In this article you will find:
- Tactics, tools and strategies to create an effective website.
- A link to the GET Digital Support Effective Website Checklist.
- A Glossary of website elements with definitions.
- Suggested best practises for best results.
Start by Downloading the Free Website Checklist Here:
Create an Effective Website
Having a website is essential for business these days, and is the most effective, cost-efficient marketing channel out there. One of the major advantages is that it’s accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime, on home/office computers, tablets and mobile phones. Even during non-business hours, customers can access your website and learn about your services or get the information they need.
Your website is the first thing potential customers see when researching your business so it is obviously important that it is as effective as possible. When we say “create an effective website” we are referring to both the content and the functionality of your site. Your content should be clear and purposeful. It should be appealing to look at and engaging in order to be effective. When we talk about functionality, we mean that it needs to work well in the front end and the back end. The navigation should be easy to use, content should load quickly and work well on any device. We won’t go into great detail on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) because we have other articles to cover that in more detail. That said, many of the content best practices will help your SEO to some degree. Below you will find our comprehensive breakdown on all of these elements and more to help you create an effective website.
Getting Started
Creating a website can either be done by you, with a DIY website builder such as WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, etc., or by hiring a web developer. If you are hiring a web developer make sure you contact at least 3 different vendors for quotes. Be sure to communicate your objectives clearly so they know what you want. Some vendors only use one platform such as WordPress, so it’s important to know what platform they want to use because that should impact your decision as well. It is also important to stress the importance of owning and having access to your own website and domain.
Far too often, we have seen business owners who are “held hostage” by web developers who purchase a domain on your behalf and don’t provide admin access to your website. The problem is that if you want to make your own changes or hire a different web developer, you need them to hand everything over and sometimes they won’t do so willingly, which can be devastating for your business.
Our advice is to always own those properties and never work with a web developer who is not willing to provide you ownership and/or admin access to your website or domain.
Having a website is just the beginning, utilising the following elements will help you create an effective website for both you and your customers:
Have a clear objective
No matter where or how you create your website, the most important thing is to ensure it has a clear business objective. Whether you are selling products or collecting new leads, you need to define those objectives before you start designing or redesigning. Know what you want and need, in order to pick the right platform and method that works for you.
Always keep your website’s main goal or purpose front and centre. Meaning, if you are selling products, keep that focus throughout and make it as clear and easy for customers to take the desired action of making a purchase. An example we see a lot of “what not to do” is an e-commerce website that doesn’t have shoppable products on the home page. If customers have to click even once to find your shop, you may be losing customers. Think about it, it’s like walking into a retail store and all the inventory is in a back room, it’s just not putting your offering front and centre.
Know your target audience
Keep your target audience in mind, it’s not just about you! Knowing your audience is a critical aspect of your company or brand’s success. Your customer or audience is the group of people you need to reach and the most likely to purchase your product or service. The more you know and understand about your customer, the more likely they become an advocate and loyal customer of your brand.
Branding
A strong brand is the most important element of any successful business. It’s the first impression you give to your audience and it’s what makes you stand out from the competition. It’s a reflection of your voice, mission, image, and what you stand for. Your brand incorporates everything you do to provide an identity for your business, while motivating and connecting with your audience.
By effectively telling the story of your brand, it enables you to stand out to potential customers, while delivering a purpose overall message. Customers are significantly more likely to purchase from a brand they recognize for their consistent image and content schedule, so make sure to maintain both with some regularity. The more consistent your messaging, the more consistent your branding, whether via words, design, offerings or perspective. Your brand should build awareness and develop trust and loyalty with customers.
Website Functionality
A website’s functionality is described by how easy a user can navigate your site, get the information they need, and/or purchase the product or service they want. Easy accessibility is key. Visitors want to know within a few seconds what your site is about and what you have to offer them. If they have to search all over to find information they will soon give up. A functional website is more likely to attract more visitors, keep them on your site longer, and allow and even help them to convert into leads and eventually customers.
Clean and modern design
A well designed and functional website reflects your company, your products, your services and ultimately your brand.
Modern websites aim for a clean, streamlined look, with lots of white space and fonts that are easy to read. Simplicity is key and makes a site more modern in appearance. Modern web design utilises the full area of a user’s screen, so take advantage of full width imagery and photography. Your site must be easy to read, navigate, and understand. The best way to keep visitors glued to your site is through valuable content, good organisation and attractive design.
Easy to use navigation
Navigation is the wayfinding system used on websites where visitors interact and find what they are looking for. Website navigation is key to retaining visitors. If the website navigation is confusing visitors will give up and find what they need elsewhere. This is especially important for e-commerce websites. We often see sites that try to show all the categories and subcategories across their main navigation bar. This ends up looking very busy and complicated. Try to simplify those options into logical categories and then branch out into broader categories with submenus. Keeping navigation simple, intuitive and consistent on every page is key.
