How do you feel about the start of a new year? All those months stretching ahead ready to be filled with goals, exciting plans, and growth? If business growth is on your radar for 2022, you may be looking to review your website. It’s a great exercise to carry out to ensure it’s working hard to support your business.

An effective website should be a clear and inviting shop window, telling people exactly what you do, how you help them and how to take the next steps. But if you’ve spent a lot of time working on your website or had it for a few years, it can be hard to spot what’s working and what’s not! So here are my top 5 things to include for a website that isn’t just good, it’s great!

Was it designed for your clients or you?

Remembering that your website exists to serve your potential and existing customers is essential. The website design, branding and wording should all appeal to your ideal customers. For example, you might adore bright pink, but if your audience is mainly male or very professional, using pink could put them off exploring your website. First impressions are everything and a person will take just a few seconds to decide if they want to stay or click away...

Have you considered user experience?

Again, this is where you need to see your website through your visitors’ eyes, not yours! Imagine you know nothing about your brand, and you’ve landed on the website for the first time. Is the homepage clear and easy to read? Does it tell them what you do and who it’s for? Are there calls to action in the content so that people can learn more or get in touch with you? Do the links work and take you to the right pages? Focusing on user experience is essential for making sure your website generates leads and sales.

Are your images supporting your brand?

They say a picture paints a thousand words and that applies to websites too! High-quality, on-brand images will encourage visitors to explore and demonstrate that you are a real, reliable business. If you haven’t got professional images, then there are plenty of affordable stock images. Do remember that a photo shoot won’t only benefit your website - social media and email marketing both need great images too.

Is your content helpful?

One hurdle that you’ll face in our increasingly digital world is building brand trust. In an age of scams and cyber criminals, you need customers to know and trust you. Remember to consider your website from the standpoint of someone who is new to your brand and ask yourself - is the content helpful? Am I offering them value which will help them to trust me and the brand? Does it explain how to use my products or services, solving their frustrations and answering FAQs?

Have you done the basic SEO work to make it Google-friendly?

SEO stands for search engine optimisation, and it’s a way to help boost website visibility and traffic. SEO refers to the different ways you can help your website appear nearer the top of Google’s search engine results pages when people are searching online. That means identifying relevant keywords and including them in your headings, subheadings and copy. Updating your website is also super Google-friendly as it means new content (and hopefully more keywords!).

If you think your website needs a total rebuild, remember that there are lots of platforms out there and they all have their benefits. The success of your website will largely be down to nailing points above not the platform it’s built on. However, if you have very little experience in building websites, then you will find the WIX platform will suit you perfectly as you don’t necessarily need to code to nail a beautiful design!