Your website is one of the most important assets you have as a business. Whether you’re a service company, a manufacturer or a freelancer, having a good website is crucial to getting enquiries, making sales and bringing work in through the door.

In a world where we’re all only a Google search away from finding the service or product we need, having a great home page really could be the difference between success or failure for many businesses.

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Why is your accountant giving you website advice, you may ask? Because a great website can have a direct impact on your profits – and making your business more profitable is exactly what we’re good at.

So, how do you get your website right and boost those profits?

Tell people exactly what you do

Your company website is the first place people go to find out more about your business. So make sure it’s incredibly clear what you do.

Eye-catching graphics and beautiful imagery are valuable elements of your site. But getting the words right is incredibly important. Tell people:

  • Who you are – are you a carpentry business, or an IT support company? Make it completely clear what industry or sector you’re in.
  • What you do – Tell your audience exactly what services or products you supply. And make it very clear how you can help them.
  • How much you cost – Be transparent about your prices and tell people what they’ll get for their money.
  • Can people buy from you direct? – if you use eCommerce for sales, be sure the shopping page is easy to find and provides a good buying experience.
  • How they can get in touch – Tell people how to contact you. Include your phone, email and all your social media account details. Give people flexible ways to talk to you and find out more.

Make it user friendly

The easier your site is to use and navigate, the more likely it is that you’ll turn casual visitors into paying customers.

Simplicity is the key. Think about the layout of the site and the processes customers have to go through to buy from you and make them simple and easy.

  • Is it clear how to buy a product or find your services?
  • Is it obvious where your contact details are if visitors need help?
  • Are you keeping the number of click-throughs and button presses to a minimum?
  • Is it as easy to navigate as it could possibly be?

Make it the centre for all your marketing

Digital marketing should be a big focus for your business. And your website is the online centre where your content, marketing materials and blog posts will sit.

The website is your marketing hub and the place where you’ll be driving potential customers to when running campaigns or promoting the business. And to do that effectively there are a few key things you have to get right:

  • Host your marketing content on the site – put your marketing brochures, video clips and blog posts on the website. Make sure you’re always pushing traffic to your own site, not third-party websites.
  • Push people to the site through social media activity – make the most of social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to drive your followers directly to your website.
  • Make sure the site is optimised for SEO – talk to a search engine optimisation (SEO) specialist and get the right key words and search terms embedded in your web content.
  • Put metrics in place so you can measure web activity – Use an analytical tool like Google Analytics, to measure traffic to the site and look for the useful data on customer types or buying habits etc.

Integrate your website with your financial software

Integrating your website with your accounting software and other financial and business solutions adds a whole new dimension to your online sales.

If you use eCommerce and sell directly through your website, all your transactions and associated data can be pulled through straight into your accounting software.

This has a number of real benefits:

  • You spend less time on admin as there’s no need to key these sales into your bookkeeping system.
  • Your key sales numbers are always shown as real-time figures – whatever sales you’ve made will be shown in your balances and in your cloud reporting.
  • With your data all safely tucked away in your accounting software, you can use business intelligence software to provide completely up-to-date views of your sales, revenues, cash flow and profits.

Xero Trifecta adds a new dimension to your website

As we said at the beginning, a good website really does affect your profits.

Having a modern, easy-to-use website that integrates seamlessly with all your systems makes it easier to find you, easier to buy from you and easier to generate multiple revenue streams.

Our Xero Trifecta approach to financial management allows you to integrate your website with your cloud solutions in a really straightforward way.

Xero online accounting software links directly to the eCommerce element of your site, and Spotlight Reporting can be linked to your Google Analytics software to give you a beautiful visual view of sales, web traffic and social media activity – and those all-important key profit figures.

Book yourself in for a Xero Trifecta session with one of your cloud business advisers.