Make your website more effective on a tight budget

If you’re looking to make quick and economical changes to your website that won’t break the bank, your website content is the best place to start. This is the area most businesses need to work on – either by creating more, trimming down, or simply updating.

Review your homepage
Your homepage is your storefront window to the online world. Make sure it invites visitors to come in and stay awhile. This is your chance to make a first impression – make it count. The homepage should clearly identify who you are and what you do, but it must also allow visitors to easily find your products, services or information they’re looking for. If visitors can’t find the information they’re looking for, they’ll leave. There goes a potential customer.
 
Rewrite and simplify
Have an unbiased, second party read the opening paragraphs on your home and main pages. If the writing doesn’t engage them – then the writing doesn’t engage your customers. It’s time for a rewrite. If your text is wordy, blocky, or you use too much jargon, simplify and replace with clear, concise information your customers are looking for.
 
Structure your content
People are lazy when it comes to reading information online. They want to quickly scan through to see if it’s interesting enough to read further - or click the back button. By using headings, sub-headings, bulleted or numbered lists, and short concise sentences, you’ll make the text more “web-friendly” and “scan-able” for visitors.
 
Write new content
Search engines love content, especially new content. Try to write new content on a regular basis. You don’t need to write the equivalent of a short story, just valuable information your customers will find useful.
 
Easy to find contact information
Visitors coming to your site may want to contact you at some point. Make sure they can by providing clear contact information for your business. Having a form to fill out and send back is not enough because visitors want timely answers to their inquiries. Phone numbers, emails and job descriptions for all staff and departments should be listed on your website.
 
Add a sitemap
To make sure that search engines can find the great new content you’ve created, you should create a sitemap for your website. Simply search “sitemap generators” and you’ll find lots of online tools to help you. It’s a quick and effective way to improve search results for your website.
 
Monitor your traffic
Get to know your customers. Google Analytics is a free resource to monitor your website statistics including what pages are most popular on your website, where your visitors are from, when the traffic is happening and how your website is doing overall.

Don’t reinvent the wheel
There’s lots of free content available online to use on your website. It may require a link acknowledging the source of the material, but’s it’s free! Think simple – articles, links to local attractions, weather widgets, videos, a conversion calculator and social media content. This all adds substance to your site at no cost.

Updating your current copy will go a long way in improving your website and its performance. If you’re not comfortable writing content reach out for help. A quick search for “writing for the web” will reveal many resources to guide you on how to write copy or consider hiring a professional copywriter to create content for you.

For more information on ways to increase your online presence with a one-on-one mentoring session please contact your provincial TourismTechnology.com Project Coordinator, Lyndsay Leedham at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , (902) 496-7481 or 1-800-948-4267.