- Make it clear what you want to accomplish.
What are your goals, and what should your website do? What's the point? Branding, advertising, generating leads, and sales channels Bring online and offline together. Know who your audience is and how to reach them. Why are they doing this? They want a website with useful information, as well as friendliness, speed, and good service.
Don't let people push you around.
Don't let marketing people or artsy web designers push you into "bleeding edge" web design. Ask yourself, "Does it improve the way my site works?" Does it help your customers in any way?
- Make the most of the space you have online.
Don't: Waste it on filler, splash pages, content that isn't necessary, or welcome messages.
Do: Make it clear what makes your company different. Put the most important links at the top, add search, and use animation and scrolling as little as possible.
- Prove that you can be trusted
You only get one chance to make a good first impression. Make it easy to find your products, buy them, or get in touch with you. Give your visitors a sense that you can be trusted and that your business is real.
- Take charge.
Make sure you give your site to someone who will run it. Keep it fresh and up-to-date, not only for your customers but also for the search engines. Reply to emails right away.
- Keep it simple
Don't use slang or words that are hard to understand. You'd be surprised by how much business jargon you use when you talk about it. Get a pro to look over what you've written.
- Chat with your guests
Set up a way for people to subscribe to your email newsletters. Keep in touch with your customers, but only when you have something to say.
- Make it your own.
People like to know they are dealing with real people. Make the tone fit. If appropriate, write your content in a personal manor.
- Let people know where your website is.
Put the URL on all paper communications, such as brochures, letterheads, business cards, and pens.
Don't let your site stagnate. Just like you as a business owner, a website needs to be updated and changed all the time to be as successful as possible. Watch out for the competition. Test and measure, and then test and measure again after you've done that. Don't do things just because they are new.
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