Recently, we have been sharing tips about optimizing your business listings, keeping your web presence fresh with social media content, and ensuring your advertising sends leads to landing pages that convert. This month, we want to talk about your main website.

A branded website is arguably more essential to a business’s success than business cards, a sign, or a logo. There are very few businesses that can build on their success without a proper website. But what does an organization that has invested time and money into a digital home for their brand do to keep it working for them? Businesses have several options, including both in-house and utilizing dedicated website management teams to help them elevate their website and turn it into a valuable sales tool for years to come.

Common Business Website Types:

The typical business website falls into one of these basic categories:

Informational Websites

These are websites that provide visitors with information about an organization, destination, or business. Commonly, these are the websites you may find for libraries, historical landmarks, museums, car detailers, and hospitals.

eCommerce Websites

These are websites that sell a product, service, or experience directly on the site, such as an online retailer with a shop.

Service Scheduling Websites

These are sometimes a type of eCommerce website, and they allow visitors to schedule a product or service. Commonly, these are hair salons, dental offices, equipment rental places, or experience booking websites.

Of course, it is not uncommon for a website to have two of these features. A historic landmark’s website might have a gift shop page, for example, or you may be able to book tickets on the site.

For this article, we will frame our recommendations based on the site’s predominant use. So, in our historic landmark example, the main purpose of the site might be to share visitation information about the destination, while its secondary function might be to list tours or to operate an online gift shop.

Putting Your Website to Work!

For a website to truly elevate your business and help you convert more online leads into real customers, it needs to be optimized, responsive, engaging, and offer a great user experience. The customer path, from first opening your web page to doing whatever you want the potential customer to do (often called a conversion), needs to be clear and simple. It is not uncommon for websites of nonprofits, destinations, or arts organizations to be built in a slightly more storytelling style. The websites are built to inform and engage, telling a story about the organization without a clear call to action for what it is you would like your visitors to do. Websites that seek conversions need to have very simple customer journey paths from website visitors to closed leads.

There are easy in-house steps you can take to improve any website, but a full website overview with a tech stack audit and customer journey mapping can make the difference between a website that works for you and one that merely exists as a digital business card. Branding, content marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO) are all part of a website that earns its keep, so to speak. Partnering with an experienced front- and back-end development company that treats your website holistically can ensure your hosting, domain, and support costs are worth it.

At Twothirty Media, we take the time to learn the ins and outs and details of your business. We help you build an ideal customer profile and recommend changes on how to most efficiently help them find your business and convert them into leads. In the meantime, here are five simple things you can do right now to improve any website:

Five Simple Things You Can Do to Improve Any Website

1.) Make Sure You Have A Clear Call-To-Action (CTA) For Visitors

What do you want your visitors to do? What is your conversion? To call your office, book a trip, or buy a product? It needs to be clear what visitors need to do immediately, and often!

2.) Keep It Simple

Don’t bury your conversion. E-commerce websites should not overwhelm visitors with information and then hide the checkout. Of course, if there are things they need to know about your organization, let them shine, but don’t let them overshadow your visitors’ ability to follow your CTA. There should never be more than three clicks between a visitor’s first click onto your site and the purchase, contact form, or call button.

3.) Use All The Functions Of Your Website

You might not consider a muffler shop a good candidate for a blog, but keeping content fresh is a big part of helping customers find you online, especially in the age of AI search engines or AI-led SEO.

4.) Show Your Visitors What Makes You Unique

This is true for all branding, but especially when you are trying to grab a web visitor’s attention immediately. What quality makes your business or organization stand out? Don’t hide that information. Make it a key part of the busiest pages on your site. Which brings me to the next point:

5.) Use Your Tools

There are many free tools webmasters use to track how many people are visiting, where they are visiting from, and which pages and content are most popular, including Meta Pixels, Google Tag Manager and Analytics, and Microsoft Clarity. Google Analytics is still largely considered the industry standard. Make sure your site has this, and consider each of these tools when planning your site. 

