Early 90’s: Tim Berners-Lee set in motion ‘one of the most transformative human events in history’. His neat little invention, the ‘World Wide Web’, went public and subsequent years saw the launch of Yahoo (1994), Amazon (1995), eBay (1995) and Google (1998) – websites which would revolutionise our behaviour and the way we engage and interact with brands. 
 
The world’s first website looks a tad different to what we’d expect now, thanks to some brilliant minds, the rapid evolution of tech, and a few megabits of download speed we have information readily accessible at our fingertips. 
 
With so much noise (over 2 billion websites at last check), your business’s website needs to shine brighter than your competitors – this is where you need to consider a key element: website engagement. 

How do I create an engaging website?

Top of to-do list: ‘Create engaging content on my website so that the people on it stick around long enough to do something that I want them to do!’ 

Easy? It could be, with a few simple and gradual changes backed up with plenty of insightful data. 

explains Sara Pugh, co-founder and Managing Director of Eight Wire, one of Cornwall’s most successful marketing and design agencies. (we’re also lucky enough to have her leading our upcoming Digital Basecamp sessions).  
 
Sara continues; 

7 Top Tips to creating an engaging website.

Relevant content

Audit your website. Think about what you are saying – does the site content cover all your services and all the key points that you want to get across? If it’s not a feature or benefit or if there is information missing (e.g. Opening hours, health and safety policy) your audience will leave.

Visual brand

A brand is not just a logo. Your brand is everything you do – it is important because people want to trust your brand. Set your entire scene with your brand and put values against what your business is all about. Think about your USPs, how you can incorporate these into your website content and how you can stand out. E.g. you don’t sell pizza, you sell a taste of Italy.

Your customer

Understand who your customer is and what they care about. When you speak to people on your website, write to your perfect customer and with them in mind, put them first. Your current customer may not be your desired customer at the moment, but that’s ok, the more niche you can be, really honing what you are saying the more you will resonate with your perfect customer. 

Imagery

People will scroll through websites during research phase, but they may not buy yet, they are looking at images to inspire them. People want to be informed through that imagery. Think about the information architecture on your website I.e. how you position the wording and photography/video on your website.

Clear call to action

Ensure that your call to actions on your website are strong and clear. Tell them what you want them to do, e.g. subscribe to my newsletter, book now, follow us on social media.

UX journey to purchase

UX = User experience. Which pages do your customers click on to reach conversion or purchase? Think about the different journeys that your customers can take through your website. If people leave your website at a certain point, perhaps on the ‘buy now’ page, think about what you can change then review the results. It could be as simple as changing a call-to-action button colour or moving the purchase button higher up the web page. 

Mobile responsive

Check how your website is performing on different devices. Take a look at responsivedesignchecker.com to see how your website looks on these different devices. It is a free tool. Think about UX again, put customer first and their experience with your website on mobile. 

Sara leads our upcoming Basecamp session where she’ll share more tools and tips on how you can engage with your perfect customer through your website, applying simple techniques, making it work harder for you. 

Register for our next ERDF funded Digital Basecamp, designed for businesses in Cornwall with an £85k+ turnover: https://bit.ly/3ABj7r2