Website Tips to Boost Your Business

Website Tips to Boost Your Business

"In today's Information Age of Marketing and Web 2.0 a company's website is the key to their entire business"

If you are a business owner, you need to have an active presence online.  Having a website is a critical part of this online foundation.  Having a website that works for you, generates leads and sales, and converts to calls and customers -that is the ultimate goal.

In 2022 there are over 2 billion websites on the internet.  Fun fact - only 400 million of those are active.  20 Million websites focus on e-commerce.  The average internet user visits 130 web pages per day.

It only takes 50 milliseconds for a user to form an opinion of your website.

Getting users to your website is one huge task, one that many brands spend thousands of dollars to achieve.  Converting users once they land on your website into a lead or paying customer is a completely other topic.  In this article I'm going to explore a few website tips that you can use to help your website turn more visitors into leads, clients or sales.

Here are 7 Website Tips to Boost Your Business

#1 Make Sure Your Website Has an SSL Certificate

An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates a website's identity and enables an encrypted connection.

Most websites today do have an SSL certificate - which is applied to your website domain at the hosting level and shows "Https" in the URL instead of just "Http".  Unfortunately I still come across many websites that do not have an SSL certificate.  Some small business owners might not realize what this is or how important it is to have one.  

Not having an SSL certificate may not only prevent a user from even getting to your website - because browsers will warn them away - but it is also a negative consideration by Google.  This may prevent your website from being ranked on search engines.  This is the very first item I always look at when visiting a website.

#2 Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Friendly & Responsive

Since well over 50% of website visitors are coming from a mobile device it is very important to have a mobile friendly version of your website.  The good news is that most website builders today automatically create your web pages in a "responsive" format.  This means that the browser on the mobile device or tablet will automatically adjust the webpage so the user can view the content.  However there are still some websites that might be outdated or custom created that do not format properly on mobile.  Also some website programs such as Wix and Squarespace have custom settings for mobile so you may want to look into those individually.

My suggestion is that you test your website not only on your own phone or tablet, but also ask friends & family to check it too.

**Important note!!!  If the user has modified their device viewing settings or monitor settings a website might not format correctly and there is not much that can be done at the development level***

#3 Make Sure Your Contact Information is Easy To Find

64 % of website visitors are looking to find the contact details of the business, so this makes it super important to have your contact details up to date.  It is also important to make sure your contact information is easy to find.  Many business websites put their contact information in the footer or on a contact page.  If your contact information is not front and centre your visitor may become frustrated and leave.  

PRO TIP - Put your contact information and social links in your header bar for really easy access 

#4 Make Sure Social Media Links Work

It is highly suggested that you include all of your social media profile links on your website in an easy to find location.  It is much more important to make sure that each of these links is working and directing visitors to the correct social media page or profile.

I have audited many websites that have either no links to social media accounts or worse - social media icons that link nowhere - or still worse - to someone else's social media profile.

Showcasing your social media icons with links on your websites gives a website visitor the opportunity to connect with you on social media channels, and it also helps to reaffirm that you are an active, engaged, and trustworthy brand.

#5 Offer a Great User Experience (UX)

Item #5 of website tips to help boost your business is to analyze what your user experience (UX) is.  

According to Wikipedia The user experience (UX) is how a user interacts with and experiences a product, system or service. It includes a person's perceptions of utility, ease of use, and efficiency.

Pretend that you are a brand new visitor to your website and have no idea what your business does.  How easy is it for visitors to immediately understand 

• Who you are
• What you do
• How you help them
• How they can contact you 
• How they can work with you or buy from you (Call To Action)

Another great way to clean up your user experience is to ask friends and family to walk through the website page by page with you and offer suggestions on what might make the experience more user friendly for them.

Tips for great User Experience (UX) include:

• Easy Navigation - with content found within one or two clicks
• Clean and attractive design with clear images & text
• Easy process flow for purchasing, contacting, ordering
• Maintain consistency

#6 Make Sure Your Website Has No Broken Links or Images

As a website grows and time passes it is common for outbound links to be taken down for various reasons.  That external website, which is beyond your control, may cease to exist or take the page down that you originally linked to.  Having broken links on your website not only creates a problem for visitors trying to access that information, but it may have a negative impact on how Google views your website for ranking purposes.  Broken Links & Broken Images = SEO Issues 

You do not want to have your Search Engine Results negatively impacted by having errors on your website.

Iit is important to constantly be auditing your website for broken links & images.  Luckily there are automations you can put into place to detect such errors.  

If you are looking for an audit or assistance with this please see this related article "How Healthy Is Your Website"

#7 Keep Adding Fresh Content

To get the most out of your website, treat it as if it were a living breathing extension of your business.  Or perhaps a display window in a retail store that needs to be freshened up every season.  It is not going to benefit your business to create a website, set it, and forget it.  You must keep adding fresh content to your website as consistently as possible.  Examples of fresh content may include:

• Blog Posts
• Press Releases
• In The Media Features
• New Products
• New Services
• New Team Members
• Job Postings
• Community Events
• Company Events

There is not one industry or type of business or organization that I can think of that should not be adding fresh content to their website.  This is beneficial for the user - to be always updated with current information when they visit your website, and it is great for SEO.  What a win/win.

A business website is a powerful marketing tool that can help you reach a wider audience and generate more leads. By following these seven tips, you can improve your business website and make it more user-friendly, engaging, and informative. Doing so will give you an advantage over the competition and help you attract more customers.

Please drop a comment below if you have any other tips!

If I can be of any assistance with your website please do not hesitate to reach out via my contact page.