Welcome reader to May (well it’s really June) and hopefully warmer weather on the horizon. It’s this time of year when a lot of businesses forget about their online presence as thoughts inevitably turn to getting some well deserved time away.
For many though this is exactly the right time to start focusing on how your website can be helping your business continue to grow during the Summer so it’s in great shape to start the third quarter of 2024 strongly after the holidays.
One option to avoid large bills is to take up a website maintenance agreement. This has the benefits of guaranteed time each month to be making updates and improvements as well as time to make sure all the plugins and CMS files are up to date to keep your business site as secure as possible. The cost is a set amount per month that’s easily budgeted for but keeps your website alive and running better than ever.
Below are a number of recommendations for how to build on and improve your website. Remember that all may not apply to every website or business and it’s always best to have in mind how your marketing works and how best you can attract new customers/clients.
Here’s the (non-exhaustive) list of just some of the updates we’ve completed for our client’s websites recently:
Live Chat Support – Offer real-time assistance to answer inquiries and resolve issues quickly. There are plugins to do this or integrations such as WhatsApp for Business.
FAQ Section – Address common questions to help visitors find information easily and reduce support requests. Great content for SEO and search engines.
Client Testimonials and Case Studies – Showcase the success stories and testimonials to build trust and credibility. This is something to consider on a weekly and monthly basis and keep adding consistently.
Online Booking/Appointment Scheduling – Allow customers to book appointments or services directly from your website. This can then be integrated with your diary or customer relationship software keeping you updated and automating the booking procedure.
Interactive Product Demos – Engage users by providing interactive demos or virtual tours of your products or services. The latest iPhones have great video features that can capture visuals and adding video content to your website is straightforward but adds huge impact.
Blog or Resource Center – Share valuable content related to your industry to educate your audience and improve SEO. Keep building this up each month to add more information and extend not only your reputation but also ways for potential clients to find you.
Social Media Integration – Make it easy for users to connect with your social media profiles and share content from your site.
Accessibility Features – Ensure your website is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, by adhering to WCAG guidelines. It’s now straightforward to alter the way a user sees your website by adding an accessibility bar to increase font sizes, change the colour pallette or enable it for use with a screen reader.
Customer Feedback Form – Collect feedback to improve your services and products based on user input. Get enough feedback and you can start to display your customer satisfaction score to further increase your reputation.
Email Newsletter Signup – Capture email addresses to build your mailing list and keep in touch with updates, offers, and news. The more you can contact your client base with information they’re interested in the better.
User Account Creation – Allow users to create accounts to manage their information, orders, and preferences. This can save you and your team time if information is requested.
Multi-language Support – Offer your website in multiple languages to cater to a broader audience. This can be of special importance if you are planning to sell your products or services abroad.
Search Functionality – Implement a robust search feature to help users easily find information on your site. This feature helps people find the information they want quickly.
High-quality Images and Videos – Use professional images and videos to enhance the visual appeal and engagement on your site. When most websites are built they often include stock images to get going. Eventually though the uniqueness of your site and brand should shine through with bespoke photography.
Clear Calls to Action – Use persuasive calls to action to guide users towards making a purchase, contacting you, or taking another desired action. With website maintenance you should ideally be looking to update your sales pages often so that you can test out different layouts to see if that increases your enquiries.
These are just a few ideas and if you need help to regularly improve your website please get in touch to find out more.
