Is Your Website Doing Its Job?

With the strong push for digital marketing and advertising in recent years, we’ve met quite a few prospective clients inquiring about paid advertising and social campaigns to help their products and services take off. The problem that we run into is that we’re essentially trying to run before we can walk, and what I mean by that is we can help you build amazing landing pages and set up PPC campaigns, but if you don’t have a full-functioning, proficient website, prospects will go from being initially engaged to disinterested within minutes.

Gone are the days where having a website for your business was considered supplementary to your marketing media. In today’s competitive e-commerce market, it’s not just enough to have a website, but you must also have a good working website with a proper web hosting inftastructure from providers like Malaysia Web Hosting.

So how do you know if your website is a good website and doing its job? Over the next few weeks, we will be releasing a series of blogs centred around improving your website’s traction and stickiness. Topics will include: The Dangers of Free Website Builders, Mobile Sites that Sum Up the Ideal Mobile Experience and Why Your Hosting Server Should be Localized.

For now, we’ve created a basic checklist of what your website should be doing for you.

Pique Your Prospect’s Interest

• Does your website contain content and images that reflect what your ideal customer would be interested in?
• Is your website tailored to meet your buyer personas’ expectations and tastes?

Simple & Straightforward E-Commerce

• Are the products and services organized for your customers easy to navigate and find items they are interested in?
• Do the products available for purchase offer ample options, complete descriptions with quick reference buttons?
• Does the website simply state shipping additional and/or shipping costs in advance so your customer is not surprised towards the end of the transaction?
• Is the process of purchasing an item quick and painless? i.e. does the customer have to encounter a series of processes to log in, sign up for an account, etc.

Links to Your Social Media

• Is your social media presence relevant on your website? i.e. Are your social media buttons prominently noted through the Home and Contact page?
• Are website visitors encouraged to ‘Like’, ‘Share’, ‘Tweet’ blog content through providing easily identifiable buttons?

Fresh, Relevant Content

• Does your website promote time sensitive content?
• Is the website content relevant/on par with what your prospects’ interests and expectations are?
• Can your website capture your audience’s attention within seconds?
• Is the font size adequate enough to keep your prospects engaged long enough to absorb the material?
• Is your brand appropriately reflected on the website? i.e. design, style, colours, fonts

Aesthetically Pleasing

• Can your website capture your audience’s attention within seconds?
• Is the font size adequate enough to keep your prospects engaged long enough to absorb the material?
• Is your brand appropriately reflected on the website? i.e. design, style, colours, fonts

Loads Quickly

• The longer it takes to load your website, the higher chance the individual visiting your website will abandon it.
• According to Google, two seconds is the threshold for ecommerce website, while at they encourage under half a second.

Ultimately if your website is doing its job, it will incorporate all of the above in a neatly, organized package and should also engaging and bring new leads to you from time to time. Landing pages and adword campaigns are great initiatives for driving new business to a segment of your business, but if you do not have the right foundation and information to present to your prospects beyond the initial contact, then you’re simply not ready to move forward with those initiatives yet.

Your company’s website is one of your business’s strong assets and should not be presented to just an individual or business to handle. Be sure to review any website developer’s portfolio and reviews before even discussing a quote. If you are a DIYer and considering building your own website design, don’t forget to account for the dollars spent on yours or your team’s time to create and design the website; also, stay tuned for our next blog on the dangers of free website builders.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about your website’s performance and proficiency, leave me a comment below or tweet me your question and we’ll chat soon.