Chicken and the Egg: Website or Marketing, Which Comes First?

What came first, the chicken or the egg? It is an age-old question that has been debated numerous times and still lacks a definitive answer. Fortunately, that is not the case when it comes to developing an online presence for your business.

Imagine, you have focused on marketing first and visitors are finding your website. Except you have not spent any time on your website and instead of a user-friendly, professional website that says all the right things, they are greeted by a poorly designed website with no clear message.

Before you invest money in marketing efforts, look at the list below and make sure your website is ticking all the boxes.

It is essential when building your website that you have a clear idea of what you want it to achieve. Every decision you make, from the design to the content you include should be informed by your website’s purpose. A website that does not have a clear purpose will leave your site visitors confused. For example, on Pagio (our website building platform) we want people to sign up and create their own website, so everything we do will be informed by this end goal.

It is essential when building your website that you have a clear idea of what you want it to achieve. Every decision you make, from the design to the content you include should be informed by your website’s purpose. A website that does not have a clear purpose will leave your site visitors confused. For example, on Pagio (our website building platform) we want people to sign up and create their own website, so everything we do will be informed by this end goal.

Make sure you know exactly who your target audience is and that your site design and content appeal to this audience. Talk to your audience in the language they understand, use the words that they’re using and avoid industry jargon that they won’t understand. For example, if you run a cleaning company instead of using phrases like “domestic cleaners” use “household cleaners”. Domestic is just the word that cleaning companies use for household cleaning, your target audience is not going to be other cleaners and therefore your audience is more likely to be searching for “household cleaners”.

This is a no-brainer but make sure it is easy for your site visitors to find the information they need on your site. Websites that are confusing to navigate or overly cluttered are likely to lead to visitors clicking away in favour of a better-designed site.

Your website is an extension of your brand and therefore it is important it matches. Make sure you have a consistent logo, font and colour scheme that your site visitors can instantly recognise as you. This helps to create both brand awareness and trust. Avoid using harsh colours or difficult-to-read fonts.

Whether it is to showcase products, create a mood or illustrate something else, images are a great way to enhance your website and make it memorable. Make sure you are using high-quality images that reflect your brand as blurry, poorly edited, or unrelated images make a business seem amateurish.

Make sure your content is clear, engaging and directs visitors to what action you want them to take on your site. Avoid overly complicated language and long sentences wherever possible.

Studies show that 1 in 4 visitors abandon a website after waiting for 4 seconds and 46% of visitors will never revisit a slow website again. Making sure your website loads quickly is crucial to converting visitors into customers.

Most of us now use our phones to browse the internet. It is therefore vital that your website is accessible and well-designed for mobile usage, otherwise, you are not even going to get visitors on your website let alone turn them into customers. At Pagio Digital we start designing with the mobile layout in mind.

Think of your website as a restaurant. Would you start advertising your restaurant before you have created an attractive setting and hired a good chef? Of course not. If your marketing efforts got customers through the door they wouldn’t be impressed and would likely leave without ordering anything. This is the same principle with your website. A website can make or break whether someone turns into a customer, therefore it is essential that you ensure your website looks good before you start any marketing activities.