When I look back on my career in digital, especially during the early days of the internet, I remember convincing many senior business leaders about the importance of a corporate website. In hindsight, we can laugh a little when we consider that there were companies that didn’t feel the need for a website. Even today, there are organizations that are lagging behind when it comes to keeping up with today’s modern sites. Let’s have a look at some important areas you need to consider so you can stay ahead of both the technology and the competition.

1. It’s a Mobile World

Is your website mobile friendly? It needs to be because according to Mobify the current speed of adoption of the mobile web is 8 times as fast as web adoption back in the 1990s and early 2000s. At a recent Google event I attended, Google’s Alec Humes, mentioned that on average we check our phones something like 155 times per day. Research analyst Mary Meeker reports that Americans spend 24 percent of their time using mobile devices with a $25 billion window of opportunity for companies to advertise using mobile (which is another topic). It’s time to consider ways to make your site mobile friendly.

2. Drive Traffic Through Search

Search Engine Optimization or SEO continues to play a big role in driving web traffic to your website.  Keeping your site updated with new content, in the form of updating your site pages or even creating a blog, remains a top priority.  With regards to mobile search trends, Alec made an interesting revelation to me when he mentioned that his team at Google saw a pattern of users in a study, who would abandon search engine listings that were not mobile friendly. This might be one of the reasons why Google is ranking sites higher for being mobile friendly.

3. The Buying Process is Changing

The buying process for consumers is transforming and many of the buying patterns or habits found on B2C sites are now visible on many B2B sites. Google’s Micromoments technology emphasizes that consumers are spending abhorrent amounts of time researching products before they make a purchase (B2B product reviews are becoming very popular). According to Alec, almost 65% of consumers online spend time researching products with 82% of people consuming content on their mobile phones. This means that the content on your site is critical but on top of that, once you have people on your site, you can start capturing their information through the use of web forms. Companies like Hubspot are emphasizing Inbound Marketing tactics to drive visitor traffic to your website (the hub) in order to capture qualified leads. Make sure your site is in tune with today’s buying process.

4. Don’t Let Your Website Look Like it’s from 1990

First impressions are important. And if your site looks like it still belongs in 1990 then it’s likely that your visitors might think the same of your company. Brand impression is key when it comes to making a purchase decision for consumers and although there isn’t a direct ROI on ‘look and feel’, it is still something worth considering for the success of your site. You might hear people talking about Responsive and Adaptive design, and those are two big considerations as your content will be presented on more than one device such as tablets, smart phones, desktops and more. As I mentioned above, Google is ranking sites higher related to the quality of the user experience a site provides.

5. Content is Still King

One could make the case, that the look and feel of a website is irrelevant if the content is astounding.  And even I would say there is some truth to that but it’s important to realize that a site that looks great and has great content is even better. At the end of the day, your visitors will be looking to you to provide value added content such as white papers, thought provoking blog posts, case studies, engaging videos and more. Yes, writing content can be time consuming and resource intensive, but don’t let that scare you off, lean on your vendor relationships to leverage content that Asigra, Cisco, NetApp, AT&T, HP and others are making available to their partners to publish to their websites, share through social media and other digital hubs to educate the modern buyer.

Long Live the Website

The above five tips are some areas for your to consider. We all have busy schedules and addressing all of these areas at once might not be realistic. At the very least you should be well versed in what is trending and what is important. From there you can focus on the single area you think will provide you the most benefit, whether that’s improving your brand impression, making your site mobile friendly or increasing your lead generation efforts.  All of the above is possible by implementing a quality website that can be the center of your digital efforts.