A site for sore eyes – the continued importance of a good website

(Posted on 29/06/21)

In the digital age, an online presence is crucial to define your business and maximise your reach to customers. Whether you’re a local government agency, a large online retailer, a construction company, or someone selling their own handmade gifts, the ability to be seen by anyone in the world with access to the internet cannot be undervalued.

The way people search for services is often defined by their location, but products can be sold anywhere. A localised business that is represented well online can become more successful than a physical shop, where customers have to travel to the location. For retail, the ‘browsing’ experience is very different of course. But in the present economic climate, with shops seemingly in decline and the pandemic biting into sales, an online presence is all but essential.

Services rendered by a great website

If you are offering a service, websites can be a great way to showcase your work. Elements such as good photography and layouts are needed to make the website easy to access and navigate, and for the appeal of your business to shine through. Remember that most people access the internet these days primarily through their phones, so the website must work on a variety of devices, without losing its impact.

At Zebra, we work with all kinds of clients, in a diverse range of sectors and each of their websites is different. A construction or utilities company might want to highlight their end product, so photography of their projects would be an integral part of the website layout. A company providing products would want to include an inventory or their offering and examples of the products in action – plus of course a way of ordering them.

Current thinking about websites

Websites should always be maintained and kept up-to-date. The best way to do this is by regularly posting news stories on the website. A ‘news’ section can be used for news about the business and staff itself, or it can be used to have comment pieces on current issues relevant to your business sector.

Weekly, fortnightly and monthly updates add interest to the website and will attract web traffic. Regular updates let visitors to the site know that you’re committed to investing time in promoting your business. People who just create a website and leave it to stagnate, then complain that the ‘website isn’t working’ in generating interest should invest more time in its content – or use a marketing company and web designer to create a regularly-updated site that will attract visitors.

Your website is a reflection of you and your business 

You should also think about how your website reflects your ‘brand’ and the tone of voice of the written content. Talking to a marketing company can help you define what your brand means to you and how that can be reflected in the writing on the site. Finding a tone of voice that matches your own is an art in itself. A great-looking site that is difficult to navigate or understand is a waste of time, so keep it simple in both form and content.

In addition to still photography, video is increasingly being used in imaginative ways, as an integral part of an online presence. Videos of the services and goods ‘in action’ can be included on the websites, and can also be hosted on the company’s channels, via platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn. These can be ‘showreels’, highlighting the company as a whole, or they could be project or product-specific video clips. These can integrate together with the website to create a defined, uniform web presence and generate connections and leads from a multitude of areas.  

If you’d like to look at strengthening your online presence and have some ideas on how you’d like your website to look, then get in touch with us today to discuss the next steps.