Launching a new website, or maintaining an existing one, presents a series of creative, technical, and logistical challenges. Indeed, it’s only too easy to get bogged down in daily details and forget the basics, such as why you or your company has a web presence in the first place.

However, keeping a cool, calm, objective focus on what makes your web presence unique, or that bit different, can be a key to lasting success in the hectic digital thoroughfare that makes up today’s internet.

Google, during 2013, announced an increase emphasis on quality of websites as factor in determining search result page rankings. The USPs of your business are therefore are all the more important. An essential first step is to find out, and articulate to and for yourself, what they are.

Here, then, are some quick pointers for getting started, taking as an example, a fictional online board game retailer.

-Consciously go back to the early days when you were starting out. Ask yourself why you got started on this business, what gaps in the market were you trying to fill? Are you still meeting the needs of your target audience?

-Revisit the competition. Check out their websites and follow their social media posts. You might get some pointers as to what makes you different.

-Ask your customers. If you have a Forum, you could ask your returning customers why they come back.

-Finally, don’t neglect your home turf. Many companies discover a sweet spot through being online, but appealing to their local community at the same time. You might hear comments like “they’re the only people for miles around who know about board games”. The board game players in the local pub or café could represent a whole new customer base.

John Murray

John is every inch the wordsmith and loves a game of Scrabble above all else. With experience writing for newspapers, John’s time at university was spent studying Creative Writing – something which comes across in his love of the pun.