A marketer’s guide to website excellence

Once upon a time, web design agencies did exactly what it said on the tin – they designed websites. In fact, if we rewind a few decades, things were very, very different. UX was in its infancy, screen resolution was 1024 x 768 (or 1280 x 1024 if you were lucky), and the vast majority of web users had to suffer Internet Explorer, aka IE6. Dark times.

By the time this big gorilla was born (2010), things had evolved somewhat, and web agencies were beginning to understand the value of user experience, keyword optimisation and content marketing. Today, websites exist in all shapes and sizes. But they all have one thing in common, and that’s their common goal: to convert visits to leads.

In this article, we will address some of the key considerations to ensure that your website is Wayne’s World levels of “excellent”.

Start with a brief, but keep it brief

It may seem obvious, but a brief is essential, and you’d be surprised how many of us have been on projects (thankfully, not Silverback projects) where the team head haphazardly into design without as much as a basic understanding of the site’s objectives and aspirations.
A brief isn’t so much about having a document to put under everyone’s noses. Instead, it’s about aligning your people. That’s designers, developers, project managers, copywriters, and most importantly, the client and the marketers.
An aligned team is an organised team, and with organisation comes structure, order and process. It also sets clear goals and roles. All of this is crucial to any project; without it, small road bumps can become big mountains.

Brand consistently and consistently brand

Your brand lives on your website, it lives in your content, it lives across your marketing channels, and it lives in any downloads, leave-behinds and freebies. It seems obvious that an overarching brand should appear consistent throughout all of these assets, but even the best-laid brands can go awry.

We’ve all grimaced at that email newsletter that accidentally went out with the old branding or that landing page that looked like it was designed in another dimension. There are a number of solutions for this:

Brand guidelines: Don’t scrimp on these! We believe in a “no stone unturned” approach, particularly when it comes to websites. Check out our recent blog on the topic.

Brand guardians: Yes, they’re not the most popular person in the company, but they play an important role. A human touch and regular sense checks go a long way.

Brand audits: Nope, they won’t set your pants on fire, but they’re a great way to check over EVERYTHING to ensure you haven’t missed off those newsletters or landing pages.

SEO and CRO because YOLO

SEO (or search engine optimisation) is ever-changing. It used to be about metadata and keywords. Today, it’s about on-page content. An excellent website will provide excellent content, and that content’s relevance will help your page rank higher, providing you also cover the basics, such as using headings, sub-headings and so on.

CRO (or conversion rate optimisation) is providing ample opportunities for website visitors to convert. This is important because the easier you make the conversion process, the more likely you are to generate leads. It’s not an exact science, but the basics are: high-conversion landing pages, clear value propositions, and prominent CTAs. All while being fair and transparent with your data collection.

User experience and accessibility

We believe the two should go hand-in-hand. All too often, accessibility becomes an afterthought or forgotten about altogether. So we like to combine the two. Technically, they are one and the same, so this isn’t a groundbreaking approach. Instead, it just ensures that your website is excellent for everyone regardless of their needs.

Site navigation and user journeys: Map them out, plan them, test them, break them. 

Mobile layout: Understand how your website appears on mobile devices and ensure it’s responsive.

Speed and impact: Is your website fast? Is it energy efficient? Are you using green hosting?

Everything above: Content strategy, brand consistency and audience awareness… it’s all UX!

The proof is in the pudding

And we really love pudding. In this context, the pudding is a delicious helping of social proof and case studies. We’re talking about marketing content that really adds validation and credibility to your product or service. This might be case studies, client testimonials, customer reviews, or something more interactive, like social media integration or collaborative campaigns.
An excellent website won’t just sell the dream. It will also reinforce the dream with real-world examples of the product or service in action. This doesn’t only build trust with your audience but also provides you with a direct conduit to your customers, enabling you to understand what’s working and what’s not.

Finally, an A-Team for an A-Game

Last but by no means least is your web and marketing team. Typically, this is an agency that specialises in brand, design and development. They’ll have many years of experience under their collective belt, as well as an ongoing awareness of the web landscape, which moves and shifts as trends and technologies come and go.

An excellent agency will also provide ongoing support, whether that’s something as simple as web maintenance or a helping hand when it comes to adding additional content, pages or features. Better still, an agency with brand experience can also step in when you decide it’s time for a full rebrand or time to spin up a new brand.

Excellent websites don’t come out of a box. They’re built from knowledge, craft and care – by real people. And that’s the approach that we’ve nurtured in our own Troop for a very long time now. If your excellent brand is looking for an excellent website with an excellent team to boot, you’re in the right place. Let’s talk.

Party time, excellent!