responsive web design - Kauai Digital Marketing

Top 7 Things to Do Now to Maximize Website Value

What do I mean by “maximize website value?” I mean now is a good time to look at how to maximize the business value of your website.

I recently needed to shop for new homeowner’s insurance on my home island of Kauai. Being a digital marketing guy I started searching with Google for who might be local agents that I would want to speak with. I was surprised to find that not all local agents had a website. I was also surprised to find that some gave no information on their website as to whether they could assist with the type of insurance I was looking for. And even more surprising was that some of the websites failed to have basic contact information, like email, phone, and address!

I assume that if you don’t have accurate contact information on your website then you may not be a very professional agent to handle my insurance needs. (One insurance company that did have a professional looking website asked me to leave a voicemail for a return call and they didn’t call me back for over two weeks!…..but that’s a different business issue….)

So if you are a small business without a website, the number one thing to do is to get one. You are missing out on new business!

If you do have a website, it’s a good time to check over updates you may need to make to maximize its marketing value to your business. You may have spent money to have a website that really isn’t driving business value. Here I have compiled what research and my own personal experience have shown to be the top 7 things you should do now, if you haven’t already. Now is the time to check the list and make any updates!

1. Content is up to date, accurate, and informative

Does your website clearly lay out the value proposition for your prospective customers? Does it clearly communicate the benefits to them of doing business with you? For example, in my business a web design is not a benefit. Being found online and growing your client base is a customer benefit.

Does your website clearly communicate what differentiates your company. Why should a prospect do business with you versus your competitors?

Does your website make it easy and clear to contact you via email, phone, and social media? Does it have your address if you serve customers at a brick and mortar location?

Does your website have lots of photos? Most people don’t read very much. They are scanning and absorbing visual information before they may read any text. Are you posting to a blog on your website that helps to provide insights and demonstrate your expertise in your particular business? It also signals to search engines that you are a relevant and up to date source for key words related to your business. It’s a business blog, not what you had for breakfast or the fun thing you did on Saturday night.

2. Responsive for mobile devices

Half of all Google searches are done on mobile devices. More than 60% of emails are read on mobile devices. Younger generations live on their mobile devices. Your website now should be using responsive technology to adapt to various devices.

If you are found in a search, but your web page is not easily readable, your prospective customer may just move on to the next company. And Google has started to tighten down and penalize some pages in ranking if they are not mobile-friendly. Expect that to get even tighter in the next couple of years.

3. It is easy to find information and navigate your website

If your website still looks like it’s 2010 or before, you’re cheapening your brand image and dissuading potential customers from contacting you. The look and feel of websites is evolving. If you haven’t already, it’s time to declutter. White space is in! Focus on relevant images and key information. Make it simple, clear, and relevant. Your menu and navigation should be simple and easy for people to follow.

4. Social Sharing should be enabled and easy to use

Your website should be the content hub about your business. Social Media is a channel to help drive prospective customers to your content. And it should also be easy for people to share content from your website to social media. They will actually help you to market and spread awareness with their family and friends if they find interesting and useful content and an easy share button.

5. Email capture

Someone who visits your website today may or may not be ready to make an immediate purchase. But they have shown interest in your brand. Give them an incentive on your web page to opt-in to your email list. If you offer them some information of value in return for opting-in, you will see a much higher signup rate. By opting-in they are giving you permission to market to them over time in a personal way. They are much more likely to open your email than they are to see one of your social media posts.

6. Speed and performance should be optimized

If your website is too slow to load, you may lose a prospective customer. There is a trade-off between lots of images that tell your story and the speed and performance of your site. A tool set like Google PageSpeed Tools will analyze your speed and give specific recommendations for improvement. Make sure you are using a web host with adequate performance relative to others. Also make sure that all images are highly compressed.

