Strategic Digital MarketingAdapting to the digital marketplace

What makes a good website?Ask 100 people what their favourite website is and you’ll probably get 100 different answers. Its quite subjective and everyone has their own priorities which they judge their web experiences against.

However, when you look at the answers that do get given to the ‘favourite website’ question there is a definite pattern. The large majority of sites that people cite are functional and allow their users to perform one or more useful tasks simply and easily. So sites such as Google, Rightmove, Autotrader and the BBC iPlayer often feature in responses.

When you reverse the question and ask what sites people don’t like the answers almost always revolve around two categories. Either the site referenced didn’t work, “I spent two hours filling in the form and then it lost all my data!”, or the site was just plain ugly.

This document will guide you through the best practices required to create a company website that meets the needs of your customers and can be easily managed by your own staff with minimal effort.

Good design

The most important job of any website is to represent the organisation, product or company behind it. You can’t hide from the fact that, these days, any potential employee, supplier, investor or customer will immediately check out your web presence. In many cases it will be the first interaction that a user has with your brand, so it needs to impress visually before a user even tries to click any links.

Usability & Accessibility

Any site should be simple and intuitive to use. Avoid obscure navigation designs or an over reliance on animation, particularly if its reliant on a plugin (such as Flash).

Since something like 50% of all your web visitors will be visiting using a smartphone or tablet its also vital that this audience is well catered for with a fully ‘responsive’ layout.

The law demands that you should take all reasonable steps to make your website accessible to all, regardless of disability. There are many well documented steps that you can take to achieve this and any decent web development agency should have no problem implementing them.

You should also instruct your web developers to comply with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines. This will ensure that any code they write is valid, is search engine friendly and works on the widest range of devices.

For all of these reasons its worth having your site professionally designed by digital design experts who understand both your brand identity and how web interfaces should work. Many agencies are good at one or other of these, ensure the one you choose is good at both.

Content

Think about who your web visitors are and focus on creating the content for your website that they want. In most cases, when we talk about web content we mean words, images and occasionally videos. Remember though, the best websites give their visitors useful tools so try to think of ways you can add value to your content with downloads, calculators, guides, database searches and similar resources. However, even without these tools you can take a few simple steps to improve your content.

Words

Web visitors don’t like reading as a rule. So when you have something to say try to say it succinctly and keep to the point. There is a place for longer articles (particularly for SEO purposes) but users will usually prefer to see a summary paragraph and make their own decision whether they wish to read further.

Whilst you don’t want to say too much its important that what you do say is well crafted. The tone of voice you adopt is as important as any visual aspect of your brand identity. Its also important that what you say ties in with any wider SEO (search engine optimisation) strategy and features the keywords or phrases you have identified as being key to your visibility.

Images

Imagery is vital. Nobody wants to be confronted with a wall of type and images help break up the content as well as conveying (often subtle) messages about your brand identity, ethos, products or service offering.

The images you use should be high quality and sufficient resolution. Its fine to use royalty free and stock imagery but try to find images that are more unique and not likely to feature on a direct competitor’s site.

Original images that are unique to you and that you own the rights to are by far the best option. Its true that a professional photo shoot can be expensive but its possible to commission a photographer on a day rate to do a large number of digital shots that are ideal for web usage.

Do not use an image unless you are 100% sure you have the right to do so. Some rights managed images cost hundreds or even thousands of pounds to use and image libraries have sophisticated software to hunt down sites that infringe their copyright.

Videos

Web users tend to love videos. They convey complex messages in an easily digested format that is far more likely to get viewed than a long winded text article. They also feature prominently in search engine results pages.

Videos don’t need to be complicated. A video of someone simply talking to camera can be really effective. If you have access to a decent agency that can create engaging videos and animations so much the better but as long as its stable and well lit it can prove to be valuable content.

Your content should always be up to date and relevant. Many sites leave outdated news articles or features online and rarely add new content. This creates a negative impression for site visitors and Google hates static sites that are rarely updated and will penalise you in the search listings.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

For many websites (although not all) being high up the listings in Google is a vital measure of success. There are some technical things that will make a difference to your ranking (well formatted code, meta data, sitemap, mobile responsiveness etc.) but these days Google is sophisticated enough to compensate for most of these.

What really works is to have the most relevant content for any specific search term. By and large if you are the most relevant result you will rank highly regardless of technical factors.

So the trick is to make your site more relevant. To do this you need to understand the search terms that people use to find products or services like yours. You then need to ensure that those keywords and phrases feature in your page titles, headings and text. It can be tricky to do this and still have text that remains engaging and reads well for ordinary site visitors but there are specialist copywriters and SEO services that will help. However, avoid any SEO agency that tells you they can improve your rankings simply by adding to or modifying your code as the measures they are taking are probably out of date and of little use.

