Essential tips for an effective website

A website can represent a fantastic opportunity for businesses to communicate and interact with customers and stakeholders.  Implementing and maintaining a website, however, can be both challenging and time-consuming. Here are some essential tips to help you make the most of your website opportunities. 

Consider the objectives of your website visitor 

Do think about what your customer is looking for when they are visiting your website? It is important to bear this in mind as you set your objectives for your website. As you continue to update and add new content and features to your website, refer back to these objectives. 

Ensure that key information (e.g. contact details) is easily accessible by ensuring that it is never more than one click away.

Evolution - survival of the fittest 

Your website is in constant competition with others and evolution is essential to ensure ongoing relevance. It is not enough to simply expect your website to continue to perform if you do not invest time and effort. Consider a content management system which allows you to manage website content and keep your website current and engaging. 

Analyse the performance of your website 

By analysing your website traffic statistics you can identify and improve any weak areas of your website. Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics) is a free tool which can help you to find out which online website initiatives are cost effective and how visitors actually interact with your website. 

Thinking about a Flash-heavy website? Think carefully!

Flash-based sites can be great brand building tools for certain types of companies that have a strong presence in their market. Example companies include luxury jewellery retailers, such as www.asprey.com. 

For small-to-medium sized companies, it might be wise to avoid a website that is so heavily dependent on Flash animation, as these types of websites can suffer from poor search engine visibility and usability.  That's not to say that Flash websites are bad.  They certainly have their place, but it depends on the type of company that you are, the objectives of the average website visitor, and the importance of SEO and accessibility, and so on.

Improve the visibility of your website 

The science of search engine optimisation is regarded by many as confusing and contradictory. Get back to basics and check out www.google.com/webmasters, which offers a highly useful resource for information on best practice. 

Ensure that your website is built to W3C standards 

W3C is an international consortium that develops web standards. It is highly recommended that websites are built using W3C compliant code. There are many valid reasons for this, for example, improved accessibility, compatibility with future browsers, faster download and rendering of web pages, better search engine rankings.

You can validate your website at http://validator.w3.org. This is a free service.

If you need more advice or assistance on building and maintaining your website, please contact greensplash.  No hard sell, just professional advice and guidance.

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