It can be taken as fact that if you want your business to survive in the hyper-connected world we live in today, you are going to have to maintain a basic web presence. If, however, you want your business to not just survive, but to thrive and to grow, then you are going to have to have a strong web presence – and at the heart of any business’ online efforts should be a good website.
It may seem simple, but all too often maintaining a good website is placed too low down the list of priorities, beneath things like social media presence, or app marketing. Making sure your website is well designed, intuitive to use and containing relevant, up-to-date content should absolutely be an integral part of any business marketing strategy, and here’s 3 reasons why:
- A regularly updated website helps build trust.
Whether selling a product direct to a consumer, or offering services to other businesses, it is crucial that people know they can trust what you are offering. If, for example, you do not update the content on your website frequently enough, and a customer finds some conflicting information, then that has the potential to destroy all their trust in you, and to cost you business. Few things can make a business seem as out of touch as clicking on their website only to see a newsfeed that hasn’t been updated for over a year, or a banner ad for a sale that has already expired.
- Web design really matters.
Even more crucial to building trust between you and potential customers, is how well your website is designed. It not only has to be pleasing to the eye, it has to display content in a way that is clear and coherent and it has to be intuitive to navigate through, to offer a pleasing user experience. The impact of bad website design cannot be overstated; in a study conducted by the company Change Sciences titled ‘How web design impacts people and profits,’ a direct correlation was found between improved website usability and conversion rates, with the biggest stumbling block to conversion being a badly organised website.
- The strength of your website impacts your SEO.
If the content of your website is badly written or the site is so badly designed that nobody ventures past the first page, then you can be sure that your SEO will be affected. If people aren’t spending long enough on your website, clicking straight through to important pages or sharing your site with other people, you’ll soon find your site lost in the noise of Google search results rather than finding yourself at the top of the page. Websites that are well designed with fresh, regularly updated content are always going to be like cat nip for search engines.
These are just 3 reasons why having a good website should be a top priority to make sure your business is performing at the top of its game.