Website Loading Time
Waiting for a website to load will lose visitors, so your website load time is extremely vital. When adding content such as graphics and photos, make sure they are “optimised for web”. That means that the size has been reduced and the file compressed to a point that does not diminish the quality too much. It’s all about finding the balance between size and quality. To test your website load speed, we recommend using this mobile speed test from Think With Google: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/testmysite/
Responsive Design
More people are using their phones or other devices to browse the web. Approx 63% of users search via their mobile devices. It is important to consider building your website with a responsive layout where your website can adjust to different screens. Responsive design will make your site mobile-friendly, improve the way it looks on devices with both large and small screens, and increase the amount of time that visitors spend on your site. It can also help you improve your rankings in search engines. Use http://responsivetesttool.com to see how your website looks on various devices.
An SSL Certificate
Customers want to know that your website is secure and private. An SSL certificate (your website starts with https:)scrambles data as it flows between your website and its visitors. Everything is encrypted including non-sensitive information, as well as names, passwords and banking details. If you don’t have an SSL certificate, your website will be vulnerable to hackers and Google will warn visitors that your website is not secure. Google also gives priority to websites that have an SSL certificate.
Easy to Find Contact Info
It’s essential to maintain a dedicated contact page so that (potential) customers can contact you or find your business. It should include both an email address and a contact form for visitors to fill out. You may also choose to include a business address, phone number, or specific employee/department contact information and your social media links.
A footer on each page allows easy access and an additional place for your social media links and menu items, as well as house your basic contact information like email, copyright notice and possible call to action button.
To increase visibility, add your phone number/email and social media links to both your header and footer, this ensures that visitors can contact you without needing to visit your contact page every time.
Clear Call to Action
The call to action is a key element on a webpage, acting as a signpost that lets the user know what to do next. Without a clear CTA, the user may not know the next steps to take to purchase a product or sign up for a newsletter and is likely to leave the site without accomplishing their task.
Website Content
“Content is the king”, this phrase is sufficient to explain itself, that’s why it is the key to the success of any website. You need to provide useful content to your visitors, that includes targeted keywords that users usually search for in different search engines. When applied it will help to improve website ranking and increase traffic.
Keeping content relevant to your business helps answer your audience’s questions, build trust, develop relationships, improve conversions, and generate leads.
Today, customers expect high-quality, consistent content from their favourite brands. Keeping your content fresh and up to date will help customers and search engines find you, and increase your SEO ranking.
Above The Fold
There is a lot of opportunity to utilise the Homepage to help explain what your business is about. On your Homepage (above the fold) users should know precisely what the purpose of your site is and how it can help them (benefits). Use a principal headline to communicate your site’s underlying value proposition (what makes your product or service attractive to your customers). A powerful value proposition helps your customers truly understand the value of your company’s products and services. It also helps your ideal customers see how your services benefit them and are their best available option. It’s also creating an overall first impression.
There are four essential pieces of information you should have on your homepage: value proposition, differentiation (what makes you different from your competitors), proof (testimonials) and calls to action.
Your homepage is still the most highly trafficked, and therefore most important page on your website.
Photos
Be sure to include lots of photos, they add interest to a page and more easily engage users than just text. Photos can be good for SEO, but they can also help tell your story, show company personality and give life to your company, making your company seem friendly and inviting, while adding authenticity and credibility to your business. Good quality photos of you, your location, staff, and especially your products will make your site look more professional. If you don’t have any photos available, consider budgeting for a professional photographer.
Videos
Videos can convey huge amounts of information for potential clients, as well as hugely bolstering your SEO to help you get found in the first place. They can be used as an overview of what your business is all about, who you are, what you do, how you do it, why you do it, your culture and your space.
Videos keep people on your website longer and engage them with your content. People work with people, and video helps people get to know, like and trust you. Videos keep your audience interested, no matter your product or service. Consumers like video because they are easy to digest, entertaining and engaging, and marketers like them because it can give a potentially huge return on investment (ROI) through many channels.
Blog
Blogging is a very important part of content marketing. If done consistently, it is one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness, while providing relevant and useful content to your target audience. A Blog will help position you and your company as an industry expert. It’s an inexpensive way for small businesses to drive traffic to their site, enhance inbound marketing efforts and attract more prospective customers.
- It facilitates SEO practices. Each time you publish a post, you’re giving Google and other search engines more content to index, and more content means your website will most likely show up for more searches. Basically, you are casting a bigger, wider net, which increases your chances to catch more prospects.
- It helps drive traffic to your website and helps with conversion. Visitors, and search engines, love fresh content – keep feeding them fresh content and they will come back to your website more often. Every time you have traffic coming to your website through your blog, you have an opportunity to convert that traffic into leads. Blog posts can also be directly linked to your Facebook feed.
- It helps establish authority. You can use your blog to answer common questions your visitors might have, or you can use it to showcase featured products, etc. Anytime you write about something, you’re providing new information to your visitors and the more relevant and informative your visitors find your website, the more authoritative you sound.
