You’ve worked hard on your business: now make your website work hard for you too.

You’ve worked hard to build up your business and you now have a regular client base, but it’s taken a lot of time and effort to get this far.

I wonder how many of us realised, before we started out, how much of our time would be taken up with networking and marketing to find clients, rather than doing what we really set up in business to do?

Do you remember the new website you had built when you launched your business, because everyone said you had to have one? Well it’s about time that website started paying for itself by bringing in those new clients you need to move to the next level.

What is your website saying about your business?

You should start asking yourself what your website is for. Is it a showcase, your shop window or your busiest salesperson? Most of us have a website to bring in more enquiries, but do you want them to come via a contact form or telephone enquiries?
It’s never too late to take a fresh look at your website and make tweaks so that it reflects what you need right now and in the future, not when you launched. I’ve been in exactly the same place myself and I asked the same questions.

My top ten tips for making your website work for you.

My next step was to look at whether my website was delivering the goods. I was convinced it should have been doing better so I decided to do something about it. Here are the lessons I’ve learned through developing my website into the marketing tool it needs to be.
I’ve listed those lessons here for you, so if you’re not happy with your website, you can do something about it. Don’t let the business you have worked so hard to build fail at the first impression of your website:
Write for your audience. Especially your ideal customer. You hear all the time about search engine optimisation (SEO) but in reality, search engines rank customer-friendly websites highly, so keep your content user-friendly, simple and clear. Tell visitors what you do and how you can help them.

• Make the website interesting and fresh. Add a regular stream of content using a variety of media: articles, reviews, blogs, video – be imaginative.
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is important. Despite what I wrote earlier, research the key words and phrases people are using to search for your type of service and include them in your text (but avoid shoe-horning them in on every line).
• Make good use of titles and sub-headings. Explain exactly what you’re writing about. It helps your readers to find what they want.
• Make use of meta-data and alt-tags. Every page has a space for meta-data which makes it easier for Google to find during a search. Alt tags describe imagery and attract search engines too.
• Keep your website as simple as possible. Make the customer journey short and clear. Don’t write too much copy on any page, but also don’t scrimp on copy that may be useful, informative or educational.
• Use testimonials from real people. They give visitors some reassurance that your claims aren’t hollow.
• Don’t forget a clear “call to action” on every page. Help visitors by informing them what they need to do.
• Ensure you set measurable success criteria. You can check results with useful tools like Google Analytics.
• Put the most important information at the top of the page. Don’t make people scroll down the page to find useful information – like this tip!
• Do what you enjoy doing best and let your website do the rest

I know that maintaining a website takes up a lot of time and effort; have you considered calling in an expert who will only need half the amount of time to keep your website in shape?

Whichever approach you take – DIY or hiring a specialist – six months down the line you’ll think it time and money well spent when your website starts bringing in customers and frees you up to do what you love doing – running your business.