Is your business’ website fit for purpose? Here’s how to test it
Is your business' website fit for purpose? Here's how to test it
It's so frustrating when you find the website you're looking for, only to instantly discover that the website is out of date, poorly designed, and the speed is a snail's pace at best. In today's digital world, a poor website can be a real turn-off for potential customers, causing a disconnect from your website and potentially your brand.
Creating a professional business website is step one of the process. Next, you need to check that it's working at its very best. Here's our checklist to ensure your website is performing at its best.
Tip #1: Website Speed Test
Your website needs to be fast, efficient and provide all the information a visitor needs in as few clicks as possible. Website visitors won't hesitate to look elsewhere if your website isn't up to scratch. Research shows that 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less. See how your website performs with a free website speed checker tool like Google's Pagespeed to test your website's speed and discover what's slowing it down.
Tip #2: Check your spelling
Embarrassing spelling and grammatical errors make your brand look unprofessional and can impact the credibility of your business. You could also be missing out on essential SEO if keywords aren't spelt correctly. In fact, statistics show that spelling errors on websites can cause conversion rates to drop by as much as 72%.
Tools like Grammarly are great for flagging up mistakes you may have missed, but it's important to manually check each page yourself and get someone else to scan over it too. You could also hire a copywriter or proofreader if your budget allows.
Tip #3: Check your links work
Links and backlinks are a great way to guide visitors to the information they need and to keep them on your website for longer - but they have to work. 'Error 404 Page not found' is not something customers want to see. Sometimes links expire or become broken, which leads to poor website performance and a bad visitor experience, so you need to check them regularly. You can do this by clicking each link yourself or using SEO Spider, which can check up to 500 links for free.
Tip #4: Choose your website features
The features you choose are key to your website's performance. A survey by Clutch found that almost everyone surveyed (94%) said easy navigation is the most important website feature. Think about the customer journey through your website and how you want that to look.
Think about the customer journey through your website and how you want that to look. Based on your audience insights, you can customise your website features to suit your market. Features can be fun, practical, or a mix of both, such as:
A social bar that integrates your social media with your website
A custom quote generator to give people an idea of what your services will cost
A blog page to share company news and industry insights
Live chat
A practical navigation menu
Clear, easy-to-find contact information
Your website is the shop window of your business, so it needs to reflect that through how it looks and how it performs. For 1-2-1 digital advice on how to get your website looking and performing at its best, speak to one of our V-Hub Digital Advisers. Once you are happy with your website, it's time to drive traffic, read how to here.
