Webwise: Building Business on the web – pt 3 – making your website more effective

How can you ensure that your website is working as effectively as possible for your business? Here are two simple rules to follow:

1. Focus on what you want visitors to your website to do:
   In my last column I wrote about the importance of focusing on why people should be visiting your website, and what you want them to do when they get there. Remember that on average, people only spend 2-3 minutes on a website, so you don’t have long to get your message across. Whatever your priority – selling products or services online, building positive word of mouth, reassuring prospective clients of your expertise, generating sales appointments, or creating a database of customer information – make sure your website does this quickly, simply and consistently.
2. Make sure you can be found:
   There are now millions of websites, so making sure your prospective customers can find you easily is an essential part of building your business on the web. Free tools such as Google Analytics (www.google.co.uk/analytics) show you how people come to your site – whether from another website or through a search engine, and which search terms (keywords) they are using to find you. As a first step in building a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, make sure that these keywords and other likely or relevant search terms are included throughout your website. This makes it more likely that when a prospective customer searches for your products or services, your site will appear in their search results.

In next month’s column I’ll be outlining how you can develop an effective SEO strategy using simple tools and techniques to increase your website’s profile online and generate increased visitor traffic.

WEBWISE – building business on the web – Part 1

Fiona Mulliner is Managing Director of Jumpstart Design Ltd, a specialist digital design and communications agency based in Horsham.

Fiona’s previous international positions as Vice President, Marketing for media multinational News Corporation, and General Manager, Joint Ventures for BBC Worldwide has given her a wealth of commercial, marketing and communications experience. She sits on the Executive Council of Cadia, the Gatwick Diamond Business Association, has a professional qualification in Marketing, and is active in a number of creative and digital industry organisations.

Welcome to a new column that aims to help businesses become more effective online – whether that’s in terms of increased sales, better promotion, enhanced marketing or improved productivity. Over the next few months we’ll be exploring different areas of digital communications, including using the web to support and extend your overall brand and marketing strategy, designing a website that works for your business, making sure your business can be found easily on search engines (Search Engine Optimisation), how to use social media to reach new audiences, and how to track and measure your online success.

As we all know, the web is big business. A recent study by Uswitch reveals that UK broadband users spend on average 30 hours per week online. On a typical working day, around 67% of people use the internet to find deals, discounts and vouchers. 93% of broadband subscribers use the internet to shop online, with 79% spending two hours a week shopping online. Internet advertising spend has now overtaken TV advertising. According to the latest Internet Advertising Bureau report, online advertising spend in first two quarters of 2009 reached £1.75 billion. Reuters’ analysis shows that paid-for search on sites such as Google grew 6.8% from the first half of 2008 to 2009, accounting for £1.05 billion, or 60% of all online advertising expenditure.

What does this mean for businesses promoting their products and services online? Simply that it is now essential to understand the strategies and tools that can deliver more effective digital communications in order to stand out from the crowd, reach your target audience and build your business online. As a starting point, it is useful to consider two key questions: “What is my business really about – its “brand promise”? And “Does everything we do on the web truly reflect that promise?” The answers to those questions should enable you to begin to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of your digital communications.