Managing web expectations

Hopefully by now you’ve read all about our splendid website design services (if not, go here to right that wrong). However, not content to rest on our laurels by merely designing your website, we can go beyond that and manage the whole thing for you, should that level of assistance be required.

The majority of our clients eat, breathe and sleep their business. That’s why they’re so successful. On the downside, they’re often such busy bees that tasks such as website maintenance just can’t seem to find their way to the top of the ‘to-do’ list. While this is understandable, it’s also DANGEROUS (albeit not in the life-threatening sense).

Today’s user has high expectations of any website they visit. It needs to look good, provide the info they need in a flash, and also be current and relevant to their needs at that precise moment. Given that Google also rewards websites by having regularly updated, relevant content on sites, sitting back and doing nothing with your site once it’s up and running can be doubly damaging.

Luckily there are simple fixes to get around these difficulties and at Thirdegree we’re willing and able to help you make the most of your online presence through our website management expertise.

Some of the things we keep an eye on for you are:

  • Analytics
  • Web tools
  • Blogging
  • Site architecture monitoring and evolution
  • Security

We do this so that as your online presence grows you can make educated decisions and site changes based on what your users are actually doing rather than what you think they’re doing. There’s usually a very big difference…

Caring is sharing

If you’re good at what you do, and have products and services to die for, you’ve got to get amongst it and actively make that information available to your prospective clients. Your website is great for that, but housing that solely on static webpages will only get you so far. That’s why we believe the humble blog is a god-send to businesses.

A regularly updated blog gives you an incredibly valuable means of sharing your capabilities, presenting solutions or showcasing thought leadership. It can also be a great way of pushing customers on to other areas of your operations that they didn’t know they needed. Align your blog content with keyword research as part of Search Engine Marketing efforts and you have the perfect blend of boosting your SEO ranking while keeping your readers engaged.

Whenever we create a website for our clients, we always advise them about the value of blogging. But you’ve got to be prepared to commit to it. If a user finds your blog page and sees that the last update was (gasp) months or even (heart-attack) years ago, they’ll be out of there faster than a toupee on a windy day.

And while it is a commitment, it’s not the biggest commitment you could make. We’re talking 400-600 words of quality copy on a weekly or fortnightly basis, or more if you can manage it. If you’re not able to find time to do it yourself, hiring a good copywriter is a smart move, and we can help you find one. It won’t cost the earth and in any case could be a good investment. Linking back to blog content for e-newsletters, or re-purposing it for print publications is commonplace and allows you to maximise the shelf-life of your content.

And once the copy is in place, we can update it for you, and distribute it via other digital platforms to help it reach the widest possible audience.

Harnessing social media

Unless you’ve literally been living in a technology-free cave for the last decade, it won’t come as a newsflash to you to learn that social media channels are an awesome – and increasingly essential – way to engage with your audience and showcase your wares. Distributing valuable content via these channels, (i.e. linking back to your blog or website), can be a very effective way of getting eyeballs across your brand messages.

Again, you need to commit to keeping it current, just as you do for your blog writing, but it’s a good and very cost-effective way of marketing your value proposition. Depending on your audience, some social media platforms will work better than others, but as part of our website management service we can not only advise you on what’s best for you, we can set up your pages, design your assets, and manage the content. What’s not to ‘like’ in that equation?

Contact Thirdegree today for all your website design and website management solutions. Or bust us a tweet to @thirdegrees if you’re so inclined…