Ian Henry, Sales Director at Premier Web Consultancy in Manchester discusses how leveraging the power of the internet can help to grow your business.

We all know by now that your website is one of the most important aspects of your business, especially with the advent of smartphones and mobile technology. It’s the shop window to your company, and it can mean the difference between closing that deal, or losing a potential customer.

First impressions count, so if your website doesn’t accurately display the quality of the organisation you’re representing, then it’s doing you a disservice. The average time a visitor takes to decide whether or not they want to stay on your site is less than 4 seconds, so if you don’t grab their attention immediately, they’ll click the back button and go to the next company on the list.

So how can you engage with your visitors in such a short timeframe? Simple, by following the basic rules of web design:

Clearly display who you are and what you do

It’s vital that your website’s home page describes who you are and what services you provide in a no nonsense way. It can be extremely frustrating when you know what you’re looking for, but you don’t know if the website you’re on can help you. Eliminate any confusion by

The rule of three

At Premier Web Consultancy we’ve been building websites for over 15 years, and we’ve learned a thing or two in that time. We always advise our clients to stick to the rule of the three key elements, this means giving prominence to three of the main services that you offer. These can be your most popular products, the service you are best known for, your most profitable item, and so on. Three is the perfect amount, it’s not too many that the viewer is overwhelmed, and it’s not too few that you could be perceived as a small company.

Place your contact details in prominent positions

The main objective of your website should be to generate enquiries or sales, so you can’t miss any potential opportunity by making it difficult for the viewer to find your contact details. By strategically placing your phone number, email address and contact forms throughout your site, you can greatly improve conversion rates.

And finally, make sure you can be found!

The first thing people do when looking for any product or service is go to Google. We all do it, whether it be looking for that weekend getaway, a new car or even when looking for property – search engines are our first port of call. So it’s vital that your website appears for the search terms that you need to be found for. Keyword research allows you to see which are the most popular search terms based on your business, this can then be the basis of your online marketing campaign. Know as search engine optimisation (SEO), this marketing strategy is something that every business should be doing, no matter what industry you’re in.