Seven Ways to Update Your Business Website

Some businesses rely on a content management system to update the business website with new information. If you prefer to use a personal approach to updating your company website, remember customers are engaged by interesting features. Invest time in designing the right content, and you will make it easier for consumers to make decisions. Try these seven ideas to add stimulating features to your company’s web domain.

1. Provide a map of your physical location and driving directions through Google Maps or another service. If your business is local, customers need a quick method for finding your place of business from their point of origin. You can also provide details such as lodging, dining, and attraction information if customers must arrange long distance travel to visit your business.

2. Enable customers to compare your prices with the prices of your competitor. This is a business model Progressive Insurance has been using successfully for years on its auto insurance website. The key is to find the right company to provide this web-based application to interface with your website. If you have a technology department, skip the step of outsourcing this project.

3. Create an animated or real-life video that teaches customers how to do something related to your business. Examples include how to place an order, how to print out product instructions, how to install software, how to troubleshoot or make repairs, and how to make a profile on your website.

4. Create a virtual tour of your office, store, restaurant, workshop, factory, or distribution facility. If you want to build rapport with customers, deliver a sense of your business environment from the vantage point of the user’s computer terminal. Remember to use smiling faces from your company if your virtual tour will include people in the workplace. Happy employees create a better impression for customers.

5. Ask users to create content for your website. This idea requires understanding the potential liabilities associated with user posts on your company website. Before you choose this option, research ways to monitor user content and prevent and/or remove offensive or defamatory content.

6. Schedule web video broadcasts about topics important to consumers. For this strategy, you must find topics for videos that will be useful or entertaining for consumers. The Internet abounds with YouTube-style videos that teach people how to do just about everything. Pass along specialized information in a web broadcast your company knows well. Keep in mind the video topic must only last a couple of minutes if the customer will receive a sufficient amount of information on the video topic.

7. Provide brief summaries of industry research supporting your products and services. This tip is not applicable to every business because some businesses are not the subject of consumer research. However, you can provide research about your industry even if you cannot provide direct information about your goods and services. Some companies even choose to hire an independent market research firm to develop consumer information for use in their marketing program. You have to decide first if consumer research fits your marketing program.

There are so many dimensions of your company to highlight on the company website. Use regular content updates to entertain your web audience. You will be satisfied when new website features keep Internet consumers buzzing around your business website.

By Angela Baca