It’s one thing to have a company website. It’s another thing to have a company website that actually works for you! When designing your website, it’s important to keep a few things in mind. Firstly, what exactly are you trying to get out of your website? Do you wish to make it enticing enough to encourage visitors to visit you in person? Or do you want to sell your products directly from your site? Perhaps, it’s a little of both.
One thing is for sure. If your website remains unchanged for long periods of time, it’s bound to lose a whole lot of visitors. Just like your physical store, your website requires maintenance in order for it to perform at its best. At MeloTel, we offer Website Maintenance Services to ensure that you are getting the most out of your company website. And there are a number of ways we are able to help you achieve that.
Here are four:
1. Make sure that each page is properly titled. Your website shouldn’t be page after page of generic text and photos. Each page should represent a specific and unique “chapter” of your company’s story. This helps for easy navigation. If a visitor is looking for a specific item or service, he or she should be able to either search for it using a type in search field, or select it from a list of options at the top of the home page.
On the MeloTel site, we make sure to have the names of every one of our services clearly listed as the titles of their respective pages. Just as importantly, each page is uniquely designed so that they stand out from the rest of the pages on the site. Doing so ensures that our visitors are able to easily identify one page from the next, securing their ability to find the specific ones they’re looking for.
2. Do away with flash. Flash presentations used to be all the rage in the website-designing world. At least it was, about ten years ago! Formerly, flash intros were considered cool and web designers used them to show off their unique graphic design skills. The fact is that, these days, flash is considered unnecessary and even unprofessional, by some standards. As well, a flash intro will often take longer to load. And you definitely don’t want to keep your visitors waiting.
3. Focus on customer needs over self-praise. Many company websites include information about the accolades of the businesses they represent. And while there’s isn’t anything wrong with that, it should certainly not be the focus. It’s just fine to have an “About Us” page that lists the wonders of your brand, but your home page should focus on the ways in which your company can help its clients.
For the most part, people visit company websites for help – not a history lesson. And most people want that help fast! Be sure to clearly provide ways for visitors to contact you directly in the event that they have questions. A “live chat” feature – similar to the one MeloTel recently introduced on its own site – is a great way to showcase a “customer first” approach on your company website.
4. De-clutter. Does your site look too busy? It is confusing to know what to click on or where to go in order to get pertinent information? In many cases, less is more. And in the company website maintenance world, this is often very true. Instead of showcasing all of your products on your home page, include a tab that reads “products” and direct customers to a page where they may take a look at them by clicking on specific photos.
Of course, we have many other suggestions. But we’d like to discuss them further with you directly. Give us a call at 1-888-MELOTEL to learn more about our Website Maintenance Services today!
