5 Do's That Will Help Your Site Succeed!

There is a battle that wages every minute of every day. There are many underdogs, and sadly, many casualties. If you were going to send your forces into the battle, wouldn?t you want to equip them to win instead of sending them to their deaths?
Of course, the answer is that you would never knowingly send your troops to their demise. Unfortunately, in the battle that I speak of, too many of us are doing just that. We are sending our forces out ill-equipped and, if they are lucky, with at least half a battle plan. And most of us don?t even realize we are doing this.
Each day, sites are born and sites die; some are listed in the top 10 search engine rankings and others are lost on distant pages never to be seen again.
midPhase is not only in the business of housing your forces and making sure they respond quickly and reliably, we are also in the business of helping you send them out well-equipped with a solid battle plan to win. Our designers have pooled together their years of experience in this battle and came up with the top 5 keys to helping your site succeed.

1) Do… Have a clean and professional site design and layout.
What good does it do to send your company into action with weak armor or ancient weapons? You want your site to look like it means business. Like it or not, looks matter; even on the web. When you go into combat, you want to come across as the biggest and baddest warrior on the battlefield. Without a solid, professional site design, people will question if you are going to be there for them if they buy your product and need assistance later. People are becoming more careful with giving out their personal and financial information on the web. Having a site that looks like it was thrown together in a matter of minutes doesn?t help you win their trust.
2) Do… Make sure your content is accurate and up to date.
Like I mentioned above, you wouldn?t send your forces into nuclear combat with black powder rifles. So why would you send your site out into the web with inaccurate or out-of-date content? The web is constantly evolving; people want to find accurate information that is relevant to this year, month, or day. Something as simple as having old business hours or an outdated phone number on your site could be costing you greatly. You also don?t want to leave them wanting for more, or feeling overwhelmed with information.
Make sure your site is updated with the latest information and images. Make sure that the information helps your visitors accomplish what you want them to do (whether it be purchasing, calling in or emailing you).
3) Do… Have a clear call to action.
Make sure it is clear what your site is about, what you are about and what you want them to do. Have a clear idea of what you want the site to accomplish for you and make sure everything on the site helps to reach this goal. If it is submitting a request for work, make sure you aren?t hiding the contact links.
4) Do… Make sure your site is as search engine friendly as possible.
The search engine battle is a fierce one. You need to send your site into the battlefield as well-equipped as possible to give it a chance. Make sure everything from your content and URLs to your code is targeting keywords correctly. Search engines are taking page load times into account now, so make sure yours loads as fast as it possibly can. midPhase recently launched its new SEO Site Analysis Report; this will quickly and easily give you an idea of where your site sits in this regard.
5) Do… Have tracking analytics set up on your site.
One of the traits of a great military leader is knowledge; not only of their own troops, but of the enemy. Implementing analytics and other tools will allow you to know how your site is performing and how changes to your site will affect its performance. Use analytics to see where visitors are leaving and to see where they are coming from. This is one of the most invaluable tools you can furnish your site with before sending it into battle.
6) Bonus… Do hire midPhase’s Design department to help you win the battle (shameless plug)
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Stop sending your site out every day ill-equipped to win the battle. Implement these simple ideas to help ensure it has the best possible chance of success. By constantly monitoring analytics, updating content and renewing features, you can give your site the winning edge.