How do you improve your online experience?
Let’s face it, anybody who has run an online business for a while has their own opinions on what they should and shouldn't be doing to achieve the best results from their website.
The truth is that in a lot of cases being different and having your own opinions is fine, but only if you make sure that you have covered some of the basic principles of ecommerce and web build.
Here are
5 things we feel you should always consider when you are looking to build a transactional or information based website:
Website consideration number 1:Make sure the website clearly shows what you provide and always has a strong call to action!
A website should always convey your brand and visually impress consumers from the very first few seconds they reach the site, but not at the expense of clearly displaying your products and services.
The call to action should always be strong on any website irrelevant of what you sell or provide. If a website does not guide the consumer to an area of call to action the site is not serving its purpose.
Web design consideration number 2:Don’t rush a site live!
We all have commercial deadlines to hit, but if you don’t feel your website is ready for the consumers, don’t send it live.
Your website is your online shop window and if it has gone live with bugs, the site will make the wrong first impression. Web Designers will always fix bugs before you go live and sign off, so make sure you give yourself the right amount of time to test and smooth out any issues before you go live.
Web consideration number 3:If your website is going to take online payments it is imperative to remember to keep the purchasing and payment process streamlined.
Pricing and what is included must be crystal clear.
You must look to generate consumer confidence and trust by clearly displaying concise policies, security badges, trust certificates and contact information. Consumers can be very cautious when asked for personal information, with news of hacked websites being increasingly reported. The biggest and best online companies in the world recognise the importance of consumer confidence and by using these techniques it is one way to help alleviate any fears they may have.
Website design consideration number 4:Website usability is massively important. If you find your website hard to use during the build process, how will your consumers get on?
You should always make sure your consumers can quickly find and discover products / services by offering clear navigation / calls to action.
Don’t forget the consumers will not always start on the home page so you should have strong product / service landing pages for them to arrive at, with clear call to action. It must also be easy for them to navigate to other product and service areas within your website.
Website design and marketing consideration number 5:Once your website is ready to go live and you are happy with everything, the marketing of the site needs the same level of consideration. The days of just throwing some PPC at it are long gone.
Make sure the marketing is always relevant and that you understand the ROI on every penny you spend!
Don’t forget it’s not always just about traffic levels. A site is better having 100 visitors to your website a day with 10 people looking for the product and service you offer, than 20,000 hits a day with only 1 visitor being a potential customer.
SEO and Social Media should form part of your overall plan, but don’t be under any illusion. They take time and effort to implement and come with all the associated costs. Time is money!
Every marketing avenue you look at should be considered and understood. Eventually you will find the marketing streams that will work for your business, which will create the foundation for you to build on.
We hope you have found this useful!
Tags:
Website Design
Ecommerce Systems
Web Development
Web Design Company
Web Marketing
