The fact that you haven’t bothered to even look at your company’s website in a very long time doesn’t mean that you should give up on it. You still need a functioning website for your Phoenix area business to thrive, and you only need your Phoenix web design company to redesign your current one, because your old website can be revived, no matter how much of a mess you think it is. Here are six ways that you can transform your website from a dud into something truly useful:
1. Decide what you want your site to do (again)
Your web design goals should be perfectly aligned with your business goals. Otherwise, the revival of your site is likely to be a total disaster. Create a list of things that you hope to gain from the internet for your business. For example, if you wanted:
- More sales lead calls
- More sales
- Online sales
- Increased awareness about your industry
- Faster sales lead turnaround
- Improved brand recognition
- More customer retention
These are just a few examples of business goals that could be tethered to the development of your website. Regardless of what your goals are, make sure that your Phoenix web design company is aware of them so that they can design with those things in mind.
2. Cut back on complexity
Many websites fail to meet their owners’ goals because each page tries to reach too many of them at once. A cluttered website is doomed to disaster simply because users will become, confused and frustrated; this will lead to fast exits instead of sales leads.
Likewise, trying to add too much glitz and glam to your website will make your website too complex.
Both styles will result in a slower website; slow load times result in quick exits, especially for mobile users, who often use slower cellular networks.
3. Do NOT try to perfect your website
Your goal is for your website to serve a business function, not be a perfect artistic creation. Many websites fail because they never live up to the owner’s expectations. Don’t let this happen to your website. Allow your Phoenix web design company to do their job and let the results speak for themselves—regarding is ability to help you reach you business goals, not how much you subjectively love it.
4. Ask for the opinions of objective observers
Objectivity is the key to getting a qualified opinion. As the owner, you are the most subjective and therefore the least qualified to objectively observe your website. Even if you feel as though your Phoenix web design company is too subjective—as the builder of the site—to provide an objective opinion, make sure to hire someone whose opinion will count. You could, for example, work with your Phoenix SEO company to develop an incentive-based survey that visitors can fill out.
5. Claim your site
Another big downfall of many sites is owner distance; when someone visits your site, they want to be sure that it is you. Make sure that you are claiming your site everywhere, especially on search engines (this will also benefit your local Phoenix SEO campaign. Google places, for example, will greatly boost your results when people search for businesses like yours in the local area.
Outside of search engine marketing, claiming your site means letting people know that you have one. Flyers, menus, receipts, business cards, billboards and everything else that you can reasonably fit letters onto should include your company’s web address.
6. Don’t go it alone
Another big mistake that business owners make is thinking that they can build a good website on their own. As you can see throughout this article, we mentioned the fact that you should have your Phoenix web design company or Phoenix SEO company do certain things for you. This is due to the fact that like you, they are experts in their fields (web design and SEO, respectively) and can do things for your website that you could not have imagined.
Their services aren’t expensive either—you don’t need to have a Fortune 500 budget to afford a web designer or SEO expert. There are packages to meet every budget.
