The Internet is no longer a niche technology; it is fast becoming a part of everyday life. With more and more people using it to find and research all kinds of goods and services it is crucial to have your company website at the top of its game.

WHERE DO YOU START?

Websites are created to achieve different objectives. Your website might be an informative brand-building website that encourages user enquiries or its purpose might be to provide product information and specifications. You might use it to make your business accessible to customers outside of your geographic area. Your customers might even be able to use their credit card to make a purchase or to book a service. Whatever your website’s purpose it is important to have clear objectives in place and to access those objectives to ensure they meet the continually changing needs of your customers.

HOW DO YOU CHOOSE?

When it comes to choosing a website provider you have a lot of choice. How do you choose a provider that will deliver on reaching your website’s full potential?

Below are a few points worth considering when accessing your current website or choosing a provider:

• Design – does the website have a suitable style (look and feel) for its intended audience? Does it reflect the atmosphere or environment of your company, product or service and encourage the user to make a conscious buying decision?
• Navigation/usability – is the website easy to navigate? Can the user easily and efficiently find what they are looking for? Is a search function available? If a user has trouble finding what they are looking for or struggles to work the website they will most likely move onto the next website.
• Management – can the website be managed easily and efficiently? If your website has a content management system (CMS), tasks such as editing page content (text, images, documents, links, etc.), products, user accounts, etc. should be quick, easy and efficient.
• Measurement and tracking – do you know how many enquiries you get from your website? Do you know how many visitors your website gets and how they found your website? At a minimum you should be provided monthly reports that give you information on how your website is being used and by whom. When used correctly this can also help you to evaluate other types of advertising and media.
• Agility – is your website designed and build in a manner that streamlines adding features and functionality? Websites are dynamic by nature and an agile approach from the start saves money in the long run.
• Best practices and standards - does your website conform to International Web Consortium standards? To the untrained eye a poorly constructed website may look similar to standards-compliant websites but they have a number of flaws including poor search engine performance, slower loading speeds, compatibility issues with certain technologies (including future technologies) and accessibility and ease of updating/upgrading.

• For those wanting to push their website a little harder, service plans can be a good idea as these give your website provider the opportunity to evaluate your website on a regular basis and report on how the website can be grown, enhanced and promoted for maximum value. They often include a preferential service and special rates for additional work.

WHAT TO AVOID

Be wary of offers of free or cheap websites, restrictive software and limiting design templates. Offers that seem too good to be true probably are!
Look for designers who have varied portfolio that shows both their creative and technical capabilities across a range of industries, good understanding of business logic, branding and corporate identity and don’t hesitate to ask them questions.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information a directory of website information for business owners is freely available at www.evokecreative.co.nz/website-resources, or contact Toby on +64 7 834 3366