Quick tips for an effective EPC website
Over the months I've had occasion to visit quite a few website's belonging to DEAs hoping to market their EPC business. Understandably, being cash-strapped - and with plenty of spare time! - many have thrown-up their own creation using free (or cheap) software.
Some may have even paid one of those DEA "web designers" offering special £50 deals for DEAs... maybe even some web marketing company sporting fancy, fantastic looking, graphically rich pages.
(Let me give you the news; the internet is not a glossy magazine. Read on.)
It is clearly obvious that some advice is sorely needed out there. So here goes...
First-off, this post will not attempt to teach you how to build a website or the technical aspects of implementing the corrections I will highlight... that would be a website in itself and there's plenty of those about already.
However, what you will learn from this should not be difficult to implement.
The worst DEA website's
Clearly, I don't wish to risk offending any single individual and their efforts without permission, so I'll not name them. I have been struck, however, by the number of site's which are just large images. I thought software producing such site's had long disappeared, seems not!
Don't use images for text - They make you invisible
Reason: Computers cannot read image content. That includes search engines such as Google and partially-sighted/blind web surfers reliant on text-to-speech software to read and navigate your website.
Furthermore, text within images doesn't scale well when resized.
Note: Commercial website's are subject to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and, as such, must be accessible - Very important for this legally-mandated industry.
Use "normal" fonts
Reason: Take a look at the screenshot. This is from an actual DEA website which is one of those big images. Now, depending on your screen resolution, that font will probably be challenging to read. Imagine how difficult it will be to read all the content throughout the site!
Additional font tip: Keep it simple - Black on white is the best contrast to use and the easiest to read. If you're not a talented graphical artist, stick to what you know!
Avoid Flash
Reason: Flash-based website's are basically images.
Title pages correctly, and specifically - Important
Reason: Search engines place huge value on page titles. They are the first clue as to what a page is about and they are what a user first reads on the search engine result page (SERP).
Look to the top-left of your browser - That is my page title; It relates exactly to the content you are reading. It is also repeated as the main header for this page too (top-right of page - It's a h1 tag BTW).
Note also how the website name appears last. Put your company name last too...
Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA) in [your town]
Related to the above; very, very few people will search for your company name, so don't go fooling yourself - You ain't Amazon!
My advice is for you to title your home page similarly to the above and also to create another page using Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) in place of Domestic Energy Assessor, to catch both potential searches.
Oh, and please make sure there is content that speaks about those titles... good, meaningful content!
Crucial tip: When linking to pages, use the title of the page you are linking-to, as the text used in the link.
Example: All you need to know about the Energy Performance Certificate (goes to my home page).
That will do for now. If you want to see more stuff like this here, holla back.
Tags: dea-marketing
