it needs to be fixed. If you wish to stay competitive, then it’s time for you to get a little professional help. The first thing for you to do is connect with a reputable web design agency and discuss your marketing challenges and needs with them.
Below are some tips and suggestions to help you get the most out of your website discussions:
Recognise the importance of Design before Development: One of the most critical aspect of website success, is the robustness of the design. If your developer starts building based on poor design, your site is doomed right from the start.
1. When you look for a partner to help with your online presence, find out what their web development strategy is. Since this is YOUR site, the developer must first hear what YOU want to accomplish. At all costs, you should avoid “fly by night” web developers that jump right into developing the site instead of spending a lot of time discussing the design with you. Your need to have a deep discussion about your target market, what they want, what content they expect etc.
2. This is the age of the mobile user. How your team designs and develops the site will determine whether you enhance your traffic or lose it to competitors. Ensure your web developer builds a 'responsive' (one that adjusts for whatever screen width it is viewed on) website that works well with desktops as well as mobile devices and everything in between. Also, Google is very carefully tracking website performance too! You may not know that or believe it , but it is true nonetheless. Google knows if your website loads fast or slow, if it's smart phone friendly or not, and obviously what content it has and how much of it .So you need to make everything attractive for Google too or else Google won't recommend your website link to new prospective customers who are searching on Google.
3. Leverage good content. While responsive website designing techniques will certainly help drive traffic to your site from website visitors on all types of devices, it is great content that will convert casual visitors into paying customers and clients. Keep your content fresh and engaging so that visitors will always keep coming back for more. Try and add new content as often as you can. Google will notice and new/existing website visitors will notice if you do.
4. And while your web development team works on content, don’t forget about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). That’s the glue that will make visitors find you on the internet, and that will get them to stick around your website long enough to get “converted”. Make sure your web developer and content producer optimise the site for both humans and search engine BOTs e.g. Google, Microsoft BING Yahoo Search etc.
5. When discussing your requirements with your web designing agency, do remember to ask them about accessibility features for your site. Just by making your site slightly more accessible for visitors with special needs, you could easily attract an untapped, yet powerful, segment of users that are so casually ignored by your competitors. This could be as simple as having the facility to increase the font size on your web pages, or have larger than usual headings, photos with description text embedded etc.
6. Ask your web developer how he/she handles content across the site. Make sure your web development team doesn’t over-do it. Stay away from developers that over-emphasise heavy graphics and intensely “bulky” content. This adds to web page load times, leaving many users (especially those using mobile devices, or those who subscribe to limited bandwidth services) frustrated.
Quality Above Quantity
Choosing the right website designing agency isn’t about finding one that rolls out 300 websites for clients each month. It also isn’t about looking for teams that are proficient at using cookie-cutters to quickly get your website up and running. You need a specific solution to address your requirements professionally.
Sure, the quantity of clients does help (you don’t want to work with a one-client web company), but quality triumphs quantity any day. Ask your web developer what experience they have catering for clients that have a similar online profile to yours. And always ask them to show you samples of the various websites they have developed for others – especially companies in your industry.
If you follow these simple guiding principles when choosing a web development partner for your site, you can rest assured that the coming year will look a lot different from years gone by. For one thing, you’ll have a website that looks more professional, and that raises the credibility of your company online. More importantly though, by following these simple web site designing tips, you’ll position yourself to attract even more traffic than prior years.
If you have any questions on the above feel free to call us on +353-1-6216866 or email info@myit.ie