7. Optimize for search engines

Check Google Search Console to make sure there are neither errors nor resource blocking for your site. Follow best practices for focus keywords, titles, snippets, photo alt text, and text so that search engines will recognize and reward your valuable content with higher rankings. Reach out to other relevant high value websites to request a link back to your site. Create relevant links between different pages of your website. Make sure your address and contact information are consistent across all sites and social media. Search Engine Optimization experts may chuckle at this simplified list, but these are good first steps to address or to discuss with your web designer.

Maximize website value

If you started the new year without updating your marketing plan and checking the health of your website, now is the time to maximize website value!

Responsive Web Design Critical to Your Bottom Line

Have you re-designed your web site in the past couple of years? If not, you are likely in urgent need to update it to a responsive web design. If you’re a digital marketing person, you already know what that is. If you’re not, you may be wondering what I’m talking about and why I say it is critical to your bottom line.

Why Responsive Web Design Is So Important

A while ago I shared data on the shift of consumers to mobile devices to find information. I blogged about it in Mobile First Marketing. I also blogged about what I called Mobile Meltdown Day earlier this year when Google was updating their mobile search rankings. (Others called it Mobilegeddon.) Mobile Meltdown is just beginning. The reality of the initial impact was less than expected. About 17% of non mobile-friendly sites saw their mobile search ranking decline significantly from page 1 results. But that shouldn’t make you complacent about mobile-friendly sites that use responsive web design.. Mobile searches are already over 50% of total searches and continue to increase.

Failure to make responsive web design a priority will put your business at risk moving forward. You will be missing out on customers if they do not have good experience with your web site on mobile devices. In the short-term they may continue to find you in search results. But they will likely abandon you when your site is shrunken, un-optimized, unreadable, and difficult to use. Depending on your business and the typical age ranges of your customers you may already be at risk of losing new customers. The potential impact to your bottom line is huge.

What is Responsive Web Design?

I primarily use three different devices for accessing information on the Internet. I have standardized on Apple (don’t get me started on my poor experiences with past Microsoft products!). So I use an iPhone, iPad, and Macbook Pro at different times and locations. At work I am using my desktop browser(s) on a large screen. If I’m relaxing in the family room, I usually have my iPad open checking social media, reading news, using apps, and searching for information using the browser. If I am not at home I am using apps and searching for information on my iPhone while I am on the move. You may have fewer or more devices than me, but you get the idea. No matter what device size I am using I want to be able to read and interact with information from your business. If it’s unreadable, too slow, requiring me to go to a separate mobile site, or otherwise difficult to use, I just go to the next of your competitors. I personally don’t have time or patience to deal with your business if you don’t make it easy for me to learn about or find you. And I’m not alone!

Responsive web design is the approach to deal with this situation of multiple devices to have a consistently satisfying customer experience. It is a way of designing and developing web sites so that they are easy to read, interact with, and navigate across a wide range of devices. It is an approach for your web site to adapt and adjust to the customer, based on which device they are using at the time. There should be minimal re-sizing and side-to-side scrolling required. Mobile customer experiences should be optimized for speed and for minimal page switching.

How You or Your Web Designer Implement Responsive Web Design

You may use tools or frameworks such as Webflow, Bootstrap, Foundation, or Skeleton if you are Web developer into the technical details. For a WordPress-based web site, I like to start with a theme that already incorporates principles of good, responsive design. That way I can focus more on the customer experience and compelling marketing content.

Principles and best practices continue to emerge for Responsive Web Design, but these are some to consider now:

Start by designing for the mobile customer
Use images that are flexible and workable on retina displays from small to very large
Compress images and videos to improve performance
Get rid of non-essential content and site decorations
Present more information that can be seen scrolling downward rather than requiring a lot of back and forth between pages
Get rid of Flash on your site
Minimize navigation menus
Have important information at the top of your site
Use bigger buttons
Look at whether you should have an app in addition to a web site

Small and mid-sized businesses are particularly lagging in the move to responsive web design. If your web site is not yet using responsive web design it needs to be on your priority list of things to do. You’re probably already losing some customers who are trying to interact with you on mobile devices. But this will increase significantly over the next 1-2 years. The time to act is now before you see a negative impact to your bottom line.

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Let me know any comments or questions.

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