The top 5 Recession busting must-have website features for 2009

1. Blog - with RSS/Atom feeds
They’re quick and easy to update, can be informal and can develop a large user base if the right content and appropriate sharing mechanisms are used. A blog can also be a way of encouraging two-way communications, engaging the user by giving them the ability to comment on posts and providing a research resource for consumers. All of this of course providing sound commercial benefits which may include an increase in website transactions and enquiries – and remember it is search engine friendly. You can also allow users to subscribe to your news and blog feeds via RSS/Atom, which not only helps to establish you as an authority in your area of business, but also encourages repeat visits and increased brand awareness and loyalty – all contributing to increased levels of sales.

2. Regularly updated content
One key factor in SEO is frequent updates to your site’s content – search engines will love you for it and this will certainly help your overall SEO strategy and rankings.

3. Customer reviews/testimonials
Taking the communication one step further and enabling customers to review you, your products and your service can open a valuable communications channel, whilst increasing customer confidence. Don’t be scared of bad reviews, they give you the chance to react and the opportunity to improve your service.

4. Offer something for free
Letting users access useful and interesting content will increase visits and may even encourage a viral buzz about your website on forums and other social networking sites. Informative articles, glossaries, help guides, downloadable PDF print-outs and so on can help to build brand loyalty with customers.

5. Newsletter sign up area
Your website could offer the functionality to allow visitors to sign-up for email newsletters quickly and simply. Users who have signed up can then be targeted about new products and services, which will increase repeat visits. By including deals and offers in these newsletters, it may also encourage users to forward them on to friends and family, promoting awareness of your brand.

Effective Blogging

We are being increasingly asked by our clients to set up blogs on their websites or ask us if it’s a good idea to let staff air their views. We think blogs are great and make strategic sense and we have listed below a few tips to get the most out of them

Make the subject matter easy
Pick topics that your company knows about and can write about regularly and would be interesting to your clients.

Capture the imagination
Use good and relevant headlines for your post titles. These will be picked up by the search engines so make them relevant to you.

Be strategic
As a business you need to be commercially aware on how your posts will be interpreted.

Choose the correct blog platform
Blogger and Wordpress are free for hosting and domains. We recommend Blogger for its ease of use.

Write for the search engines
Being an expert in your topic will raise your profile.

Don’t become a grumpy blogger!
Sounds simple, do not use blogs to moan and always have a ‘gate keeper’ to monitor.

Ensure you blog often
This will keep your views and ideas up to date and will improve your Google rankings.