If you run a business, one of the most critical parts of that business – certainly in terms of marketing and potentially in terms of income too – is the website. Twenty years or so ago, websites were less common, and that was simply because they weren’t needed quite so much. Businesses were still able to carry on and do well simply through word of mouth. Their good reputation was enough. Yet as more businesses were created and more people chose to go self-employed and be entrepreneurs, this became much more difficult. A business without a website suddenly became uncommon and untrustworthy.
Therefore, to compete in the marketplace and to ensure that people know you exist (and that they can trust you will be around for some time), your website needs to be in place, and it needs to work well. What elements does your website need to encourage people to visit it and use your services? Read on to find out the top ideas.
A Professional Look
The first thing you need to think about when you are designing your website, or having a third party design it for you, is that it needs to look professional. Anything less, and you aren’t going to instill confidence in your potential buyers. They will wonder why you aren’t taking things seriously and move onto someone else selling something similar.
Your website has to look professional to win as much business as possible. This means:
- Having a clear message
- Keeping the design consistent
- Using a simple color choice
- Ensuring it is easy to navigate
If you can put these few measures in place, the rest should be easy to follow since you will need to ensure everything stays on message. Clean, clear, and crisp are keywords to think about when designing a website. It’s true you can get complicated and ‘flashy,’ but is this really necessary, or does it detract from the message you are trying to put out?
A Blog
A blog might not sound like one of the most important elements of your website, but in reality, it is extremely useful and could be the difference between being found in a search online or not.
Your blog is a crucial part of your SEO to begin with. SEO – search engine optimization – is all about ranking well in Google search results; being near or at the top of the first page is the place you want your website to be listed if possible, and utilizing SEO techniques is the way to do this. Your blog, with its ever-changing content, its keywords, its links, and its images and videos, is the best way to keep up with your SEO responsibilities. With optimized content writing on your website, you can get ahead of the competition more easily.
As well as this, your blog is the ideal way to let people know you are an expert in your field. The more information you can provide, the more likely they are to buy from you, and they will continue to visit your site for more updates.
Contact Information
It might sound obvious to have contact information on your website, but it can sometimes be forgotten, and if that is the case, then even if someone is desperate to buy from you, but they have a question to ask, you will have lost that sale. Without contact details (and assuming you don’t sell directly from your website), your site is doing nothing to help you build your business at all.
Remember to keep your information up to date as well. It is easy to forget to change the phone number or email address on a website, especially if you are concentrating on other elements, but this can lead to confusion and mistrust, and that leads to losing sales.
Good Navigation
Have you ever been to a website that was confusing and where, when you tried to click onto any other pages, it took you round in circles or made it hard to get where you wanted to go? There are many websites like that on the internet, so the chances are you have experienced this problem. You will know just how frustrating it is, and you probably didn’t buy anything from that site or company because you weren’t able to use their website properly. You don’t want your website to fall into this category; you already know it’s a bad idea. Therefore, make sure your website is easy to navigate. The links should go where they are meant to go, and there should be no broken ones. Plus, the menus should be small and easy to go back and forth from. This way, people can easily browse your website without getting frustrated.
