Don’t get me wrong: my team and I would love nothing more than to provide you with a functional and aesthetically beautiful website. However, being a business owner myself, I understand that sometimes small businesses have to stick to a budget. But how do you know when your website is helping or hurting your business?
The following are five mandatory checks you can use to determine whether you need a new business website or not:
1. Does your website look like it is from the 90s? This may seem harsh but it’s time to face the hard truth: You may have thought it was a great idea to set up your own basic website but nothing drives away potential customers than them viewing your old clunker of a site! Your website is an extension of your business; it educates potential customers about your business, who you are, what they can expect from your business when they bite and much more. You wouldn’t leave your actual place of business full of dust bunnies, so what makes you think that your business website doesn’t deserve the same? Your website is a marketing tool for your business so make sure you have a beautiful, functional website set up.
2. Is it hard to update? Here’s the reason why this is important: Your website should feature up-to-date news, deals and stories related to your business. If it’s not updated with new or correct information, then what’s the purpose of your site? Actual needs may vary but you may want to consider using WordPress to set up a new website. Most designers are familiar with WordPress and updating it (software, content, plugins etc.) is easy to accomplish.
3. Do your competitors have better websites than yours? This is related to check 1. If your competitors have better websites (content, news, deals, aesthetics), then why should your potential customers select you over your competitors? The human mind is a funny thing. Whether we are aware or not, our brains are making tons of decisions before we actually “realize” them. Your potential customers are the same way. If at the moment they land on your website (whether it’s the font, the colors or the design), and they don’t find what they’re looking for or one of the aforementioned aspects of your site is off, they’ll be clicking on the ‘back’ button. Onto your competitors they go!
4. Was your website built with conversions in mind? From the moment visitors land on your website, there are certain elements of the website that should be in place to help them get one step (or a few steps) closer to becoming your customers. On a superficial level, your phone number, email address, a contact form (all things that encourage interaction between visitors and your business) should be displayed on every page of your website. On a deeper level, all content displayed on the pages of your website should be split tested (whether certain content brings a visitor one step closer to you than another piece of content).
5. Was your website built with marketing in mind? One of the main benefits of having a website is to have it show up in front of potential customers. By marketing, we’re talking about your website being optimized well for the search engines. Is it showing up in the top spots for Google, Bing and Yahoo for phrases that potential customers are typing into these search engines to find services that you provide? If not, there is no need to set up a site.
As a business owner, it can be hard and overwhelming to understand if your website is providing all the necessary things it should be to help increase your bottom line. If that’s the case with you, please don’t hesitate to contact me personally at this email address: joe [at] thesoulwithin.com. This is what I do professionally and I encourage all sorts of questions so you, the business owner, can make an informed decision when it comes to your professional website.