Each week I view websites of radio stations in Australasia, North America, South Africa, the UAE, the UK and other English-speaking countries as part of BPR’s monthly Website Check Up.
The one thing I continually notice is the vast difference in websites……. overall quality of graphics & content, user friendliness, current v out of date content etc.
Have a look at your station website and then those of your competitors and other stations in other markets.
Are they doing things better, things that are innovative?
Here are a few tips on how to audit your website:
- Is the site visually appealing? Does the overall look and feel sit within your station’s brand image? Or is it stale and like many network sites, a bit “one size fits all”? Ensure all images, audio, videos and social media make your website more engaging and interesting.
- Is it mobile-friendly? If not, make it so! Your website must be easily accessible and readable on mobile devices.
- Is website speed optimized? Use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix issues that are slowing down your website and making it more difficult to navigate.
- On that point….is your site easy to navigate overall? Organize your website’s content in a logical and easy-to-use structure. So many sites do not!
- Is the language clear & concise? Make sure that your website’s text is easy to read and understand. Check for typos and grammatical errors…. trust me, I see them all too regularly.
- Keep content updated and relevant. Seems like a no-brainer but so many times I see contests that have finished but are still live on station websites. Is the current on-air line-up actually current?
- Finally…. do some research. Use analytics to track user behaviour and make data-driven decisions for improving the website. Conduct user testing and gather feedback to improve user experience.
By David Kidd, BPR
This story first appeared on RadioInfo.asia