Do I need a Website?

Did you know?

Did you know over 90% of business purchases start with a search engine search? In 2021, 9.1 million Australian households shopped online, and 2/3 of Australians used their homes or cars, using notebooks, tablets, phones and cloud file technology to access work, client and billing information.

In 2022 and more than ever, people browse for information. Search engines go looking for information based on the words the searching user enters. If you have that information on your website, if you have what they are looking for, the browser and that customer will find your website. But it doesn’t end there. Once the person clicks on your site, you have 7-15 seconds to get their attention.

7-15 seconds is not much time. It’s closer to 7 seconds as shown in the average human research statistics. What you show on your website is ultimately what will either keep the customer interested or have them click away after 7 seconds to the next site on the search list.

What is eCommerce

eCommerce is electronic commerce, or in simple terms, an inline shop. The popularity of eCommerce shopping websites have gained enormous momentum since COVID. Most people today not only search for goods and services online, a large portion of the same people buy what they need from online stores and have the items delivered. If you are running a business selling any type of goods or services and you don’t have an online shop, you could be missing out on sales by not offering online purchasing.

What’s important and why

These are principles we adhere to with every website we design.

How important is content?

Good, clear content in the form of well-defined headings and natural sentences is one of the most important aspects of a good website and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). It definitely is NOT ‘keyword stuffing’ and blocks of repetitive text.

Quality and accurate content is extremely important because not only is the customer/patient interested in knowing you can help them, Google is too. Google ranks you accordingly by how deep people navigate into your site, whether they hit the back button, or whether they return to the search results page because they didn’t find the information they were looking for.

You want to aim to capture the client/patient’s attention and show them you are good at what you do, and are worth the visit.

Know what you do and be good at it

Before a business can succeed there needs to be some level of skill and effort from the owners and a market demand. If you are someone who has that skill and you/your business partners are prepared to do the hard work, it’s a good idea to invest some time into thinking about what you want to portray in your website. So many people get this part wrong and target all the things they would like to do, rather than what they can do. Or focus on the products and services that aren’t working rather than the ones that are.

A good design works, but only if your business works and is articulated in a well presented website. We ask questions and conduct our own research before bringing a website to life visually. Our aim is to help people who are good at what they do create a consistent message, experience, and journey for their customers.

What about Social Media?

It’s a great way to stay in touch with your audience and to increase awareness to your website and products, however social media should complement a website, but never replace it. Why? You don’t want to be at the mercy of someone else’s site and have your message disappear in an endless Facebook list which you have little control over.

Your website is your landing and it only changes when you make those changes. Both have their own merits and their own purpose.

Is SEO important?

Good SEO is a must. This is the difference between having a website and being found online. These days, almost anyone can create a simple website. Well thought out Search Engine Optimisation is tightly linked with content and is critical for successful online presence that converts visitors into clients.

Reviews? Who needs them?

Research shows more than 90% of today’s customers are guided in their choices mainly by what others write about a particular product or service. Without finding reliable opinions about your product or service, there is a huge risk that they will leave your site in search of this information and ultimately choose another supplier.

Word of mouth recommendations are just as important. Aim to treat each customer as a priority customer, before you know it they will be recommending you to their friends and associates.

PR or Public Relations

In short, it’s being nice to your customers. We see so many people overlook this completely. It’s all about answering the phone, returning calls, responding to emails, listening to your customers and solving problems. In a fast-moving world, big companies skip the PR in favour of volume advertising and profits. Not a bad thing as this gives us small businesses some of those valuable customers who want to be seen and heard.

Genuinely value your customers. Without your customers you don’t have a business.

Maintenance matters

Not maintaining your website would be similar to not servicing your car. Website components will eventually break over time. As browsers and hosting servers are updated, your website needs to be updated too otherwise it won’t work nicely on the newer platforms. Themes need updating and so do the little apps called Plugins. The newer versions incorporate better code and security, are usually better performing and address bugs and problems in older versions.

Your business foundation is not built on its website design alone

Talented and hardworking people with a genuine interest in what they do are the real success behind the business and the website. A good business still needs to build that reputation, listen to customers, communicate, solve problems, develop products and target customers. A website won’t do that for you. If you can’t offer a good product or service that can actually solve problems, it doesn’t matter what your website looks like at the end of the day. It won’t work.

A number of businesses we’ve helped have doubled in call volume and clients in just over a year. We worked on their content and monitored where the demand was stronger, focusing on information, customer service and long-term outcomes. While you probably won’t experience growth right away, you will see progress if you keep at it, and will successfully transform your business into all you want it to be.

Local Australian Hosting, why this matters

The answer to this is simple. Speed. If your servers are located in another country and your customers are in Australia, there will be a delay in data transfer. Web speed is dependent upon the distance the website data travels from its server. The closer you are to that server, the faster your website will load. Another important aspect is data privacy. If you’re collecting any type of personal information, you want your data to stay in Australia and be covered under Australian laws.

Our thinking behind every design

At Thinkinspire when we design a website, we don’t just create a quick and mindless design. We listen to you and ask questions as well as conduct our own research into your industry, then armed with this information we get to work on a few ideas. The end result will be a beautiful, informative, optimised website designed to grab your prospective client’s attention and for the search engine algorithms! With your input and some photos of your work or products, our designs will have you stand out from the crowd.

What we don’t do is use the poor practice of keyword stuffing, repetitive links or repetitive websites in an effort to manipulate SEO ranking at the expense of actual ranking and user experience. We create a brand and base this on the core of who you are and what you do well, ensuring all of our design decisions are well informed, intentional, and reflect who you are and what you are good at.