Is Your Website Working For You?

By now, we’re all aware of how important online marketing is to a business’ success. It’s also incredibly important to realize that your online reputation begins and ends with your corporate website.

So how do you design your website to give you the most bang for your buck? Or, if you hire an outside firm or agency to handle your website, how do you make sure that it maximizes your ROI?

Content: When visitors land on your homepage, you only have a brief moment to grab their attention. Often, a visually appealing design will not hold their attention alone. In this case, it is absolutely essential that you use clear, concise content to convey your message quickly.

Identity: Establish an identity for your company online. Don’t fill your website with technical jargon and stock photos, own your content. Connect with customers through a corporate blog, Twitter, and/or Facebook and link everything to your homepage. You not only want to be yourself, you want to be easy to find and connect to as well.

Simplicity: Usability is a major determining factor in the success of a website. The technical development process should include discussions about download times (the quicker, the better) and simple-to-use navigation. Your customers will thank you and you’ll avoid falling into the trap of confusing, tough-to-navigate websites.

Optimize: Search engine optimization is critical for visitors to find your site, whether organically or by chance. During development, be sure to complete a site map and create and implement keyword lists and title tags. It is also a good idea to hire an SEO consultant with any remaining budget to audit your site and create a customized optimization package.

Improve: Ideally, your website redesign is never “finished.” You should constantly be setting goals and reviewing analytics for your site via Google Analytics, WebTrends, or some other tracking service. Once you know where your website is heading, you can continue to improve it to meet and exceed your online marketing goals.

The goal of your company’s website should be to give customers a “home base” for information about your company, products, and services. From there, you can connect with customers via social sites like Twitter and Facebook or through a regularly updated company blog.

However you choose to market your company online, you must begin with high-quality, standalone website. As business changes, online marketing becomes an even larger part of the big picture and an informative, easy-to-use website should be the cornerstone to your campaign.

By: Tessa Carroll

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VBP Outsourcing is a full-service marketing and accounting firm located in Glen Burnie, Maryland. We specialize in providing intergrated creative and financial business solutions with a custimzed, partnership approach.