THE ONE THING THAT YOU ARE NOT DOING WITH YOU WEB SITE THAT WILL IMPROVE IT OUT OF SIGHT...

The one thing that you can do to get better results for your web site is maintain and to grow the content.

That’s it – the answer – okay – oh - you’re still reading – so want to know more…?

2021 Edit - This still holds true - and when we say "content" we mean grow the number of videos that you create, the number of blog posts, the new products or services - or the new associations that you have joined. Your business is rarely static and not growing - your online content needs to also grow with you.

Engaging your web site visitor has to be the first priority of any web project – then you need to build a relationship with them (build their “trust”) and then they should be ready to take the next step / follow the calls to action of the web site and actually purchase your items, make a booking or add themselves to your direct email database.

If we fail in any of these steps then your potential customer has possibly gone for good…

A great web site brings in real measurable returns for your business.

People have a preferred digital style – there is no “right answer” in this – you need to cater for all digital styles when presenting content – those that like reading novels, those that like article or magazine style content and those busy people that just want the executive summery – and they want it fast…!

If you only provide one style of content (for example the executive summery style) – then you risk alienating those other styles because you are giving them too little content.

Fresh and constantly updated content builds relationships over time – and these relationships start to turn into conversations – which reinforce the relationships that you have with your web site visitors.

For example - why would you put on your small business web site that you coach children’s soccer..? Because the next person that visits your site and is a possible customer also coaches childrens soccer…

We are all busy in our respective businesses – so here are four main ways of creating content for your web site: -

1. You or your team create the content a little and often. Use tools like our content management system to edit and add to pages and ensure that things are kept up to date.
2. You search for and find excellent information so you can “repost” other peoples content – or point to great resources on the web and let your web visitors know why you think it is important.
3. You can add feeds to your web site so that the pages get “automagically” updated by other web sites – this has some issues but can be a really good way to ensure that your web site is seen to be growing over time.
4. Use social media such as blogs, Facebook or twitter to post information to your web site – which others can repost or comment on.

We’ve developed the following process to identify the best content for your web site: -

1. On a whiteboard or sheet of paper make a list down the side of the page with all the different types of visitors that could visit your web site. These would be potential stakeholders (customers, staff suppliers etc) and also potential stakeholders. Get as specific as you want to segment the visitors and products that your market.
2. Once you have finished that process – you may wish to rank the visitors into “A” types – those that you get direct income from – “B” types a lesser income from – and finally “C” that you could attend to at some time in the future. Then for the next part of the process just focus on the “A” types
3. Put your self in the persona of each type of visitor in turn – and across the top of the page enter the name for a page or a description of the content that would be targeted to answering the visitors questions. In this way you are creating the content to answer specific visitor needs.
4. Then down the right hand side of the page – add the most desired response that we want to visitor to do next – this could be to buy through our shopping cart, fill-in an enquiray form or to download a PDF file that explains more fully what we do. Or it could be many others of “calls to action” for the web site.

Then develop that content…!

We can undertake a facilitated visioning exercise to help you through the process above – please contact me for details about how we do this…