It’s is the end of season two of the Kehorne podcast and we’re talking about so what next for your website? What more can it do for you?
As well as maintaining your website on a regular basis in terms of software updates, plugins etc, we like to put time in our diaries to regularly review our internal websites throughout the year. With fresh eyes, sometimes you pick up things that you didn’t see before – and there are checks that you can periodically make to ensure that the website is still effective. Checking links, checking emails are getting to you from contact forms, updating your blog regularly – these are all small tasks that can be managed easily, every few weeks.
We often recommend getting someone that doesn’t know your website to take a look from time to time. Give them a task and ask them to find a page, or a certain piece of information in just a few clicks. Use Google Analytics, which is a free tool, to see who’s using a website and what the most popular pages are. These types of tasks can often reveal insights which you might not have considered before.
So if phase one was actually getting your site live, what do you want from the website in the future?
Planning the next steps for your website will help you evolve your messaging and content, and keep it fresh. Consider additional functionality; if you started off with a website which is essentially a brochure showcasing your products or services, you may wish to consider actually moving to selling online?
You may want to consider password protected areas on your site, that give certain users that are registered, access to things that other users don’t have access to. That might be extra menu items, digital assets, downloadable resources such as PDF’s or images. And by gaining access to a password protected area that encourages people to register, you can also grow your database, giving you a direct dialogue with users that you wouldn’t have otherwise been able to communicate with.
Asking users to sign up for updates on your website can also help you to grow your database; but for this to be effective, you need to ensure that you are realistic about what you can do and that you are providing enough new content for it to be worthwhile registering.
Considering linking your website so that there is a two way flow of information can also be useful; you can choose to integrate your website with CRM systems such as Hubspot (customer relationship management) or accounting packages such as Xero, Sage or Quickbooks. If there are tasks that you are regularly repeating, then there is an opportunity for automation.
So that’s it for season 2 – please tune into the new season of our podcast in the New Year. To listen again to previous episodes, including season one – click here. Alternatively you can find out more about what we do by visiting our website.
