Successful websites

Successful small business websites generate business. End of story. You can have a great looking website, which doesn’t make any money. Or a technically brilliant site, which never generates a sales lead. The answer is to have a customer attraction site. In this guide are some tips to help you achieve this. If you want to find out more – just ask!

1) Content is king

If you want to attract the search engines and more visitors to your website, upload fresh content to your website on a regular basis. This sounds easy, but can be challenging to achieve.

A great way of doing this is by integrating a blog within your website. Commit to writing something useful and interesting once or twice a week. It doesn’t have to be ‘War and Peace’, one hundred words per entry is our suggestion.

2) Content Management System (CMS)

Leading search engines such as Google like dynamic sites, which regularly have new content added to them. The easy way to do this is to use a CMS (Content Management System). Arguably, the best type of CMS is one which you can access over the internet such as WordPress. This means that you are not bound to a specific machine, such as your laptop computer.

By having an internet-based CMS you will be able to login wherever you are and add new content to your website. If some disaster happens to your computer (i.e. a hard disk crash / it’s stolen), you can access your website from any computer with an internet connection.

In conclusion – having a CMS gives you a strategic advantage. Using one which is internet-based is the best choice.

3) Copywriting for the web

Here are two definitions for you.  Copywriting = ‘marketing words’.  Webcopy = the words on your website. There are two levels of webcopy. The first level is about producing well written, clear English. Use short sentences and double check the punctuation and grammar.

The second level is the creation of compelling webcopy, which changes human behaviour. Professional webcopywriters employ numerous techniques, working in conjunction with each other, to produce the desired effect. Your copy needs to be written for human visitors to your site, as well as for the search engines. Keeping people and machines happy is quite a skill!

4) Hosting + Domain name

Domain name = your website address. For example https://www.wordpressnostress.co.uk

Your domain name should be short and memorable. It doesn’t have to be your business name. It should be easy to spell. Try to avoid hyphens. Your domain name is part of your brand identity.

Choosing a reliable hosting company is also a top priority – if you’re building a WordPress site, make sure you use a company who specialises in this type of hosting or your site may become insecure. We recommend using a host that is also based in your own country and one that is available when you need them!

5) SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Work on your marketing plan. Choose your target market segments. Create a list of SEO  keywords and phrases. Create an accessible website. Add the meta data. Definition = ‘data about data’. (This is a description of your website for the search engines)

Add new content regularly. Build in-bound links. Submit your website to online directories and link to your website via social networking platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Measure and keep track of your results. Use an analytics program such as Google Analytics. Keep learning!

6) User Friendly Website Design

A good looking website will show new visitors that you a serious business, research shows you have under 1 second to impress a new website visitor, so first impressions really do count. Use of strong images is important as is a clean and modern logo and overall layouts.

7) Responsive + Mobile Friendly Website Design

Make sure your new website is responsive and adaptive so it works on all major browsers and devices (such as mobiles, tablets and laptops). Google now ranks websites that have adhered to this since April 2015, and research shows that over 50% of overall website traffic comes from mobile or tablet devices, so it’s important that your website works well across all devices.