Hey, innovator, how’s your website looking?
Too often, not so good. Folks are out there blowing minds with technologies that fight disease, deliver health care, or upend manufacturing and agriculture. But you’ll learn very little about any of that on their websites, or how to find out more. That is, if they even have a website.
I, too, am overdue for a website refresh, so I reached out to Darren Leet for some advice for us all. He’s the guy I call in to (ever so kindly) tell clients what’s wrong with their websites, and generate ideas for how to make it right.
The first gem he shared: “An effective website is a properly distilled business plan. Don’t have a current business plan or at the least a SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) document? Do this before beginning a website.”
Good stuff, especially for startups. After digesting that, I honed in on the technical advice.
- Use https://www.spyfu.com/ to see what your competitors are doing to rank in Google searches and what they’ve been spending on ads for the past 15 years. Yes, 15 years.
- Keep security front and center. WordPress users (40% of all websites worldwide) can use additional security plugins like https://ithemes.com/security/.
- The internet has rules. Acronyms abound. If your site can be viewed by an EU citizen and can collect their information, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy rules apply to you. Check out https://gdpr.eu.
- WCAG, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, also need attention. They ensure the information on your website is accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. The Lighthouse tool available in Chrome browsers is a good place to start generating reports on how your site measures up.
- The communicator in me also encourages embracing a chatbot to help people answer questions when you’re not around and connect visitors to the right team member for follow ups.
And, this might seem basic but it’s really, really important. For the love of mercy, tell your visitors exactly what your super-cool tech does and who it’s for. It’s amazing how often this one teensy detail gets completely overlooked by some of the smartest people in the world.
P.S. I’m excited to be presenting an SCRA Webinar Jan 20. to talk more communication stuff. Let’s get it right in 2022.
Jennifer Oladipo is owner of Jenno Co., which focuses on marketing and content for life science and technology companies.