Blogging

As we said earlier, Google hates sites that are out of date and not regularly updated. Since much of what you want to say about your company (its history, products, ethos, contact details etc.) may not change that often this can prove challenging. The easiest way round this is to create a blog where you can supplement the static content on your site with regular articles that you write. Typically these should be industry comment, insights, tutorials, guides and how to’s that will be of value to your visitors. Google will be impressed that you have lots of up to date, relevant and helpful information on your website and your rankings will improve.

Social media

You can further supplement your blogging by embracing social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin. These sites offer you the chance to reach a far greater audience than you could ever achieve without them. Building up an audience of followers won’t happen overnight but if you persistently offer useful commentary or information on your website and then shout about this on social media you may be surprised how many people want to connect with you. As more and more people link back to your blog posts Google will further reward you in it’s rankings.

Other things to consider

Domain registration

You’ll need to own an existing domain (ie. www.yourcompanyname.com) or register a new one. There are several well known companies that offer domain registration websites and a multitude of domain types. If you are at all unsure get either a .co.uk or .com domain.

Website hosting

Unless you have a skilled in-house IT team you will need to purchase some space on an Internet Service Provider’s servers. This is where the actual files and images that make up your website live. When someone types your website address into their browser special servers (called DNS servers) point the user to your hosting provider’s server.

Website hosting can be very cheap (often under £10 per month) but you don’t get much for your money at that end of the spectrum. Your site files and databases won’t be backed up, you’ll be sharing your server with up to 200 other sites and you’ll likely only get telephone support. Therefore these very cheap hosting deals are only really appropriate for sites with low traffic and minimal content.

Most companies won’t want the hassle of running their own web server and will prefer to get a specialist digital agency to host their site who can react when any server maintenance is required. The site will still share a server with other sites but these will likely be other clients of the same agency who are far more trustworthy and there will be far fewer of them.

If you do have a site with high levels of anticipated traffic its worth investing in a dedicated server package where only your site resides on a particular server.

Content management

The simplest and cheapest websites will not have any content management tools. If you want to change, add or delete anything you will have to either learn how to do this yourself or get an external digital agency to help you.

For a few customers who don’t make many updates this is the best option. However, if you want to control your content in house or write a blog and not rely on an external agency you will need a content management solution (CMS).

There are common open source CMS systems (such as Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal) that are free to download. However, this does not mean they have no costs associated. Even a free CMS will need setting up, styling, configuring and maintaining. Usually you will need a specialist digital agency

to help you get started but once you are up and running you should be able to perform most website editing tasks in house with your own staff.

Many digital agencies offer their own CMS systems that they have written themselves but these should be approached with caution. They are rarely as well developed or bug checked as the previously mentioned solutions and tie you to that agency. Much better to choose a widely known solution that can be taken over by any skilled web developer.

A little time

Keeping your website up to date and creating new content will undoubtedly need a little of your time. Try to set aside a little time each week to plan your online marketing - it becomes easier when its part of your routine.

If you don’t have much time help is available. If you are not confident enough to write your own content there are SEO focused copywriters who will write articles for you at very resonable rates. Digital marketing agencies can also create and monitor social media posts on your behalf. All you need to do is set a few minutes aside regularly to decide what you want them to say.

Summary

Many companies retain poor websites that are several years old in the mistaken belief that because they don’t secure business directly through their website its not a high priority. These companies rarely consider how much business they lose when people see their poor web presence or how much additional business they could secure with a well designed site and decent search rankings. Having a good online presence is akin to having a good shop front so you have to ask yourself - do you want to be Selfridges or Poundland?

For those not familiar with the terminology and technology, creating a website can seem like a daunting exercise. By partnering with a quality digital specialist you can focus on the message while they deal with the jargon.

Whether you decide to get outside help or go it alone make sure you get the most from your site with these simple rules.Stay on top of it - going live should be the start of your journey and not the end. Over a short period of time you’ll start to see the benefits.

Great design - make sure you have a well designed site that is in harmony with your wider brand identity.

Mobile friendly - you cannot afford to ignore this audience. Make sure your site is fully responsive.

Great content - invest time and energy into creating good content that is useful to your visitors.

Embrace social media - drive visitors to your site.

Expert web solutionsWe’ve put together a range of digital marketing solutions specifically tailored to help you create and nuture an industry leading online presence.

All these solutions include unlimited access to free, expert consultation from digital marketing specialists who work hand in hand with you, creating a trusted resource.

To find out more talk to Lee or Darren for a detailed discussion.

Tel: +44 (0)1403 793808

lee.rendell@fortunesoftuk.comdarren.richmond@fortunesoftuk.com

The Courtyard, 30 Worthing Road, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1SL

www.fortunesoftuk.com

Tel: 01403 793808