Websites are living and breathing entities and we should acknowledge that a website is never 'done'.
Paul Hunt is a marketing consultant
How often do you review, update and change content on your website, especially the home page or the primary landing page?
The answer, for many businesses is rarely and actually, many companies will see their website as something that they just need to have to demonstrate credibility to stakeholders, which includes new & existing customers and nothing more.
It's time we change this view, as websites are living and breathing entities and we should acknowledge that a website is never 'done'. Content Management Systems (CMS) make it easier than ever before to tweak, edit or even replace pages immediately, without the need to employ a web agency to do this for you.
With Google Analytics, it's so easy to monitor usage of your site and by monitoring your bounce rate (this is the percentage of visitors who come to your website and leave without viewing any other pages), it can help you gauge the impact of tweaks and edits you make.
If your average bounce rate, for example, is 90%, this means that 90% of the people who come to your website leave after only viewing the page they entered on, whether it was your homepage or an internal page.
Basically, this means that your website isn't retaining visitors, but this may not be a bad thing, as long as you are clear what you want your website to achieve. If you actively want to lead visitors away from your site, you may be doing so because you want them to call you or fill out a form to place an order, you may want to send them to an affiliate site. However, if you aren't getting the enquiries or orders either, it's time to have a rethink.