Even the most straightforward steps can seem daunting if your website is older or if you do not have a dedicated member of your team to manage your website. Partnering with an agency that not only understands branding and content that converts, but also all the moving parts of your website’s back-end development, can be the biggest piece in making a website pay for itself. Contact us today to learn how we can ensure your site is working for you.

Website Compliance Best Practices for Your Website

In today's digital world, website accessibility and user privacy are two critical factors that website owners cannot afford to ignore. From an ethical standpoint, it's crucial to ensure that your website is accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. It is important for all business owners to understand that website accessibility is a legal requirement under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which is required under the ADA and was developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Similarly, data privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), are becoming more stringent than ever. Websites that fail to comply with these regulations risk facing steep penalties and legal action, not to mention losing the trust of their customers. Ensuring that your website complies with both accessibility and privacy regulations is not only a legal requirement but also an ethical obligation and a good business move to provide an inclusive and safe user experience.

US companies need to comply with the GDPR in the European Union, and companies not in California need to comply with laws like the CCPA because these laws protect the privacy rights of individuals and require businesses to be transparent about how they collect, use, and share personal information. Furthermore, failing to comply with GDPR or CCPA can result in significant financial penalties, damage to a company's reputation, and loss of customer trust. Additionally, as more countries and states continue to adopt similar privacy laws, companies that prioritize privacy compliance are more likely to establish trust and loyalty with their customers, as well as avoid legal and financial consequences. Complying with GDPR and CCPA not only helps businesses avoid negative consequences but also demonstrates a commitment to protecting the privacy rights of individuals, which can help build a positive brand reputation.

Achieving website accessibility compliance doesn't have to be daunting, especially if you are using a platform like WordPress. There are several free accessibility plugins available on the WordPress repository that can help make your website more accessible to users with disabilities. These plugins use AI and machine learning algorithms to automatically adjust your website's content and interface, making it more user-friendly for people with visual, auditory, or motor disabilities. While these plugins may not guarantee full compliance or mitigate legal risk, they can go a long way in improving accessibility and reducing barriers to entry for users with disabilities. However, not all accessibility tools are created equal, and it helps to have a third-party guide you in selecting and configuring these tools to ensure they will do as advertised.

Privacy Policy Compliance

Writing a privacy policy is another essential aspect of ensuring website compliance. A privacy policy outlines how your website collects, uses, and protects users' data and is required by law in many jurisdictions. While writing your privacy policy may seem daunting, many resources are available to help you. For instance, there are online templates that can help you create a privacy policy, saving you time and money. However, be aware that these templates are not custom-built for you and may not provide the level of detail required by privacy laws and regulations.

When to Hire a Compliance Professional

Hiring a professional service to handle your website accessibility and data privacy compliance can give you peace of mind and ensure you meet all legal requirements. To assist our clients, Twothirty Media now offers website accessibility compliance through accessiBe and data privacy compliance solutions through Termly. With the GDPR and the CCPA, ensuring that your website complies with data privacy laws is more important than ever. Termly provides comprehensive solutions to help you meet these requirements, protecting your and your customer's data.

Website Accessibility Compliance

Website accessibility compliance is not only essential from an ethical standpoint, but it is also a legal requirement under the ADA. The ADA prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities and requires that websites be accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities. In the event of a lawsuit, accessiBe has a Litigation Support Package to guide you. By using accessiBe, Twothirty Media can help ensure that your website is accessible to all users, including those with visual or hearing impairments, mobility issues, or other disabilities. Twothirty Media doesn't just install a plugin - we also scan your site for accessibility issues and help you correct them. This extra step means you not only meet your legal obligations but also provide a positive user experience for all.

As a website owner, it's your responsibility to ensure that your website complies with all relevant laws and regulations. Failure to do so can result in costly fines and legal penalties. Twothirty Media is here to guide you and ensure your website complies with all applicable legal requirements.

Website Compliance Made Easy

Twothirty Media offers professional, comprehensive solutions to help you achieve website accessibility and data privacy compliance, taking into account your unique needs and legal requirements. We can do it for you or help you do it yourself; avoiding costly fines and legal issues will save you money in the long run.

