A website is quite obviously an essential ingredient in your web to print strategy. Understanding what makes up a good website is therefore important if you are going to take your print business online and succeed.
The thought process most people go through is as follows:
“Does it look pretty? Great, I’ve got a website…now what?!”.
The truth is that there is so much more to a good website than aesthetics.
The key considerations for any website should be:
- Design – of course, it must be visually appealing?
- Functionality – can customers easily use your website?
- Optimisation – does it load fast and is it search engine friendly?
- Cost – does the price fit with your current financial situation?
- Flexibility – is the website setup to grow with your business?
- Manageability – how easy and cheaply can you make changes?
- Communication – relevant information on print products and services will ensure that it generates new enquiries and ultimately new business for you. A website can be your 24/7 marketing employee that doesn’t need a break!
Flexibility really is the key because if you are going to invest in a web presence, you need to be sure it is going to be able to grow or develop alongside your business. This makes a content management system (CMS) an increasingly important part of a website.
Just so you know, a CMS gives you the ability to run, manage and update your site yourself. This means your printer website can be kept up-to-date, and this is important for both customers and having a good position in search engines.
Our printer websites solution (a module of OPS) gives you access to a very simple and easy to use back-end administration system to allow you to make changes and update your product catalogue as and when you need to. We also provide full training and support to make the process as pain-free as possible for you.