Its vital that your website works for you and effectively helps you conduct your business. Here are 10 essential things that will encourage potential clients to do business with you!
1. A clear description of who you are Someone who stumbles upon your website shouldn't have to do investigative work to figure out what, exactly, it is that you do. That means clearly stating your name and summing up your products or services right on the homepage. Letting people know this is the right website that they have been searching for,. A clear description will attract the visitor's attention immediately and encourage them to stay on your website longer.
2. A simple, sensible Web address Don't make things complicated. Your domain name is like your brand. It should be easy for a user to type it into a Web browser or an e-mail address.
For businesses we recommend the .com domain as users are conditioned to type that extension when they enter a web address. For non-profits or organisations, we usually recommend using a .org domain for branding purposes.
We also suggest avoiding dashes as these can cause SEO (Search Engine Optimisation - how google ranks your site) headaches.
3. An easily-navigated site Clear links to the most important pages are crucial for guiding visitors to the information they're looking for.
Be sure your navigation is clearly laid out. we always recommend using drop downs in the navigation menu so the visitor can see the content under every heading from virtually any page.
You want to make it very easy for your visitors to find what they are looking for, or what you want them to know.
4. Easy-to-find contact information You wouldn't want to lose a customer to a competitor just because you made it difficult for them to get in touch with you.
Not every online visitor has the patience to click through every page on your website to find the contact information, so the best place for the contact information is in the footer or top right corner, which helps the visitors to find it more easily.
You should also be sure to include several ways for them to contact you, phone, e-mail, and a standard contact form, are all good options. We also suggests including your address, and even a link to your location in Google maps.
One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is to have only one way to reach them, the point is to make it very easy for users to communicate with you on their terms.
5. Customer testimonials Honest words from others help make your products or services more tangible to customers who are visiting you online.
They help your potential customers to build trust in you, especially if you are new and they help shoppers to confirm whether the product or services meet their needs.
People love to hear stories from real people,they also help potential clients find out other things you haven't said on your website.
6. An obvious call to action Tell the online visitors literally what you want them to do with clear tones of command, For instance, you may want them to call you now for free quote, or sign up to your exclusively online newsletters, or add products to the online shopping basket, etc,
Call attention to your suggestion by using special buttons or highlighting the text, for example.
7. Know the basics of SEO Your website won't do you as much good if no one can stumble upon it. Become familiar with the SEO basics to make it more accessible by search engine.
You don't need to employ SEO experts to rank well on the search engines. Simply make sure your website is coded correctly, which means using the correct keywords throughout your text, putting in plenty of links and images.
We can guide you on all of this but you know your business best, so we take our lead from what you tell us.
8. Fresh, quality content For many businesses, your website is your first impression on a customer. You want to give them what they're looking for, and perhaps even give them a reason to keep coming back.
The visitor is looking for something. Make sure you give it to them.... and be sure your content is original, well written and valuable.
Fresh content is a goldmine for SEO, as well. You can keep your content from getting stale (and give your company some personality, too) by incorporating a regularly-updated blog or connecting in your social media feeds.
9. Link-building
This is one thing you absolutely cannot dismiss from your SEO strategy. The most important thing is to get reputable and relevant websites to link back to you, to increase your search engine rankings and therefore the traffic to your website. Some simple link-building methods:
List your website in as many online directories as possible.
Create highly shareable content with Informative headlines, catchy blog titles etc.
Write guest posts on related blogs for added exposure.
10. A design and style that's friendly to online readers Web surfers have the attention spans of a goldfish!
Online visitors often scan through a web page to sample the content first when they open a new page. If they feel like they are on the right page, they will slow down to read the full story. To enhance user's experience on your small business website, you should organise the content for scanning.
We recommend three style points for online writing to keep in mind:
Break text down into short paragraphs, with headers if necessary
Use bullet points
Highlight important words or phrases.
In the end, simplicity and basic colours are the best bet. Again, the content is the focus, not dancing clowns or razzle dazzle at the top of the page.