In the days of AMC’s Mad Men, it was said everyone expected problems to be solved in an hour, because television shows lasted an hour. In today’s world we all want everything done in  seconds. Guess what? This means your website doesn’t have a second to spare. Impressions are made about your website and your business in less than a second. Clients want to know much more about you before they trust you and choose to do business with you. Does your website stack up?

How to Make Your Website Work for You

Create a Positive Impression:

Researchers have found that people form an opinion about your website within 1/20 of a second after first seeing it. That visual image, the Look and Feel of your website, must be created to attract your target market and give a clear presentation of your message. The good news is that an initial positive impression usually carries over to other areas of the site, such as the content, providing a halo effect. The bad news is that if the first impression is not favorable, this also carries over, and visitors generally will leave your site to find one that is more appealing. Often they will view only the one page and bounce back to find the next website of interest in their search list. The search engines track these bounces, and a high bounce rate will hurt your search engine rankings.

Increase Website Stickiness:

After creating that positive impression for a prospective customer or client, your website must be “sticky”, meaning that people will stick around to learn more. Studies reveal that stickiness increases when the visitor is able to find what they want and navigate through the website easily.

If visitors feel that the information is interesting, relevant, and thorough enough to answer their questions, their confidence in your credibility will increase. When these characteristics are missing, they will spend very little time on your site before moving on. The search engines also track the time spent on a site before people return to go to the next site. The longer people stay on your site, the more favorable your rankings will be.

Develop Relevant Content:

Your target market is always interested in content that is relevant to their needs and interests. Developing content in your area of expertise may be easy for you, or you may want to hire a competent writer to be a ghost writer for you. Either way, it is important that the information is timely, and suited to how your wish to be perceived by your audience. This will increase your brand awareness and the viewer’s loyalty to your brand.

Make it easy for visitors to find all of this information, contact, map and driving directions, and present it in a way that leaves no question unanswered. If you do this successfully, they will have no need to look further. If you don’t, they may move on.

When reviewing your website, does it meet those goals? Perhaps you need a design makeover or have a website that needs content management so you can add and update content yourself. One popular platform that we have integrated into new and existing website designs is WordPress. A WordPress blog can be created as a standalone site, WordPress can be integrated into your existing website to handle the content management for your website only without using the blog software, or you can do both. One thing to remember when you create your own content, in addition to being engaging, you will want to learn the rules of search engine optimization, or retain a consultant for advice.

Here are samples of our recent  WordPress websites and blogs:

The Sensation of Sight
Charney Coaching & Consulting (Graphic Design by Dave Dodge)
Sharon Arts Center (Graphic Design and Coordination by Teplow Cucurullo Communications)
Thomas White, Writer

Social Media and Search Engines:

Getting traffic to your website will be easier if you have done a good job of creating a positive impression and creating a sticky website with relevant content. Social Media is a key component in connecting with your audience and being found in the  search engines. The major networks are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. There is a wealth of free information online about how to create an effective profile,  engage with your target audience and how to optimize your website for search engines. Books and courses are also available. Look for more detail on all the social media  topics in future posts, so do check back.

Let us know your questions about your website or website development.

Whether you are blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking, Blipping, YouTubing, LinkedIning or using any of the other social media applications, the first thing to consider is “What is my social media strategy, and how does it fit into my overall internet strategy, marketing strategy, business strategy?”

First, a definition of strategic planning is in order. Strategic planning, according to Wikipedia, “is an organization’s process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people.”

We feel the time has come for our clients to include social media marketing in their strategic planning at some level.  We have added social media consulting services to our internet consulting offerings. Our blog will incorporate guidelines for our clients and visitors, including practical ways to incorporate social media into a marketing plan. We’ll also look at how to allocate resources to achieve additional brand exposure and help accomplish your overall marketing goals.

Our blog will also include information on other aspects of our internet consulting business and other topics we find interesting and relevant.

Join us as we journey forward through various aspects of web design, database development, e-commerce, print, search engine and social network marketing, content management, blogs, web application software, hosting, technology and business.  We’ll explore challenges and opportunities in the film industry, business consulting, hospitality, retail, e-commerce, and non-profit organizations.