Cross promoting content
Cross-promoting your content from a blog to your social media sites can help drive traffic to your blog, because it enables sharing. You can share, retweet, and re-pin content on these platforms. This means that followers can also share your content with their friends and family, which helps expose your brand to more people. It’s an excellent way for you to gain new leads
Newsletter Sign-Up
A newsletter can provide great value, beyond sales, by informing your customers with interesting content that resonates with them. Email Newsletters allow you to track and target specific groups of readers. Make sure to have your sign-up for a newsletter in a prominent place on your website so it won’t be missed.
People don’t buy because you sell, they buy because they trust you, are loyal to you, and are fans of your business.
Offering a lead generator (a discount or free information in pdf format) to visitors who sign up for your newsletter will help to generate leads. A lead generator is a piece of content which is only accessible by completing an action, for example, subscribing to your mailing list.
E-commerce
There are options if you are considering selling on your website. You could add a plug-in like Woo-Commerce to your existing site, or transfer to an e-commerce specific site like Shopify, so people can purchase your products directly and easily.
For your brand to capture a piece of this growing mobile pie, it must have an effective and responsive e-commerce site. That means your brand’s site must provide customers with not only a personalised experience, but an aesthetically pleasing design, fantastic browsing experience, and a purchasing experience that is not only simple and elegant, but also informs, inspires, and is helpful.
Think of your product on a card. What information should you include on the card in order to entice customers to buy your product? A fabulous photo of your product, a clear title/heading, and a concise description.
To improve your chance of sealing the deal in the final checkout process on your website, be sure to make the purchasing stage as easy as possible for your customers by offering multiple payment methods in the shopping cart.
Behind The Scenes
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
The majority of online searches begin with a search engine like Google, in fact, 75 percent of those searches start on Google. SEO or search engine optimization is the process of taking steps to help a website or piece of content rank higher on the Google search. SEO aims to improve your website’s position and visibility in search results pages. Remember, the higher the website is listed, the more people will see it. Keep your website optimised with updated descriptions, information and appropriate keywords relating to your business.
Use multiple dedicated pages, as each page of a website can be optimised for different keywords. Since there’s a limited number of keywords you can target on a single page of a website, a downfall of one page sites is that you can’t target as many keywords, which is not great for your SEO.
Make sure to optimise the images on your website. Image optimization is the process of creating and delivering high-quality images in the ideal format, size, and resolution, to decrease load times and increase user engagement. It also involves accurately labelling, by customising file names and adding appropriate alt tags to the images to achieve better rankings by associating keywords with images.
When a search result shows up in Google, you’ll notice a description under the heading, this is called a meta description. It’s a tag in HTML from an individual web page, of up to about 155 characters, which summarises a page’s content, so optimising it is crucial for on-page SEO.
To get an idea of how your website ranks, you can check your website’s SEO score at Google Lighthouse. Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages. You can run it against any web page. It has audits for performance, accessibility, progressive web apps, SEO and more. If you are interested in reviewing the Google Lighthouse report for more details and recommendations, you can run the report at https://web.dev/measure/
Google Analytics
Google Analytics works by collecting information about site visitors. From a website’s traffic sources, to the number of hits per month, Google Analytics offers excellent insight into users behaviour, and collects valuable user data in real time.
It tracks website activity such as session duration, pages per session, bounce rate etc. of individuals using the site, along with the information on the source of the traffic.
Small and medium-sized retail websites often use Google Analytics to obtain and analyse various customer behaviour analytics, which can be used to improve marketing campaigns, drive website traffic and better retain visitors.
Google Analytics helps you to keep a track of all the content that receives views and shares. With this data, you can enhance the top viewed blogs so that they appeal to the customers in a more productive manner. Google Analytics generates a breakdown of the page views each of your blog posts receive.
Search Console
Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results. You don’t have to sign up for Search Console to be included in Google Search results, but Search Console helps you understand and improve how Google sees your site.
Search Console offers tools and reports for the following actions:
- Confirm that Google can find and crawl your site.
- Fix indexing problems and request re-indexing of new or updated content.
- View Google Search traffic data for your site: how often your site appears in Google Search, which search queries show your site, how often searchers click through for those queries, and more.
- Receive alerts when Google encounters indexing, spam, or other issues on your site.
- Show you which sites link to your website.
- Troubleshoot issues for AMP, mobile usability, and other Search features.
Tags, Cookies, and Pixels
A tag is an attribute that is associated with a group of content. It is used to describe the content it represents as in the case of a hashtag or SEO tags that provide an overview of what an image or text is about. Tags make it easier for web users to locate curated content and view the topics on a page at a glance.
A cookie is a small piece of text sent to your browser by a website you visit. It helps the site remember information about your visit, which can make it easier to visit the site again and make the site more useful to you.
Pixels are snippets of code that allow you to gather valuable information about website visitors and what actions they took, so you can send them ads that are most relevant to them. Pixels are vital for measuring campaign performance, tracking conversions, and automatically building audiences based on behaviour.
