Top features that every AV website needs

A company’s website is the public face of the business, and this applies just as much to AV websites as any other. Your website is your company, your sales team, your tech support heroes, and often everything else in between, which means that it needs to be functional if you want to make a good first impression, encourage conversions, and learn as much as you can about your customers.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the most important things every AV website should have:

1. Tracked User metrics

It’s really important that your AV website is able to track user metrics such as how visitors are finding their way to your site, and what they tend to do once they are there. Often, the user metrics are not what you would expect, and by knowing what’s going on, you can plan a more user-friendly interface that is far more likely to lead to conversions.

If you’re unfamiliar with free tools such as Google Analytics, you’d be very surprised at how much data can be collected and used to influence design decisions and in turn, website conversion. Also, don’t overlook other free tools such as Google Tag Manager to set up event tracking as well as Google Search Console to be able to keep track of technical issues and organic keyword visibility.

A great user experience is more important than ever - especially as the Core Web Vitals Google algorithm update places emphasis on user experience metrics such as page speed as well as other factors.”

2. Great User Experience

During the design process, you will need to work with your agency to dissect every aspect of your website and its design in precise detail to ensure that it looks and works as effectively as possible. Your visitors, on the other hand, will only spend a couple of seconds on your site before deciding whether it is worth their time or if the competition is able to serve them better. That’s why it is so important that you make your AV website as easy and intuitive to navigate from the get-go, and also why you need to make your website as engaging to your target audience as possible from the moment it is launched.

It goes without saying that In 2021, if your AV website isn’t responsive, then you’re in serious danger of falling behind. Websites need to be dynamically designed so that users can view it effectively on any device from a PC or la[top to a smartphone or tablet.

A great user experience is more important than ever - especially as the Core Web Vitals Google algorithm update places emphasis on user experience metrics such as page speed as well as other factors. Your website should be built with great user experience in mind.

3. A Focus On Content

In 2021, anyone can be a publisher, and that includes you and your website. Gone are days in which your website was simply a catalogue for your products and services. Your users, your customers and even Google is demanding more from your website in the way of content.

Think of your content this way - it’s a chance to show your expertise and sell to your potential customer - even when you’re not physically present. Your website content is a major ‘touchpoint’ or part of the sales journey, so it’s important that your content performs as well as it could do. This doesn’t just mean your written content on service pages. This includes blogs, images (if you sell a visual product), graphics and other thought leadership content.

Stats suggest that visitors will read less than 1/3rd of any webpage they visit, which means it’s important that you should structure your content in such a way that the most important text, images or videos are strategically placed on the page. You should also ensure that paragraphs are short and interspersed with images, videos, and graphics, to keep things interesting, where you can.

Other aspects of structure that you should include on your web pages are :

Clear links to your business’ socials

A Google-style search input bar (around 40 percent of visitors head to the search bar immediately after clicking on a website)
Product filters
Numerous calls to action and contact details

4. Content Management System

When we think of website design, we think of colours, layout, branding and so on. Business owners and marketing managers rarely give consideration to the ‘back end’ of the website, how easily it can be updated and how search engine friendly the website is ‘under the bonnet.’ Your CMS is the end user interface for your website. If coding isn’t your thing, that means you will need to choose a CMS that ticks all of the requirements of updating your website.

When choosing a CMS, you should consider the following before making your choice:

Can content be edited quickly if needed?

Are you able to configure the site to meet the needs of your business, products and services?

Is B2B SEO made simple?
Is it future proof and scalable?
Is it Open Source?
Will you be able to integrate with 3rd party software or update your website’s technical specs with ease?
Is it portable i.e can it be managed by any web developer anywhere?
Is it secure, stable and supported?
Monitoring and measurement

It’s important to ensure that there are clear processes in place for measuring and monitoring your goals so that you can measure your return on investment. Normally, monitoring and measurement are divided into multiple primary and secondary KPIs, with an example of a primary KPI being site-led lead generation and secondary KPIs being things like how much time a visitor spent on the site (engaged with it).

Your website should be joined up with your marketing strategy, directly contributing to your lead generation targets. You’ll need to keep an eye on the stats to ensure this is possible.

5. Search Engine Optimisation

Your AV website needs the ability to edit key SEO elements in order to rank as highly as possible on Google without the need to pay for ads. Whilst your chosen website CMS will have search engine accessibility in mind and perhaps SEO plugins to enable you to optimise your pages, it’s not a case of adding a plugin and expecting to rank for your key search terms. SEO is a long and ongoing process, but it is one that will generally pay off when implemented correctly and consistently.

Speak to an AV Website expert

Tiga is a creative B2B marketing agency. Our first ever client was an AV manufacturer back in 1991. Since we’ve worked with numerous brands in numerous industries and the AV world is still very much close to our hearts. We’ve learnt a thing or two about AV websites so do get in touch with us if you’re looking to refresh your online presence.