11 Tips for a Successful Website

1. Update it. People like to see something new – it could be something as small as featuring your latest project or talking about the up-coming seasonal special.

2. Promote it. You can’t get a website built and expect loads of people to suddenly visit. Promotion doesn’t need to cost anything extra than what you already spend; include your web address on your business cards, signage, brochures, vehicle sign writing, advertisements and uniforms – uniforms act like a walking advert for your site.

3. Tell people about it. Talk about it – tell your friends, refer people asking questions about your business to your website – let people know you’re online.

4. Work on it. A website is never finished - it might be live but it’s never complete. It should be something you are continually working on – adding products, changing pages and continually looking at how you can improve it. This doesn’t have to be everyday; try to put aside 30 minutes a week to work on your site.

5. Talk about NOW. Having old information will make visitors to your site leave straight away; it might also make people question the credibility of your business. Provide relevant, timely information that’s of interest to visitors.

6. Look at it! It’s surprising the number of people who don’t look at their own website. When you’re updating make sure your changes look how you expected them to look. Think about improvements – am I giving people enough information? Is it clear? How could I make it better? Is my information relevant and up-to-date?

7. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. You may know everything about your business but customers, and visitors to your website, don’t. Consider what someone coming to your site will want to see – perhaps a portfolio of your completed work, details about the services you offer and the areas you operate in.

8. Get found. Consider subscribing to a search engine optimisation service. This will help to get found in search engines like Google for what you do; after all customers may not know your business name but they know what products and services they’re after! Contact W3 for more information about this service.

9. Ask for feedback. Ask customers what they think of your website – was there enough information? Could they find what they were looking for?

10. Track where your business comes from. Ask people where they heard of you. This way you’ll know what marketing is working for you.

11. Update it (again). Your website is never 'finished', in the same way that your business never stops growing and developing. You need to set aside time each week to ensure your website is up to date and effective.