First Look : Websites for Pubs

I was signing up to a newsletter last week and I was getting so frustrated with the amount of time it was taking me to complete my sign up. As your website is the portal to your online activities it is extremely important that the sign up process is a painless experience.

In order to do this effectively you will need to make sure that your sign ups follow these steps:

1. Sign ups are to be optional
Don’t automatically add people to your mailing list they will get just get annoyed and unsubscribe, give them the chance to join you themselves.

2. Explain the benefits of signing up
Entice your readers and give them reasons why they need to sign up and give details of when they should expect to receive your communications

3. Promote your newsletter
Use a join now/ Sign up link throughout your website

4. Make it easy
Sign up should be short, always minimize the clicks and only ask for the information you really need

5. Offer something in return
Use this opportunity wisely and show your gratitude by offering something of value for free!

I was looking at a website the other day and I realised that the Branding was all wrong. This make me think of why it is so important to get your branding right. The branding on your website is so important; because it identifies your company and enables your customers/visitors to build familiarity with your site, which is why you should take extra care with it.

Why should branding your site efficiently be important?

• If you ensure your company name is a practical size in full view your visitors are more likely to remember you.
• When your company logo is placed in a clear and visible space your visitors and customers will start building familiarity with your brand and what you represent.
• Matching your online and offline branding will ensure there is consistency with your products/events you hold.
• If you ensure your website echoes your brand values correctly you will build credibility and be more likely to be taken seriously.

By ensuring you market your brand correctly on your website as well as with your other media promotions you will be able to deliver interesting news in a professional manner, building a good reputation for your company and brand.

When you have chosen to create a website your priority should be to attract and keep visitors on your site for as long as possible.
Take a look at these 6 ways to attract & keep visitors on your website:

1. Clear readability. Make sure you have enough white space and that your font size is big enough to read easily.
2. Include customer testimonials. This allows your customers to see what other people have said about your business, increasing the chance of looking around on your website and visiting your pub.
3. Include a blog. Why not allow your employees to contribute so your customers can see the people behind your company, which can create interest and make your business appear more human
4. Make your call to action obvious. Include it on your homepage and make it obvious what you want your customers to do e.g. click here
5. Show important information above the fold (this is the area that a browsing customer will see on their screen without scrolling down). Include the good stuff at the top so users don’t have to scroll down.
6. Make your site easy to use. The easier it is for the user to find their way around the more likely they are to return – think about adding a search box.

Recently I was looking at a website which had no sense of direction; there were so many mixed messages that I was confused! This is because the website was being aimed at different people all throughout the website. This was obviously a bad decision as it was missing its key market by focusing on all markets. To build a successful website you need to determine why your website exists?

This sounds so simple and almost silly but by understanding this, you will have a direction for your website to work towards.

Reasons can vary from:

• Building or re-enforcing your online presence
• Letting people know how to find you/contact you easier
• Advertising your products to a wider audience
• Increasing sales
• Advertising your events

By knowing and understanding why you need your website you will create a clear direction for your team to work to, and you will already be on your way to creating a useful website.

How annoying is it when you click on a link and it doesn’t work! Its happened to the best of us and even though there are simple steps which can be undertaken it is still a regular occurrence……
 
Including links that work on your website is useful for your visitors, as they might also be interested in visiting your social media sites. However if you don’t display correct links you can damage your reputation, so try to follow these best practises for links on your site.
1.      Show your link
I would recommend using default settings to differentiate your links from your text (blue, underlined hyperlinks)
 
2.      Personalise error messages
If your links are checked regularly you should not have display any messages but as a precaution don’t use a standard 404-error page – as when people see this message they will leave your site straight away, personalise your message to try and retain visitors.
 
3.      Remove broken links
Broken links are links leading to pages that do not exist.
What causes broken links?
· Typo errors in your link
· Changing a published post’s URL after Google has already indexed the original link
· Blog title/entry/name has changed and you forgot to rebuild your site

There are a variety of paid and free tools that you can use to check your links are working, take advantage of this and regularly check your links to avoid the frustration of broken links.
 

Following these best practices will ensure that your links are clearly displayed and working correctly, keeping your visitors coming back! This is only my top three but I am sure there are loads more…what would you add?

Over a number of years we’ve reviewed hundreds of websites for all types of business but predominantly sites for pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels and many businesses make the same mistake of hiding their contact details in the depths of a ‘Contact Us’ page.

Visitors to a website want to get to the important information as quickly as possibe, preferably on the home page – a telephone number if they want to call to make a reservation or check some information and an address if they want to visit. A map on the contact page is important however in this day and age with most people owning a Sat Nav device a full address and postcode is of far more benefit. Visitors generally don’t want to make numerous clicks to find the main information and this is even more relevant as more and more people are using smart phones and hand held devices to surf the internet.

We also recommend that businesses include their opening hours and food served times on their home page where possible for exactly the same reason.

Give your website a test drive from a visitor’s perspective or even better ask a friend or customer to give you feedback on how accesible your information is and how many clicks they need to do to get to the information they need. The fewer clicks a visitor has to make, the more likely they are to stay longer on your website and browse.

For more information on creating a website and marketing your business online visit www.firstlookweb.co.uk