Almost all businesses in Ghana get it wrong when it comes to their business website. Websites of Ghanaian businesses are not living up to their full potential. And it is because businesses are putting up websites not for a marketing objective but because it has become trendy to do so.
The decision to build a website for your business should serve the main objective of being a marketing tool online. In other words, a website should serve as a magnet to draw internet users to your business.
There are two main ways people get to know of your business’ website:
One is when you tell them about your website address directly. This could be in person, via a radio/tv/online ad or your printed marketing materials.
The second is when people get to know of your website without your involvement. Mostly this happens because they were researching something online and discovered your site.
For most businesses, the first way is how their websites get discovered. If your business is being discovered this way, then it means you are rather doing the marketing for your website instead of your website doing the marketing for your business.
Don’t get me wrong, there are positives to telling people about your website directly. For instance, you cannot say all about your business in a radio or tv ad so having a mention of your site in the ad will get people reading more about your business and its offerings from the website.
Another positive scenario is when you want your potential customers to take action after handing out your business’ fliers and so you direct them to your website. This is a smart way to get that action done easily and efficiently.
But are you going to be running ads or printing out fliers before your website works for you?
Let’s take a look at the other way people may discover your site.
Say your business is into the sale of beautiful northern smocks (aka fugu, you know, the one from Bawku, Wa, Tamale and surrounding towns) and you have a website. One day, one opinionated guy who is trying to win an argument with his friends about which town has the best smocks, does a Google search and at the top of the results is your website with some relevant information for him. This guy clicks to check it out, gets the info he wants, notices your website is into sale of smocks so checks a few out and leaves. Though he has left, one thing is for sure, your website name and your beautiful smocks have been recorded in his mind.
Six months down the line when he wants to buy a smock, guess which site he is visiting first? Yours. Your business has won and your website has worked for your business.
Your business doesn’t have to sell products for your website to work for you. Websites will work for all kinds of businesses.
How to get your website to work for you
To get your website to work for you, it’s not enough to just put up one, you need to build it right and then continue to nurture it.
Building your site right involves being intentional about the things you put on it. Your website should have all the information that is needed to convince a visitor once on the site to do business with you. The text, images, videos and tone you use to describe your business and services and/or products should be true and convincing.
When coming up with text to use, make sure to include potential terms that people who will search for your business online will likely use. Do not just put words together for the sake of it.
If you sell beautiful smocks from Yendi for example, make sure for example to have the terms “Yendi smocks”, “beautiful smocks from Yendi” and related terms spread across the bulk of the text on your site.
Nurturing your website involves updating it with the right content. A great way to nurture your site is to have a blog section on the website where you publish regular and relevant content related to your business. Remember the smock business that had some content about which town has the best smock and how that led to a business? You need to do something similar for your business.
If your business has a website, you need to devote some time to writing content for the site regularly. This is what is going to make it easy for your business to be found online when people search for terms related to your business.
Does your business sell pet food? You need to be writing on various topics about pets and pet food and publishing it on your website. You could write articles on the best food to help pets grow faster or stronger. How to get pets to eat when they do not want to among many other topics.
The topics you write on or about should be relevant to Ghana so Ghanaians can easily find your business online.
Of all the things you can do to nurture your website, making sure your site does not “die” is key. Some businesses put up websites and after a year or two, fail to renew their domain name and hosting services thereby causing them to be suspended and eventually the website kicked off from the internet. Websites provide the best benefit to your business when they stay longer online. The older they are online, the more relevant search engines like Google regard them. And so if your business is not ready for a long term commitment, putting up a website in the first place may not be an advisable thing to do.
If you’re able to build your site right and nurture it, you’ll be providing it with the right fuel needed to work for your business. And this should be your goal.
If you’re considering creating a blog section for your website but do not have the time and energy to write relevant content for it, you can check out our content marketing offering.
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