Your website is more than just a website A website is an investment in your brand and business. It’s like having a solid fleet of vehicles wrapped in your colors and logo or a beautifully designed storefront with products begging to be bought. The commonality in each of these investments is that they are a direct reflection of your business and brand. The thing that is different about each of these things is that the first of the three – the website – is often neglected and left in ill-repair. Often that results in an emergency situation – the website goes down, it gets hacked, features stop working, or you just can’t work on it anymore. You wouldn’t let your vehicles or storefront get in this condition, so why your website?
LEAD BY EXAMPLE By Carrie Cousins Executive Summary: Your website is a direct reflection of your business and brand; it should not be neglected.
Your website is one of the most used and public brand elements you own. Many customers and potential customers will visit it to establish your credibility and legitimacy without you ever knowing they were there. From that initial visit, they make a choice as to whether to do business with you or not. What do you want them to see? What kind of online customer experience will you create? The right website choices are different for every business, but there are a few elements that stay the same. Here’s a little checklist to help you stay on track: • Start with a website that is yours. That includes a domain that you own and dedicated hosting for your website. (Yes, an agency can manage this for you, but you should be the owner of it all.) • Build on a platform and tool that is highly regarded, as customizable as you need, and is fast and searchengine friendly. (This can be a tall order, but generally, WordPress or Shopify fit the bill.) • Regularly maintain the website once it is complete. (Again, having an agency or dedicated web person here makes this run a lot smoother. They will likely work on updates and fixes in a development environment, test everything to make sure it works, and then push those updates to the live website for a seamless customer experience with no downtime.) • Create and update content on a schedule. (A website is only as good as you make it. If your latest blog post
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t OCTOBER 2024 / vbFRONT.com