In conclusion, website accessibility and data privacy compliance are critical considerations for website owners, both from a legal and ethical standpoint. While free tools are available to improve website accessibility and create a privacy policy, these may not provide the level of detail required by regulations. If you're unsure how to ensure compliance, working with a professional service like Twothirty Media can help you navigate the complexities of website accessibility and data privacy regulations, ensuring that your website is accessible and compliant.

Many of our customers come to us with websites that are already established. Often, they come to us with an established website and are asking for things like conversion or search engine optimization, ongoing management, new sections, or even updated functionality. Sometimes we can accommodate them with their existing websites. Sometimes, that’s not so simple.

Your website should evolve with your company as you grow and expand, and knowing when to redesign your website is vital to maintaining your online presence. You will inevitably require a website makeover if you want to keep your site engaging, relevant, and up-to-date.

Often, we find our customers strike the best balance between keeping their brand fresh and completely saturating their market with a new campaign by redesigning their websites around every 5 years or so. But the problem is, I don’t have any hard data to back that up for every project – it’s just a rule of thumb and cannot be applied to every company or organization, let alone applied across the board for every industry.

Instead of relying on some arbitrary timetable, we recommend you consider these universal factors when the topic of a website redesign comes up.

Your Website Has a Low Conversion Rate

What’s a website conversion rate? Conversion rate refers to the frequency with which someone who visits your website completes a desired task that you are tracking. You can’t really track your conversations without some careful setup work. If it’s implemented for you, you probably have a dashboard or receive monthly conversion reports through something like Google Analytics.

Your website is not a passive tool. It's a visual representation of your company, its goals, and your brand. It should be more than a digital business card – it should be set up to drive conversions. If your conversion rate is low, it's time to consider a redesign. Many factors can affect conversion rates, including content quality, design quality, ease of navigation, and, most importantly, the user experience.

Outdated Look and Feel

Your website is a product of its time. The look and feel of your website can have a significant effect on how users perceive your business. You might find that elements of your website are causing slower load times when users come across your website. This might lead them to "bounce" off your website and leave before even taking the time to look at your key pages.

You might also find that the design on your website is outdated, making use of design trends and styles that are way past their prime. Even if your website has fast load times and is easy to navigate, users could still bounce if your website doesn’t have a modern look.

Take a look at your competitors, both large and small businesses, and see what design features they’re employing. If your website feels outdated by comparison, it could be time for a redesign!

Hard to Navigate

Your website needs to look good, but it needs to do more than that. It doesn’t matter what conversions you are tracking if your visitors can’t find what they're looking for. If they can't easily navigate the site, they'll have no choice but to leave. Although it sounds obvious, most people overlook this aspect because they don't know where to start.

There are a lot of ways to determine if your website suffers from user interface problems. You could employ an analytics tool and analyze your user flow, or simply ask people to finish tasks using your website and monitor them.

If you determine your website’s current structure is confusing, and it isn’t easy to find your key pages, it’s time to refresh.

Not Mobile Friendly

When you think of websites, you may think of desktop computers. But the fact is, over 60% of global web traffic is from mobile phones. If it’s difficult to use your website on a mobile device, then rectifying this can benefit you massively. 

If your site isn't mobile-friendly, you’re missing out on potential customers. Mobile usability is one of the many important factors in optimizing your website for Google searches. So, you can drive more traffic to your site if it’s optimized for mobile users.

If your website wasn’t designed with mobile users in mind, it’s unlikely that you will see much success trying to make it mobile-friendly after the fact. Consider a mobile-first philosophy when you develop your new site.

Doesn't Reflect Branding Changes

Your website is the first thing people see when they want to learn about your business. It should reflect the current state of your business to remain relevant. If you’ve recently refreshed your branding, it’s vital that you update your website so that there is parity between your online and physical presence.

Get the Best Professionals to Redesign Your Website Today

When was the last you updated your website? Regular site updates protect you against online phishing and ensure the site is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate. As a top marketing agency in Pittsburgh, our experts will bring life to your site using the best practices. Get in touch with us today to get started.