This two part blog post discusses key aspects you should not overlook when redesigning your company’s website. This is Part 2 of this post. If you missed Part 1, it is HERE
6. Use a CMS
CMS or Content Management Software allows for the end user of the website (the company itself or its website manager) to access and control the website from an online dashboard. This effectively allows for easy manipulation of the site’s content, without (to some degree) accessing the code itself. Webvantix develops in WordPress, which is one of several major CMS platform (others being Joomla and Drupal), each with their own benefits (we will avoid the comparison here). WordPress, originally developed as blogging software, has, with its thousands of plug-ins offering instant and easy customization, morphed into the most popular CMS platform. Once installed on a server, pre-built themes (free and paid) can be installed and customized, or a fully custom site can be developed in WordPress.
7. Add A Blog
Standing out in a crowd is difficult to do. Blogging allows you to do just that. As you post blogs that are unique to your vertical, you begin to be viewed as an expert that people will turn to and utilize as a resource. Once you are a trusted resource, you are just a step away from becoming a trusted adviser, or trusted vendor. Developing trust is the key to growing your business, yet, having a website that screams “we are your trusted solution,” means nothing. Creating blog postings that explain aspects specific to your vertical enable you to be viewed less as a salesman, and more as someone to trust.
Also, blogging grows your website. As each blog post is its own page, the more you blog, the more for the search engines to sink their robotic teeth into! Finally, according to Hubspot, blogging for your business can add up to an additional 55% more visitors to your website. Quite simply, that is a huge number, that SEO could never achieve. The more site visitors, the more conversations to qualified leads, and ultimately more customers. If you conversion rates remain constant, blogging could add several new customers per month!b Therefore, blogging increases revenue.
8. Give Your Visitors Something to Do!
What most first generation websites, and many poorly built redesigned websites, lack is the ability for site visitors to do something that directly, and immediately gives them some sort of satisfaction (immediate being the operative word). People want instant gratification, if you don’t offer it to them on your site, someone else will. Therefore that “Contact Us” page at the end of your navigation bar is far from enough. What you need to do is give your site visitors something for visiting your site, and creates an interest for them to return. Therefore, look at your business, and ask yourself, what can we offer? Then develop it, and give it to them! Some simple suggestions: A reservation, an email list, a white paper, a how to video. Offer them something that enhances their life, or their business and you will be rewarded with repeat traffic, and more customers.
9. Create An Email List
This feeds off the previous point, and can be the single most important aspect of your website. By enabling your site’s visitors to join your email list you immediately begin gathering a list of potential customers who are interested in what you have to offer. Then you can push information to them! Got a restaurant? Send them the specials. Got a bar with live music? Send them the upcoming acts for the week! Got a landscaping business? Send them a link to a how to prepare your plants for winter video. Are you a plumber? Send them a link to a video that shows them how to inspect their hot water heater before it breaks and floods their basement. Anything you can think of that offers your subscribers quality content you can use. I also recommend using an HTML opt-in email platform with “double opt-in” capability. This will enable you to send emails using an HTML template that can utilize your company’s branding, and will look much more professional that sending a text only email. Webvantix uses and MailChimp (no affiliation), another popular service is Aweber. These services can also host .pdf whitepapers for your site visitors to download.
10. Control Your SEO
Speaking to business owners on a regular basis I am always asked about SEO. ”We want to be number one on Google.” That’s difficult to achieve with a static website, that does not have a blog, and does not control their own SEO inside the website itself. Is there a simple solution? Yes!
As I previously mentioned, building your site on the WordPress platform has a great number of advantages, but probably the most important advantage are the plug-ins that enable you to customize your website by simply downloading, activating and adjusting them. One of the most popular pug-ins is the All In One SEO plugin. Once activated this software will automatically draw information from your site and run the SEO for you on a page by page basis. Therefore, as your website grows and changes, the plug-in adapts! Additionally, the plug-in can be manipulated manually on each page of your site giving you the ability to change Title Tags, Meta Description,Tags and more. For website owners who want control of their SEO from one simple piece of software All in One SEO is a dream come true!
Bonus: Register Your Site
An often overlooked aspect of website redesign is registering your website with search engines. Obviously, you should register with Google and Yahoo, but where else? Historically, Google has drawn a great deal of its information from the Yahoo Directory. Additionally, there are many other sites that will help your business get found, but you need to register with them. How can you get a simple list? Well, we have created that for you already, and in a easy to use interactive .pdf that has the links right to the sign up pages for you. If you want more visits to your website, download our whitepaper right now:
I hope this information has helped you and your business. If you have any questions or need clarification, please feel free to contact me directly through the form below.
-Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
It’s autumn, and as we have said goodbye to summer, our minds have naturally turned back to business. One aspect of this focus is the desire to get more out of our websites, and of course, for those who are not happy with their current site, website redesign is a popular option.
Knowing when to redesign your website is not the focus of this post, but my rule of thumb is, if you cannot quantify what your website is doing for your business, it’s time to put your site under a microscope. Understanding conversion rates, and leads generated is an absolute minimum. In 2011-2012, to be effective your website should be creating revenue for you–if it’s not, fix it.
There are, of course, many aspects to properly redesigning your website, but here is a short list that should not be overlooked; after all, if you’re going to spend the time and money on redesigning your website, be sure that you do it right. Correctly redesigning your company’s website will reward you with more visitors, a higher conversion rate of visitors to qualified leads, and more revenue.
READ MORE
(Please note: Webvantix is not an affiliate of MarsEdit or Red Sweater Software, nor does Webvantix receive any remuneration for its reviews)
For a long time I had been annoyed with the speed of moving around WordPress when creating a blog post. Slow sign-in process, typical Internet lag, even on high speed access. When I started a second blog I knew I needed a piece of software that would speed up my ability to post. And while I use Evernote from multiple platforms (iPhone/iPad/Laptop/Desktop) to get fast ideas saved for a later time, I wanted a blogging client that would enable me to either post directly to my blogs, or at least get in-depth ideas down as they came to me.
When I finally purchased the new Macbook Air in late July, I knew one of the first apps I would purchase for it would be a blogging client, and I went shopping for the best.
I found it in MarsEdit, which is available only on the Mac platform (no Windows platform being developed), and have actually been lucky enough to have corresponded with the developer and owner Daniel Jalkut, a former Apple software engineer who worked on Mac OS 7-9, and Mac OS X.
MarsEdit was originally developed by Brett Simmons as a part of NetNewsWire and was later split off as stand alone software. Jalkut acquired MarsEdit in 2007 and has been developing it since version 1.1. Currently MarsEdit’s users number in the thousands, and often sing its praises.
At the core of using stand alone software to create and post your blogs is speed–and with our busy schedules, squeezing every available moment out of the day is always a goal, vs. waiting for a browser to identify that you’re trying to backspace to correct a typo. MarsEdit is as fast as you can move, and that, by itself, makes it a great tool.
Speaking with Jalkut there are several other advantages that users enjoy about MarsEdit:
-Avoids the possibility of losing typed content because of a browser mishap.
- Provides a consistent UI for editing blogs hosted on various different services.
- Provides integrated access to native desktop stuff like iPhoto Library, drag and drop support of images.
MarsEdit Main Window
One of the few, very few, concerns I have read is regarding media manipulation, and this is currently being addressed as one of the main areas for improvement. If you’re a user of the WordPress All in One SEO plugin, and you should be, you will have access to manipulating the Title Tags, but it will take some work. I simply upload to WP, then review and add all SEO functionality before publishing.
As a user, now a paid user of MarsEdit (you can get a 30 day free trial by downloading the software from the MarsEdit website, vs. downloading from the App Store), the aspects that I have found overwhelmingly advantageous are the ability to quickly get your ideas down, even when you cannot access the Internet, and the speed at which you can create a new post for any of your blogs–regardless of blogging service platform. Once you are finished you can easily “Send to Blog” as either a Published or a Draft to further fine tune, or schedule it for later delivery.
If you’re a serious blogger, with limited time, try MarsEdit, at $40, it’s not cheap, but I have found it worth every penny!
I hope this little bit of information helps!
-Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
Recently, I conducted research that required visiting several websites in a particular industry. I was shocked, every single website had an early 2000s feel to it. It was time for a website demolition. If you’re familiar with the construction industry, you know that a demolition is the exact opposite of deconstruction.
Deconstruction is when a building is taken apart while carefully preserving valuable elements. Well, these websites didn’t have any valuable elements. Each one needed a complete tear-down. Here are a few ways to know it’s time to redesign your website.
Your website is difficult to navigate.
If navigating your website is like traveling through a maze, this is a sign it’s time for a website redesign. In the early 2000s, a company was able to get away with having a generic website. Website usability wasn’t top priority for the average web user at the time. People were just impressed by any company that had a website. Today, the web user has matured and there are certain things they expect when visiting a website.
Web users expect a website to not only be attractive looking, they expect navigation to be a breeze. You also need to consider that many of your visitors are also mobile users. If your website isn’t mobile friendly, they’ll abandon your website within seconds and visit your competitor’s website.
