Editorial Articles

Your website is the first point of contact for potential clients, so it’s vital to attract and retain customers, especially in these competitive times, comments Thomas Vollrath, managing director of Webfusion (www.corporate.webfusion.co.uk). There are many opportunities to maximise the potential of a site, drive traffic and increase its footprint on the web.

Here we reveal some tips to help keep your website fresh and boost your visibility on the web.

Web Hosting
Web hosting provides space on the internet for your website, so is a key consideration as it can influence a variety of factors; from ecommerce security and customer confidence to reliability and uptime. The huge choice of hosting companies can make this a difficult decision; however, there are some general considerations:

• Reliability
Web hosts should be fast and reliable. They should offer a guaranteed uptime (time when operational) of at least 99.9 per cent

• SSL security and secure shopping carts
Any online trading conducted through your website needs to be secure. Ensure your web host provides these security facilities, as a loss of consumer confidence may prove irreparable. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protects websites against online fraud and reassures customers that you’re an authentic website, while Secure shopping carts keep customer data 100 per cent safe.

• Support
Peace of mind is vital for any business and your web hosting company should offer you the best support available. Look for 24/7/365 UK-based support staff who are accessible by phone, post and email. It is also worth checking if their data centre is UK-based. These are all signs of a credible web host that are worth looking out for.

Sticky content

A website needs to encourage users to browse the site and interact with your brand or service. Sticky content helps to engage visitors. Some tips for creating sticky content are:

• Social media
Blogs and forums are a great way of letting people interact with your website, and each other. They can also demonstrate the personality behind your site. But remember: web users are a savvy bunch. Censor negative comments or pretend to be someone you're not at your peril. These are powerful tools, but use them honestly.

• Accessibility
Think about how accessible your website is. (An accessible site is one which is usable by as many people as possible.) It’s good practice to adhere to accessibility guidelines, so people with disabilities find your website easier to use. If you don't consider this, you could be excluding whole groups of people from using your site.

• Design
Design is a key aspect of a website. Think about navigation and how usable the site is for people. If they can’t find the buttons for navigating around the site then they will simply give up and go elsewhere. The design should incorporate simple navigation, clear calls to action, as well as visually appealing.

Attract attention on the web

A good way to grab attention on the web is via the latest buzzword, link baiting. With a little thought, it is an easy way to increase natural inbound links. Link baiting is a viral process of creating web content that will naturally attract backlinks to a website. It has an almost instant impact and can create a lasting impression with an audience. One of the best ways to encourage backlinks is through a corporate blog. This helps the link strategy by visitors linking to blog posts because they’re informative and interesting to its audience.

Provide visitors with tips and expert advice. The most sustainable, successful link bait is driven by quality content and useful tips can be linked to time and again by readers. This will position a website/organisation as the authority on the subject.

A combination of these aspects will help to increase awareness of your site, engage visitors and position you as an authority in your field.

Author: Thomas Vollrath, Managing Director, Webfusion