What is your website actually for and what value does it bring to your business?

You cannot just have a website created and then think that is going to solve all your problems. It won’t suddenly put you on page one of Google’s search, it won’t suddenly propel your sales through the roof and it won’t instantly change your business. So if it doesn’t do these things then what is it for? Well it is a critical part of your business operation even from day one. Here is why:

The face of your brand

With the last 12 months having turned almost everything we know on its head, websites have become not just required but critical if you want to take your business seriously. Before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, websites were already incredibly important as a way of putting your business out there. Now they are almost certainly the first glimpse that the majority of your potential customers will see. If you bear in mind that we make our first judgement about something based on what we see in the first few seconds then you can see why your website suddenly becomes seriously important in promoting your brand.

We, as a species, are intrinsically affected by looks. We judge people by how they look, products by how they look and indeed brands by how they look. There is a reality that you could provide the best service or the best products in the market, at the lowest prices, but if your website looks like a dogs dinner and your competitors looks modern and sleek, they will almost always choose your competitor over you. It is a sad state of affairs but it is true and so we have to embrace that reality and deal with it.

Making sure your website has the best possible design with an intuitive user experience is therefore absolutely key to helping your business succeed. And you don’t need to pay the earth. Once upon a time getting a world class website designed would have cost thousands. But now companies like us can make this process affordable and we can also provide your with the support so that your site remains worldclass and evolves over time.

A strategic focal point in your holistic business promotion

We constantly hear people talking about how they can put a website live and then their business will be successful. Then they wonder why this doesn’t happen. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. Your website is only one part of what needs to be a strategic promotional plan for your business. A website on its own is great as a place that people can come and check out your business, but just having a website isn’t going to mean you immediately get thousands of new visitors. You need to think about how they will find you and your new site isn’t going to jump straight to number one on the search engines.

Why not? I hear you ask. Well because there are already billions of websites live online and some of those will have been logged and scanned and ranked by the search engines for quite some time. If having your site at the top of search engines is key to your business then you need to think about a proper search engine optimisation (SEO) plan as well. We build websites to have a good structure suitable for organic search results, but this needs to be continually worked on if you are actually going to climb the tree. If your business is in a particularly competitive space then you should be preparing a budget of £100s per month minimum to focus on SEO.

We would always advise though that even SEO alone is not going to generate you a lot of business. Online search is tremendously competitive and you are still only targeting a proportion of people. Some target groups will not come to you via search anyway and targeting them will require a different approach. A good social media plan is also key to promoting your business, pushing out useful content, campaigns and promotions that will drive traffic to your website and your brand. But you should also consider your other promotional avenues such as face-to-face marketing at events and offline advertising, or telesales. These are all tried and tested ways to generate leads.

What does this have to do with your website? If you’re going to do them then maybe you don’t need a website after all, or at least not a modern one. Well no. Where do all these leads go as their first port of call? Your website. We all do it. We encounter a brand, either through print, word of mouth or social media and we then go and check them out to see what the website has to say. And if a slick and creative promotional campaign or a great intro conversation leads to a poor website, that warm lead will go cold very quickly. So make sure what they find when they go to your website is just as good as the message they first encountered.

We can help you with social media campaigns, email mailers and graphical design as well as your website. So if you want to plan these campaigns let us know.

Establishes legitimacy and quality

Whilst your website can be a powerhouse for generating leads, or even the functional face of your business if you are an e-commerce website, they also operate as the way of establishing the legitimacy of your business, the quality of your brand and products or services and often the first impression that you will give anyone about yourself. The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we explore our options. Previously a lot of us would have gone outside, wondered down the street, spoken to friends and family or gone to promotional events to discover your business. But the current situation has forced us to turn online. And what is more, this will not change once the pandemic has passed. For most of us, our behaviour will have permanently altered. It takes six months to create a habit, the pandemic has been going far longer. There is a new normal and that normal is that the majority of people will discover your business via your website – no matter how they first found your website.

So what is the message? Make sure you have a great website, which is responsive, secure and has a wonderful design. Then make sure it remains that way by having a support service that allows you to constantly evolve that site and keep it current without charging you and arm and a leg.  You can get all of this, at affordable prices, right here with Idio web. Why not get in touch and see how we can help?