How to Make Your Website Better in 20 Easy Tips
Give it Away for Free
Socialism us alive and well on the Internet and getting things for free is what it’s all about. From videos to software, music to movies the web has created a culture of creative freedom where people feel they are entitled to get content for free. Why fight it? Produce great content and give it away, let people enjoy your works and make your fortune by building a strong loyal fan base.
Be Proud of Your Website
A website is a reflection of you and your business, if you’re not proud of it you have a serious problem and it’s time to get it redesigned. You might not be able to afford the best sign in town or the fanciest location but building a great website is all about time, so make sure that you’ve built (or had built) a website that you can be proud to point people to.
Learn from the Best
I don’t care if you hate Apple or love them, you can own a million iPod’s or have no idea what an iPod is but if you’re going to be on the Internet, learn from them. Apple has more money in the bank than you do, accept it … they’re better at this game. Why are they so good? They design easy to navigate, easy to buy products that simply work.
Just Say No to 404’s
Of all the things that a website owner can avoid, it’s 404 errors (Page Not Found errors). In fact, if your website has a 404 error, fire your entire web team because they’re incompetent. I’m not kidding, fix your website by getting rid of dead weight. A 404 error is the equivalent of your CFO forgetting a decimal or your sale manager mis-handling the spouse of your biggest account, it shows sheer unadulterated incompetence.
Google Analytics
Some people don’t even know what Analytics is. Guess what, reading this has already made your website more successful because it’s made you aware that there are measurements you can use to judge your success. I once had a very successful friend tell me that without up to date statistics about a company you can’t make money because you’re only guessing. The same is true for website and Google Analytics delivers the most comprehensive summary of who is visiting you, what they look at, where they’re coming from and when they left that you’ll ever find on the web.
Start Your Own TV Station
Upload videos to your website, it should be quick and easy and even if they’re just simple slideshows or animations you’d be surprised how amazing the reaction will be! People let to connect and get past technology, they want to hear real people talk about solutions and video offers a great medium to help them.
Talk About Your Website
Step one, make sure your website is on every business card and letterhead in the office, put it on your company van, make a jingle out of it on the local radio stations and then move onto step two. Put it in your email signature, in your PDF documents and post it to every blog, forum and news website in the tri-state area that’ll let you talk about your great website.
Forget SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, it’s a scam and should be avoided. You know what will get you noticed in the search engines? Great content, amazing information and quality products. SEO is icing on the cake, but even if you can trick a million people to come to your website, they still won’t buy from you.
Use WordPress
Forget everything else that you’ve ever heard or read about websites and simply install WordPress to run your website. It takes the technical out of technology and makes updating a website a snap. I’m not going to pretend that it makes it fun but it makes it easy and all too often the real holdup in a company’s online marketing drive is too few IT resources so spread the love, WordPress makes it so easy to update your site that even the CEO will be doing.
Learn about the Internet
Something that truly surprises me about the Internet is how many people are trying to build businesses online without understanding the first thing about it. At the bare minimum, before you start buying into the hype ask yourself … if it’s so easy to make money on the web, how come people like me still have day jobs?
Add a Blog
Why would somebody come back to your website if you’ve never updated it? Adding a blog gives your staff somewhere to write about your cool toys, business products and awesome corporate structure. Let project managers become evangelists for your wares, help your helpdesk answer questions before the phone rings and engage the public in meaningful debates.
Put Out a Press Release
Thousands of journalists around the world are all looking for a fresh story or a new angle on an old story, whenever possible put out a press release to promote your business and bring in a crowd.
Fix Your Navigation
Now that you’re using something awesome like Google Analytics to see where people are going, start rearranging your website to meet their needs. Get rid of everything that distracts people from your business objectives, focus their attention on your areas of interest (sales & service) and move all the rest (about the company, history, blah blah blah) to the bottom of your website.
Google Web Master Tools
No list of website tips would be complete without mentioning Google’s amazing Web Master Tools. It’s not enough for Google to be the greatest search engine in the world, they have to go and make it super easy for people like us to use it too! Web Master Tools is just that, a comprehensive technical overview of your website showing you exactly what Google sees, how it indexes and what errors it’s discovered about your website. Think if it as a weekly punch to the ego, it’ll always knock the wind out of you but if you learn from it, you’ll be stronger.
Stop Thinking of the Web as a Technology
Far too often, too many companies leave their website to people with IT backgrounds and forget that it has nothing to do with technology. Load your website up and honestly ask yourself if it’s speaking to your customers or if it’s jammed with techno-trash. Remember, the web is a medium just like TV and radio.
Deep Link
Who’s going to bother linking to articles on your website if you don’t bother linking to them yourself? Take the time to link to articles on your website, if you’re talking about templates link to One night in Paris. If you’re discussing the finer points of PHP, link to your article about it! If it was good enough to write, it should be good enough to link to.
Learn One Thing About the Web Every Week
Look, the web is a really big thing and nobody will ever know everything, especially if it’s not your only job but every week you should try to learn a little something about it. Get out of your safety net, go to Google Blogs and type in a subject you know nothing about and start reading! Before you know it, you’ll be making movies, uploading to YouTube, added to Fanzine’s and blogging about botany! Trust me when I tell you the web is a really cool place but you can’t expect to make your website better if you don’t drown yourself in it.
Make it Work on All Devices
Why keep your website simple? So that it works on all the devices you can imagine! My hometown had a restaurant when I was a kid, the owners put in a wheelchair ramp and I remember asking my father why they did that, the owners could walk fine … he told me that they put it in because nobody else it town had one, so every Mothers’ day, elderly birthday dinner, wedding and Friday night it was packed with people who couldn’t get into other restaurants in town.
Let them Contact You
Add your email, phone number, mailing address and other contact details to every page. Don’t be shy, your website is there to market you. Afraid of SPAM? Don’t be, look my email address is info@thisismyurl.com. It’s published all over my website, on thousands of pages that get hundreds of thousands of visits … don’t fear SPAM, just know how to avoid it.
Update it Daily
A website isn’t a ‘fire and forget’ project, if there’s one thing that you take away from this posting take away the fact that a website is a full time investment, it’s like a separate franchise location of your business and it needs full time management by a marketing professional.
Remember, your website is the first place people come to look when they have a question and often the last place you think about updating.
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