If you’re one of the many entrepreneurs who has decided 2017 is your year, and have dug out that aged business venture you’d forgotten you started, it’s time to hit ‘reboot’ on that old website.
Whether you’re heading into the industry of landscape gardening or opening your own dog grooming parlour, an up-to-date website is a vital part of your online presence and digital marketing strategy.
With that said, here are some top tips on refreshing an outdated website that simply isn’t doing its job anymore.
A clear goal
Step one of your bigger, better and brighter website; making sure there is a clear goal. Visitors of your site need to know instantly why they’re there. What are you selling? Is it cheap compared to the competition, or are you offering a luxurious service that they shouldn’t put a price on?
Dedicate your first hours of updating to your front page and what it says to readers as soon as they hit your site. Once finished, even the most computer illiterate person you know should be able to tell you what you’re offering from just a glance.
Case studies
The next step to perfecting your old site is getting some testimonials to swing the vote of undecided potential customers.
If you’re just setting up you may have to wait a while to add these in. However if you already have customer references then it’s easy enough to add them into your website and showcase them in an attractive manner.
A large, simple typography with quotation marks and the referee’s name is all you need to be able to convince some customers that you provide a reliable service.
Graphics
Graphics are a huge aspect of your site. They affect how visitors will interpret, read and interact with your pages. They determine whether a potential customer chooses to click ‘buy’, ‘sign up’ or ‘get a quote’.
With such an important factor at stake, don’t be tempted to rush your comeback to business. Instead, take a luxurious amount of time pouring over pantone colours and typography options. Drink copious amounts of tea while you decide if duck-egg blue or cerulean will complement the background best.
Alternatively you can outsource this to a graphic designer who can help you with the tough decisions and save you time better spent working on your content…
Well-written content
Bringing us nicely onto the next step of your website refurbishment; the writing.
The content of your website should be inviting, read well and successfully communicate your brand’s tone of voice. If you feel this is a job for a professional you can again outsource to a copywriter.
However if you think your wordsmith self is up to the job, sit yourself in a quiet room with a brew and some digestives and get to work. Before you begin you should have an exact idea of the tone of voice you wish to convey. You might want to be a light-hearted and jovial brand, or opting for a sombre and sincere tone could be more appropriate (if you own a funeral directors, we’ll let you figure out which one you should use). Whichever you go for, make sure it remains consistent through all content.
Upkeep
Once your website has gone live, it’s not all done and dusted. Your website will need looking after if you want to get seen by search engines and noticed by your potential customers.
Enlisting in the help of an SEO specialist can help get your website in Google’s good books and help monitor your most viewed site pages. Having an active blog can also be an important factor in maintaining a current website.
What are your tips on refreshing a small business website? Or is your own page in need of a 21st Century makeover? Share your thoughts by dropping us a comment in the section below!