Your competitor’s website is superior.
When was the last time you visited your competitor’s website? If their website has a fresh and compelling website design and yours is stuck in a time warp, it’s time for a website make-over. Many entrepreneurs fail to realize that you have less than 15 seconds to gain the attention of your web visitors. If your website is cluttered with blinking animations and headache inducing color clashes, it’s time to hire a website design company to perform a website demolition. A web design company will rebuild your website and create a fully functional website with a captivating design.
Your web content isn’t persuasive.
Web content plays a major role in design – it can make or break your website. If your written content doesn’t contain a convincing call to action to persuade visitors to subscribe, call or place an order, it’s time to revamp your content. In addition, the written content on your website should be geared towards your target audience and not just for Google, Bing or Yahoo.
There is nothing more frustrating than reading content that overuses keywords to the point that it doesn’t make sense. Remember, design and content go hand-in-hand. If you want to impress your web visitors, you need to have these three important website elements:
- Innovative Design
- Usability
- Persuasive Content
If any of the points within this article describe your website, it is definitely time to consider getting your website redesigned by a professional web design company. A well designed website will gain the attention of your visitors and convert them into paying customers or subscribers.
Here are seven posts I thought were worthwhile, and worth your time. I hope you find them valuable. If you like The Webvantix Suggestionator, let me know!
-Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
5 Productivity Tips for the Time-Poor Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurs-Journey
A Parallels World Where Windows Zips on Macs, All Things D
23 Reasons Your Blog Isn’t Making Any Money (And What to Do About It), Copyblogger
Copywriting 101: How to Nail A Killer Headline, Entrepreneurs-Journey
Quick Login Plugin for WordPress, Red Sweater Software
White Hat SEO + Social Media = Link Bait Magic, Problogger
The Single Word that is Stealing Your Future, Copyblogger (If you read only one of these suggestions, read this one, as it ties in well with Webvantix TGIF Post “Hey Business Owners…Wake Up! It’s Not 1995 Anymore!”
I was bumping around the Internet last night, “Surfing the Net.” Remember that phrase? I was searching for a very specific type of company whose services Webvantix is considering. I was looking for direct mail companies for mail-fulfillment (printing, addressing, stamping and sending out invitations). While I searched high and low there was one common denominator. What absolutely shocked me was the quality of the websites. To say they were terrible is an understatement, they were beyond abysmal, actually, they were an embarrassment.
What I also found interesting is that as the owner of a website design company, that does a great deal of website redesign, I wanted to pick up the phone and say, are you out of your mind? Most, not many, of the basic tenants of quality website development were not in place. Shrouded, hard to find information, simple contact forms, if there was a contact form at all–many had a linkable email address. Sites that had left justification, and design that looked like it had been thrown together in five minutes–maybe.
So, you say, what does this mean. Simple, it means that there was no way I was going to spend my company’s money with a company like that. In essence, what their site’s said about them was, they were not serious about their company, because, if they were, their websites would have been polished, easy to navigate, and full of the information I needed. Here’s an idea, in addition to listing your services, how about turning it around toward the visitor, and helping them find what THEY need (what I needed actually).
Okay, they were direct mail companies, so how about “What Are You Looking To Do?” and then creating the ability for the website visitor to move through information that culminates in a well thought out Contact form, that highlights the depth of your interest in your customers. This would help BOTH the visitor, and the business owner. The visitors would be educating themselves in the specific areas they were most interested (hint: Give your site visitors the information that satisfies their immediate need), and the owners of the business would get an educated, interested qualified lead who will then produce an information packed Content form.
I think it’s time for business owners to stop shirking their responsibility to their companies and employees when it comes to handling their websites. I constantly hear “I’m not a tech person.” That may be, but you own a business, and for it to compete online, which it must, you either have to become a tech person, or more realistically, hire one–and hire a really good one!
It’s not 1995 any more, and you cannot expect to capture business online with a practically non-existent website, because in your mind it’s not a priority. Prospective customers will simply pass you by because your website makes you look unpolished, unprofessional, and unfit for the job, no matter how good you may be.
As a business owner, what, therefore, should you do? Put it on the front burner, and make it a priority. Just remember: Your competition is!
I hope this little bit has helped…
Preston Ehrler, Webvantix
My name is Preston Ehrler and I started Webvantix to bring professional website design and website redesign to businesses that desperately needed help. Additionally, Webvantix blogs about ideas and tips for marketing your business online. Our team is comprised of individuals who are highly skilled in the fields of social media marketing, design, coding and programming. If you need our help, or simply have a question, we welcome your contact!
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