The New Year is a time when everyone looks forward. After the indulgence of Christmas, people are motivated to do something different. This is why so many of us make New Year’s Resolutions. Resolutions could be anything, such as learning a new skill, changing jobs, finding a new hobby, getting fit, losing weight, getting aesthetic beauty treatments, fixing issues with teeth, moving house, getting married, doing some DIY, or simply deciding to shop locally.
And the place everyone starts their New Year’s Resolution journey is online. If you’re keen to sell your products and services to people when they’re at their most motivated, they need to know you’re there! Your website is your most important marketing tool – and there are two main reasons why.
Your website makes you visible
As an example, let’s say you’re a jeweller who runs a small shop. You’re already looking forward to Valentine’s Day because you know there’ll be a lot of interest from people wanting to buy engagement rings. When someone who’s thinking of proposing searches for ‘engagement rings in [town]’, you need to be the first shop listed beneath the ads. If your competitor’s brand is posted before yours, potential customers are much more likely to visit their site first. You don’t want to lose that sale! And if your shop isn’t even on the first page of the search results, then you’re even less likely to get the business.
A professional website doesn’t just look good, it also provides Google and the other search engines with everything they’re looking for – site speed, security, SEO, keywords, original and readable copy, responsiveness, social media links. Your website will be ranked according to strict rules, and search engines are only programmed to look for these. So the more boxes you tick for the search engines, the better your chances of being at the top of the search results. This means the shop with a website that works hard behind the scenes is much more likely to get customers than one that looks pretty, but is slow, infrequently updated, and not fully optimised.
Your website makes you credible
Whatever your business, you can use your website to enhance your company’s credibility and trustworthiness. It’s your virtual shop front, so whenever potential customers visit it, they’ll be judging you by what they see and read. In addition to creating a website that’s attractive to search engines, you must also pay attention to your brand’s image. If the look and feel of your website is chaotic and inconsistent and if the site is difficult to navigate, you can guarantee your potential customers will click away very quickly.
In real life, we’ve all experienced going into a shop because we’ve spotted something we like in the window. And when we got inside, we found it was full of poor-quality products that weren’t displayed in any order, and the staff were unfriendly and unhelpful. Unsurprisingly, we turned on our heels and left, never to return again. A poor website has the same effect!
So make sure that once you’ve got potential customers in front of you and interested enough to click onto your website, you must provide them with an experience that makes them want to explore your website further. The more interested they are in your website, the more confidence they’ll have in you and your business. And this means they’re more likely to buy from you.
So whatever your services or products, if you want to take full advantage of people being motivated to try new things as a result of their New Year’s Resolutions, make sure your website’s up to the job. If you’re looking for a new, affordable website, then you’ve come to the right place. With a Cariad Web Design template website, you’ll have a professionally built site that will help you compete in a very crowded online world. Our professional websites are affordable – as little as £99 a month for two years, which makes them extraordinarily good value for money. What’s more, you could have your brand-new site up and running in as little as 10 days!
