Times change, fashions change, cars, clothes, gadgets... your website is no different.
Only in the latter case, it's not just a trend, but more precisely changing needs for your readers, and new possibilities you have to do business online using new technologies or strategies. In a nutshell, If your website is older than 2 years, or if you have recently renovated it without taking into account what I will tell you here, you risk finding yourself in the situation that Americans liken to a poker game: you are leaving a lot of money on the table. Let's see what this is all about.
WEBSITE WITH RESPONSIVE DESIGN
Mobile devices are an established reality, accounting in some cases for more than 50% of visits coming to your pages. The great thing is that they are easy, quick to use, you have them with you all the time, and...they have screens of many sizes!
10-inch tablets, 7- or 8-inch phablets (what a lousy name!), 4- or 5-inch smartphones... All touch and with super bright screens but, will they get your website to display properly?
Will it be easy to navigate through your pages, using your fingers to click on menus instead of using the mouse?
And then--are we sure that your website has everything (from images to code) optimized to load quickly even by those connected by cellular network?
You have to think about it, and you have to do it quickly. Responsive design is the web design technique devised a couple of years ago precisely to meet this need. In a nutshell, thanks to the code used to make your pages, the images, navigation menus, text and the entire layout adapt to the screen of the device your visitor is using.
Without him or you having to do anything, without options to choose or alternate (read duplicate) versions of your website to implement.
Not only that. Google's official blog, in June 2012, published a post stating that websites made in this way are rewarded precisely because they provide a better experience for their users.
So think about it, it's worth it.
Valerio.it for example has been responsive for almost 2 years and the reason is simple: over 35% of my visitors use mobile devices to read these pages.
MODULAR WEBSITE
If your website is armored, you are unlikely to get far without spending an avalanche of money.
What does it mean?
It means that if you're using software to manage your pages (in the jargon it's called a framework) that doesn't allow it to be expanded with new features, whether they're simple or complex, and especially quick to implement, you're out of the game.
This bad situation usually occurs when your site is one of those "handmade by a friend's cousin" or when some agency has been clever enough to foist some of their (self-made) products on you that will never be developed or updated properly.
There are of course exceptions, in fact I recently met a company that produced a CMS whose development is part of their core business, so a serious thing.
However, pay attention to what you choose if you ever find yourself in the situation today of having to choose which way to go. The suggestion is WordPress because it is ultra-expandable, everyone can get their hands on it and it has many, many extra modules (plugins) for every need.
Forget Joomla or Drupal, they are robust but more difficult to manage if you are not an expert and much less globally developed.
A few examples of modularity you might need: forums, e-commerce, blogs, document repository, membership, front-end editing, file submission, integration with Google services--do I go on?
Now do some soul-searching and think about your current website. Is it capable of doing all this or could you implement it with these features in a few hours...?
THE BLOG FOR YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS
If you don't have a blog you can never establish yourself. Having said that, I would have said it all. But let's go a little deeper... The blog is your window to the world of the Web, from which to look out and speak to everyone.
This is where you can best express yourself, have your say, explain your product and services, demonstrate how much you know on the subject, and subsequently be universally recognized as an authority in the field.
Doing blogging is easy, doing it well is something else.
First of all you have to have the right platform, and here again WordPress is the best solution, since it is born for blogging. Then you must have an editorial plan, if you want to call it that, which is a list of topics to be addressed at least weekly, taking care of the title and content.
There are many blog writing techniques you can employ, but keep in mind that substance and length of text are always important: at least 350 words and content that your readers will find interesting.
If you are really good you will elicit reactions, comments, shares on social media, and people will start following you because they will see in you the answer to their problems.