As internet usage increases, your online presence as a business gains more and more importance since it gets harder to impress customers among the fierce competition. Getting ahead in this race involves much more than creating a simple website. Having a serviceable, good looking, functional and authentic website is one of the most crucial factors that determine your success as a business. Today, we will guide you through the maze of creating the perfect business website.
Here are the 10 most important elements for your business website.
- A good looking and functional homepage
- Easy navigation
- Visually appealing design
- Mobile friendliness
- High quality and fresh content
- Email marketing
- Call to action
- Tell your story
- Include reviews
- Efficient SEO
A good looking and functional homepage
The homepage of your website is the face of your business. This is where your visitors decide whether to stay or not; you have about 10 seconds to impress your visitors and convince them that you are there to serve them the best you can. A good homepage should both look good and show your visitors what you have to offer.
Your logo should be on the uppermost part of the homepage. You can add a small paragraph under your logo to briefly talk about your business. Main navigation tabs should be under your logo. If you sell tangible products, make sure to include a small product gallery on the mid section of your homepage with brief descriptions. If you provide specific services, clearly explain them. Provide your contact info like your e-mail, social media accounts and phone numbers at the bottom. Optionally, you can add reviews about your business to increase the trust factor.
Easy navigation
If your visitors cannot find what they are looking for easily on your website, they will leave quickly. If you make sure that your customers can access your content and products easily, not only will your visitors be happy but this will also help your SEO as well. Every important page of your website should be 1 click away from your homepage.
Visually appealing design
While functionality comes first, having a website design that is aesthetic is fundamental to your business' success. This is one of the easiest ways of impressing your visitors early and it introduces you to your visitors as an inventive business. Plus, make sure to include high quality images and videos about your products/services. Videos used to be optional, but having a video about who you are and what you have to offer on your homepage is becoming a must-have. Internet users nowadays expect much more than simple texts and images.
Related article: How to design a website when you’re not a website designer
Mobile friendliness
Smartphones and tablets are getting more and more popular each day. This means more people are browsing the web using their phones and tablets, so having a mobile optimized business website is becoming crucial. In fact, more than half of total internet traffic is generated through mobile devices.
Responsive web design (RWD), which makes your web pages render well on different devices with flexible image resolutions and page sizes, is the best way of creating a mobile friendly business website. Plus, having a responsive web design helps your SEO as well since Google checks this factor while ranking your website.
High quality and fresh content
Your business website needs high quality content that is relevant to what you do and offer. Create videos about your services and company with high production quality. Create a blog for your business and write articles about the importance of the products/services you provide and constantly update them with new information.
Let’s say, you own a company that provides SEO services, write a blog about the importance of SEO in web design. Do not overlook this, since giving useful information to your customers builds trust and makes them more likely to purchase from you.
Of course, updating the content is just as important as creating it. This shows your customers that your business is up to date.
Email Marketing
Driving conversion to your website is just as important as creating traffic. One of the best ways of doing that is email marketing. With email marketing, you can constantly remind your past visitors about your services and provide them with special bonuses to increase their loyalty.
Offering your visitors special content like a free e-book or discount codes that they can use in their first order are some of the best ways of getting your visitors' emails without annoying them.
GoDaddy’s Email Marketing tool makes it easy to add a signup form to your website, create and track email too
Call to action
Call your visitors to action by using simple texts and images. These should walk your customers through the steps you want them to take. But be careful, as they need to be useful and relevant to your business. Simple buttons like "Shop Now" and "Download Free Trial" work wonders in convincing your visitors to take actions you want them to take.
Tell your story
Telling the story of your business creates trust and connection between your company and the customers. People want to know that there are real people behind a business, and introducing your company and team briefly is one of the best ways of doing that. Your "About us" page should be brief and attractive that humbly talks about your founders, employees and the mission of the business.
Include reviews
%86 of consumers read reviews for local businesses, according to a study done by BrightLocal.
If a visitor sees your business website for the first time, the first thing they will do is check reviews about you. You can provide them with this information on your website by creating ways that your customers can use to review you. You can also include the positive feedback of professionals to further enhance the trust factor.
For example, if you did the SEO of a website and the owner was satisfied with your service, you can ask them for a brief review and show it on your homepage. This strengthens your brand identity and creates trust in potential customers.
Efficient SEO
You created a great looking and functional business website, but this is meaningless if no one can find it. Make sure you choose your domain name and host carefully. Create meaningful content with the right keywords, optimize page titles, title tags, URLs and meta descriptions, use relevant and high-quality images with filenames that use the right keywords. Hire SEO experts if you can afford it, as SEO is one of most important steps of creating a business website.
Related article: How PPC and SEO can help your small business digital marketing
Let your business website shine
There they are, our must-haves for a business website. Your website must effectively present your company and products to visitors and convince them to become your customers. Applying these 10 practices while designing your website will elevate your brand by improving your online presence significantly.
