Author: David

This may sound a bit of a daft question, but you would be surprised at how many businesses lose out on enquiries because their contact form is too complex. This day in age, collecting data such as email addresses and phone numbers is a lot harder than it used to be, so for this reason many companies try and gather as much personal info as they can and permission to contact the customer later on down the line. This is often the reason for lengthy contact forms that seems to want to know everything. But by doing this, you may actually be losing out on immediate and future custom, so it is vital that you get the balance right.

If your contact form is there as a way of allowing your customers to request a call or email back or to ask a quick question, then keep it brief. Allow them to give you an email address and/or phone number as making both mandatory could mean they don’t contact you at all. If sometimes your customers may need to contact you or make a request where you need further information, then try and create a separate contact form for this purpose.

How long has your current unchanged website been live? If you cannot remember then it has probably been too long. The average life span of a business website is usually between two to three years so redesigning your website can provide a variety of benefits for your online presence, including refreshing your brand or bringing extra traffic and conversions to less popular pages, but a website redesign is something that should be planned carefully because helpful changes to your website can boost your traffic, but changes that confuse your audience will have the opposite effect. If there has been changes in the industry that you are in then often a redesign is better and cheaper in the long run. For example, many car showroom websites are having to incorporate electric and hybrid car information, images and data on their sites as popularity grows for this new technology.

So, should you be looking at redesigning your business website or simply refreshing it by changing some of the visual elements such as colour scheme, graphics and headings? It goes without saying that redesigning the website will be more costly to the business, but it does have the advantage of improved functionality, better SEO and sometimes a new content management system which can lead to increased traffic to the site and a higher conversion rate thereby maximising potential profits. What then should the aspiring business owner be looking for when trying to decide on the best way forward? If the website is bringing in plenty of new business then it is unlikely to need to be totally redesigned and a quick refresh of themes and content may be all it needs to make sure it still looks professional however if you have noticed a fall in visitor numbers to the site and feedback indicates that parts of the website do not function well it could be time to bite the bullet and invest in a redesigned website. It is a sensible idea to analyse the old site and try to identify what works well and what needs changing as it is easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater and ditch something that is working well for something unknown. Assess the redesigned site after a couple of months to check that it is performing as it should and that you are seeing increased traffic and conversions as a result of your redesigned site.

If you are looking to have a website for a local community hub or for a local village hall for example, you may feel a little overwhelmed with the choices you have. Many web design agencies or indeed individual programmers and designers are often used to developing websites for a multitude of customers from small independent business to larger organisations. What is suitable and fit for one type of business often isn’t suitable for another. Some web design agencies may try and sell you something that you don’t need without really taking in to account what your website is going to be predominantly used for. You need to find with a web agency or individual that you can work well with and that will take the time to get to know your business. If you only want a page to be able to advertise local events and to share community news then you may not have thousands of pounds in the budget to create one. Always be upfront with your design agency and tell them if the website quoted is out of your budget as they may be able to scale it back for you to find one that is.