Website Design Never Sleeps!

The web is constantly evolving but crucially, changes are speeding up! Google algorithms change and search engines appear to behave strangely! Typically, search results rankings crash almost overnight and websites who are not up to date with fresh content can disappear off the radar!

Unfortunately, the problem is all too commonplace! A combination of misunderstanding online marketing strategies combined with time and budgetary constraints means not keeping in touch with developments and becoming left behind. Business owners may be unclear, confused or conversely, too fixed or outdated in their approach to their existing or proposed website design and today’s requirements to build brand identity online.

The key often lies in making the business owner understand that a website is never, ever ‘done’, or complete! Critically, they must learn to accept that a website involves a considerable amount of time, effort and patience. It is full time daily work, not a chore to be ‘looked at’ by someone in the sales team when they get a free moment!

The simple fact is that the web changes over time but many site owners would rather they did not! Today, web accessibility for mobiles and tablets is becoming more important. Key marketing strategies now must integrate social media messaging, mobile internet, and location based search ( LBS).

Fresh, relevant content drives PageRank. Constant link building via quality rated channels on different platforms, is the recognised, organic site optimisation that produces long term results. But only if constantly maintained and reinforced. Today’s most successful sites are updated constantly, because sites need to look and feel current otherwise, neither search engines nor prospective visitors will bother to stay. The alternative is simply not being easily found – or at all - by search engines or search visitors, alike.

The questions that have to be answered must involve how people will find the website, be encouraged to stay, browse and easily engage interactively with site content, sharing the content, navigation, calls to action, easy purchasing, etc. The conversion rate, is always key, and the purpose of a site’s existence. Understanding how to monitor increasing traffic, segmenting behaviour, and converting casual browser to fully engaged user determines search engine indexing.

Importantly, there now has to be a forward plan for future changes and site growth This may mean looking at the hosting platform and an ongoing website refresh schedule. The only certainty is change and in today’s eCommerce world, managing change is now an everyday online issue!