Mellonaid

In the age of racing digital advances, we have to remember that as technology evolves, so must our websites. One of the top reasons why your website may not be getting you results you want, has to do with your investment into its adaptability. Can what you don’t know be hurting your online presence? It absolutely can.

But before we dive into all the reasons why your web presence is or isn’t hitting the highest mark, we must first begin with analyzing the right digital factors that make it successful. Well, you might be thinking: what are these factors? What should you be looking for when you review your own website to know if it’s staying current and giving you the best online positioning?

To conduct your own self-analysis of your website, there are specific questions you should be asking. First, we must place all subjective opinions to the side, and look to the measurable results: Analytics. There are many ways to track your web traffic; a free one to start with is Google analytics.

Here’s a list to analyze your website’s effectiveness:

1. Does the look and feel of your website represent your brand well?

Remember that expression, “if momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” Well, this applies to your website too. Do you love your site? Does it express who you are and what you stand for? Is it easy to navigate? Would you recommend your own website to someone else if you were a first time visitor? If you can’t answer yes to any of the above, odds are your viewers feel the same way. And because the goal is not to just have visitors, but actual leads, you may wish to reinvest in your website: refresh it or just plain redo it.

2. Is your website bringing you business? 

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. It’s one thing to track visitors, and you do want to know if your web traffic is increasing. But the truth is, unless it’s bringing you leads and generating a response in your viewers, whether that is filling out the email form, contacting you, making a purchase, or scheduling a meeting, an action is the end goal. If you are not getting that result, it’s time to make changes. 

3. Quantifying and qualifying traffic

Tracking your analytics will indicate the number of visitors on your site. From that you can look up the time a user stays on a page. You want to decrease bounce rates. Search and identify if there are any broken links on your page. Fix them. If visitors are leaving your page shortly after landing on them, analyze why? Is your information unclear, hard to find and/or could the copy not be putting your best foot forward? Does your copy on the page best tell who you are? And most importantly, does it differentiate you from your competition? How many unique visitors do you have coming? An increasing amount of unique visitors shows that search engines and Ad words are directing new traffic to your site. Are existing users returning to your site? Offering valuable content and insight through blogging on your site will help give existing users a reason to return to your site.

4. Searchability

Where does your website come up in a Google search? Did you know there are simple actions you can take to increase your listing to bring it ahead of other sites? Utilizing effective keywords, link building, and making sure that your site is properly registered with Google and crawled by Google are all things that you can do to help bolster your site’s searchability. Other things to look out for would be the actual copy on your website. For example, having titles that are specific to keywords that users search for helps to push your website higher in searches and increases the chances of users finding and clicking on your site.

5. Effectiveness on multiple browsers

Check the look and feel and effectiveness of your website on multiple browsers. In the digital age, this is a must. Most websites are accessed through people’s fingertips on their phones. Do not overlook this. Many times what appears well on a computer screen, looks botched on a phone screen, especially considering it is a much smaller screen to work on. Optimizing your web presence on all screens will help you to not lose visitors coming from different channels.

6. Is it easy to find the information that people want when visiting your site?

If you’re not updating your site with valuable content, you’re actually missing out on a key factor that pushes sites above others in search engines. The more content is current, insightful and clear, the more it will drive visitors to come to your site, return and take action. So give them a reason to return to your site. Stay current and relevant in your industry.

So after reviewing the above questions, and doing a self-analysis of your own website remember these few tips:

Good websites tell stories, great websites are the story.

Good websites inform, great websites offer insight.

Good websites inform the user, but great websites provoke the user to action.

Good websites build trust, but great websites deepen the connection for relationship.

Good websites bring traffic, but great websites yield conversions.

So, how does your website measure up? Now that you’ve reviewed the factors that make great websites and the questions to self-analyze your website’s progress, it’s time to get going on making your site more effective. Great websites require frequent investments of time, measurable analytics and adaptability. If you realize you’ve committed some deadly web mistakes that have hindered your site—don’t be afraid. Our team at Mellonaid has proven that with every death, there can be a more glorious resurrection. Helping you to take your own brand and web presence through the roof is the best part of what we do.