How To Improve Your Website

Image via Wikipedia

1. Customer Needs – The #1 way to improve your business website is to have a clear understanding of your customer and potential customer needs.  Why do they visit your website? What type of information are they looking for? The reasons customers may visit your site may be different than the reasons potential customers may visit. Try to make the site usable for both.  Remember that retaining customers is much easier (and profitable) than acquiring new ones (although both certainly are important).
2. Usability – Once you unde
   1. Customer Needs – The #1 way to improve your business website is to have a clear understanding of your customer and potential customer needs.  Why do they visit your website? What type of information are they looking for? The reasons customers may visit your site may be different than the reasons potential customers may visit. Try to make the site usable for both.  Remember that retaining customers is much easier (and profitable) than acquiring new ones (although both certainly are important).
   2. Usability – Once you understand what information and functionality your website audiences are looking for, try to make it as easy as possible for them to find the information they want and perform any actions they want to do. It may be helpful to map out all the various actions that someone may want to do on your website (from the needs above) and take a look at how many steps each takes and whether the next step is clear (good analytics can also help with this).
   3. Branding – Branding is important both offline and online so that people recognize your company (which is why it’s also important to protect your logos through trademarking). Good branding on a company website makes it clear that this site is one of your official customer touchpoints. Using branding consistently across your online presence will help provide recognition when you create a profile in a new place.
   4. Obvious Contact Information – If someone wants to contact you, can they easily find out how? Ideally, having a phone number (and possibly email) on every page can make it much easier for people to contact you when they want to (from any page on your site!).
   5. Clear Call to Action – When someone comes to your site on a page other than your home page (or even on your home page), is it clear what step they should take next if they’re interested? If someone wants to buy from you, are you relying on them to figure out that they should fill out the form on your contact page?
   6. Design – Does your website look like every other website out there? Does it look professional? Does it look like it was built in 1997? The design and look of your website say a lot about your company to visitors. In some ways a good business website is more important than a business card. And first impressions do matter online too.
   7. Consistent Messaging – Is what you do obvious to a visitor? Is what makes you stand out from your competitors clear? Do you have consistent marketing across your online presences and throughout your website?
   8. Search Engine Optimized – Being optimized for search engines is still important for business websites, since many of your potential customers will find you through searches (even if it’s just for your company name). While I believe that websites should be designed for people, not computers (search engines), I still think it’s important to take into account SEO best practices so that you can be found by people using search engines.
   9. Searchable – Sometimes people who visit your site are interested in more information on a certain topic. Do they have a way to easily find all the content that they want on your site? Having a search feature can make it easier for visitors and increase the time people spend on your site. (Although, don’t make having a search an excuse for poor site usability.)
   10. Regularly Updated – Even if you don’t redesign your site very often, there still should be new information or some sort of updates regularly. Otherwise, why would anyone visit more than once?
   11. Listen & Improve – Listen to what your customers and visitors say about your website. Consider their questions and problems and figure out what you can do to improve their experience.
   rstand what information and functionality your website audiences are looking for, try to make it as easy as possible for them to find the information they want and perform any actions they want to do. It may be helpful to map out all the various actions that someone may want to do on your website (from the needs above) and take a look at how many steps each takes and whether the next step is clear (good analytics can also help with this).
3. Branding – Branding is important both offline and online so that people recognize your company (which is why it’s also important to protect your logos through trademarking). Good branding on a company website makes it clear that this site is one of your official customer touchpoints. Using branding consistently across your online presence will help provide recognition when you create a profile in a new place.
4. Obvious Contact Information – If someone wants to contact you, can they easily find out how? Ideally, having a phone number (and possibly email) on every page can make it much easier for people to contact you when they want to (from any page on your site!).
5. Clear Call to Action – When someone comes to your site on a page other than your home page (or even on your home page), is it clear what step they should take next if they’re interested? If someone wants to buy from you, are you relying on them to figure out that they should fill out the form on your contact page?
6. Design – Does your website look like every other website out there? Does it look professional? Does it look like it was built in 1997? The design and look of your website say a lot about your company to visitors. In some ways a good business website is more important than a business card. And first impressions do matter online too.
7. Consistent Messaging – Is what you do obvious to a visitor? Is what makes you stand out from your competitors clear? Do you have consistent marketing across your online presences and throughout your website?
8. Search Engine Optimized – Being optimized for search engines is still important for business websites, since many of your potential customers will find you through searches (even if it’s just for your company name). While I believe that websites should be designed for people, not computers (search engines), I still think it’s important to take into account SEO best practices so that you can be found by people using search engines.
9. Searchable – Sometimes people who visit your site are interested in more information on a certain topic. Do they have a way to easily find all the content that they want on your site? Having a search feature can make it easier for visitors and increase the time people spend on your site. (Although, don’t make having a search an excuse for poor site usability.)
10. Regularly Updated – Even if you don’t redesign your site very often, there still should be new information or some sort of updates regularly. Otherwise, why would anyone visit more than once?
11. Listen & Improve – Listen to what your customers and visitors say about your website. Consider their questions and problems and figure out what you can do to improve their experience.