Do you ever find yourself humming one or two lines of a song over and over... all day?  With our local theatre society’s production of Chicago opening tomorrow night, I’ve been humming show tunes incessantly over the last few weeks.  And while there's a fair amount of cheese that goes into musical theatre lyrics, I've found that you can usually find one or two to suit any situation.  So here are a few tips for making sure your website works for you... Broadway style!

Razzle Dazzle - Chicago

“Give ‘em an act with lots of flash in it, and the reaction will be passionate”

Make sure your website looks good.  I am instantly suspicious of sites with out-dated designs, too many colours, fonts that are hard to read and poor quality images. 

While it may cost more to use a graphic designer for your site, it will surely be worth it in the long run.  Think clean lines, complementary colours, pleasing proportions, and good use of space.  We’re instantly attracted to good looking, well designed sites, and tend to spend more time on them.

Anything Goes – Anything Goes

"Good authors too who once knew better words, now only use four letter words writing prose..."

When it comes to content, 'anything goes' is anything but the case!  Make sure you use the same phrases in your content that your customers are likely to use when searching for your products and services.  Google will reward you for this by boosting your place in search rankings.

The other biggie when is comes to content can be summed up in one word: proofread.  It's a horrible feeling when you hit 'Send' on an email only to see that you've typed 'retards' instead of 'regards' in your sign off!  It's worse when you've done something like this on your website, for the whole world to see. I find I sometimes miss typos when I skim read, so don’t be afraid to read your content out loud.  This can help fine tune the flow of the writing too. 

Time Warp – The Rocky Horror Picture Show

“It’s just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right…”

With the exponential rise in mobile internet traffic, now is the time to get a responsive website.  Responsive websites are designed to look great and be easy to use, whatever screen they’re viewed on. 

To see what I mean, if you’re reading this on a desktop or laptop computer, drag the sides of your browser window to make it smaller.  You’ll notice that once you get down to a certain width, the site realises that there’s less space available, and rearranges the content to keep it user-friendly.  Some parts may have jumped to the left, others may have stepped to the right… see where I’m going with this? Cool, huh?  

Get Me to The Church On Time – My Fair Lady

“Pull out the stopper! Let’s have a whopper! But get me to the church on time!”

More mobile internet users also means it's doubly important to have a fast website. No one wants to be waiting around for massive pictures to display, especially those out and about using smartphones/tablets over a 3G network!  Make sure your images are optimised for the web, and that you don’t have too many on any one page. Managing images with a Klixo Drupal website is very easy.

Hopelessly Devoted To You - Grease

"Hold on to the end, that's what I intend to do - I'm hopelessly devoted to you"

Can visitors to your site find what they're looking for quickly and easily, without having to spend aeons navigating a complicated menu structure or reading through large bodies of text?

 I 'love' the way some telco websites seem to hide their phone number to deter visitors from engaging in a real-time spoken conversation.  These are telecommunications companies and it appears they'd prefer you trawl through a poorly-presented 'Help' section rather than speak with someone about your presumably unique situation! 

When planning your site, spend some time thinking about how your visitors would like it to work.  Devote your site to them.

If you want to talk to us it's easy, all of our contact information is here.

Who Will Buy? – Oliver!

“So what am I to do, to keep the sky so blue? There must be someone who will buy…”

Are you currently selling online?  Make it easier for your customers to access your products or services by selling through your website.  Talk with your web developers about setting up e-commerce on your site.  Apart from a few decisions to be made about how you’ll charge for shipping costs, this is usually fairly straightforward, and provides another way of growing your business. Have a look at our successful e-commerce sites.

Cabaret - Cabaret

"What good is sitting alone in your room... ?"

Social media channels offer so many opportunities for further interaction with your visitors.  Why not make it easy for visitors to share content on site with their friends/family/followers quickly and easily by integrating social media elements on your website? Make it easy for them to share your content, so you can be seen in more places.

I Know Him So Well - Chess

"Nothing is so good it lasts eternally"

It's one thing to launch a fantastic new website that ticks all the boxes above, but another to make sure it continues to work for you and your visitors. 

Update your site with fresh content regularly (Google will reward you for this, too), and keep an eye on what's working well and what isn't.

Tracking tools such as Google Analytics allow you to monitor how your site is being used. It can tell you how many visits your site is getting, how people are finding your site, how long they spend looking at each page, which devices they're using to access your site, and all sorts of other useful information. 

So why not make use of this useful information?  Take note of your visitors' behaviour, and tailor your site accordingly.

All I Ask Of You - The Phantom of the Opera

"I'm here, with you, beside you... to guard you and to guide you"

And finally, it's great to have a site that's well supported.  You want to know that help is there when you need it, so do consider what kind of support package is offered with your site.

The Klixo team is passionate about helping businesses and organisations succeed on the web.  Whether you're after a new, responsive website or just want to discuss ways to get more out of your online presence - we're here to help.  Get in touch.

Otherwise.... break a leg!