Want a Better Website than the Competition? Here’s What You Need. July 13, 2016My BusinessOff

There are a lot of websites out there. You probably haven’t been counting, and I wouldn’t recommend that you start. But it’s a clear truth nonetheless: there are hundreds, even thousands of new websites being made every day. A lot of them are websites built for business purposes.

I’m not saying you should get too worried – but you should be, at least, a little bit worried. There’s a lot of competition out there. And with more focus being put on the quality of a business’s online presence than ever, the pressure is on for small businesses. In order for your business to have a better chance at success, your business website needs to be better than that of the competition.

Want to know how to do that? Of course you do! Here’s how.

Study the competition. Yes: you should make like a spy and keep a close eye on the competition. Research their websites. Before you can offer a website that is different – and better – than their websites, you have to know their websites pretty well!

Don’t just sit there with an evil grin criticizing their website. Finding out what they do wrong can be pretty easy; avoiding it, even more so. But when you’ve got a grip on what it is they do right, that’s where you can really make a difference. How can you do it even better?

Content, content, content. The Internet is all about content, my friend. You may think your website just needs to include information about your company and a few pictures. As long as it’s just sitting there in cyberspace, the people will find it if they need it. But this isn’t a great strategy.

You need to keep your website updated with loads of great content. It’s what will bring in more users. It’s also what will keep people hanging around on your website for longer than they thought they would. Offer them as much interesting material as you can!

Personality. This is one of the most important factors of any business pursuit. And yet, it seems to be so underappreciated by business owners. So many companies just look like carbon copies of each other. Don’t become one of those faceless, humorless companies that people can’t tell apart from your competitor. Developing a memorable business personality will make sure people, well, remember you. It will make you stand out. You’ll be instantly more likeable. Your personality should have the opportunity to shine through in your website content and in your social media posts. (More on your social media presence in just a bit…)

Better search engine presence. It’s true: most visitors to your website are probably going to come from Google. It will mostly be people searching for a particular product or type of article. They may not even know exactly what it is they’re looking for. They almost certainly don’t have a preset preference when it comes to what website they’ll visit to get it. That’s why you need to make sure your presence on Google – and, yes, other search engines – is strong. That means you need to up your search engine optimization game. Click here to compare SEO companies for your website.

Make it look gorgeous. We care about things looking pretty. You may think that’s wrong. You may think that a website filled with amazing information, funny content, and great deals is enough. I wish it were. But the fact is that a website with subpar web design is going to get ignored by most Internet users. In a way, it makes sense. Great web design does make all that web content a lot nicer to look through. So have a look at your website. Do you think it could look better? If you even suspect it might need a makeover, then you should probably go for it. Work with a web design agency if you’re not confident about doing it yourself.

A social media presence. If you were to tell me that you’d never heard of a business needing to be on social media, I’d probably call you a liar. There are articles all over the place detailing why it’s in your best interest to give your business a social media account. And yet there are loads of business owners out there who aren’t taking the advice!

You may be wondering why I’m talking about social media accounts when I’m supposed to be talking about your website. Good question. Here’s why: having a strong social media presence helps your website. A lot. Social media is actually where most people find out about updates to their favorite websites. It’s both a good marketing tool and the perfect place to get feedback.

Make sure your website is fast. Do you know what’s more annoying than having no Internet at all? Having really, really slow Internet. People would rather be deprived of a connection rather than be teased with one that just isn’t going fast enough. You need to bear this in mind when you’re building your website. You can fill your website with the coolest stuff in the world. But if it takes more than a few seconds to load it up, you’ve already lost thousands of potential visitors. People hate to wait. They’re going to go to your competitor, who has a page that loads up in less than a second. Make sure your website is optimized for maximum speed.

If it’s not mobile-friendly, you’re in trouble. Since last year, what we’d all suspected was going to happen one day had been officially confirmed to actually be happening. That is, it was shown that most Internet use is now being done via mobile phone. It’s a strange thought, especially when we think back to our desktop-bound surfing just a decade ago. But here we are. It’s a reality that all businesses must face.

Your website absolutely must have a mobile-friendly version. It’s not enough that your website can be accessed using a mobile phone. It should have a unique look and functionality that’s suited for a smaller screen and thumb-based interaction. As the coming years will make clear, it can make or break your website.

Photo by Lucky Business | Shutterstock

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