As I’ve stressed in previous articles, it’s important to have a great looking website for your business as it is usually the first impression for a potential customer. Think of your website as a window to your business. It gives a quick view to what your business does/looks like. If you own a business on main street and someone is looking into your shop, and it’s a disaster inside, do you think that someone is going to be interested in buying a product or using your services?
A CLEAN and Professional Website Design is Key to Success
I stress CLEAN design as many clients I have worked with are all about adding the bells and whistles to their site. Sometimes this is over the top and actually has a negative effect. Keep your design clean with a simple navigation so that the viewer has a easy experience gathering the information.
Speak to Your Target Audience with Well Written Content
As I mentioned, a simple and clean design is important. Along with design, clean and consistent written content that speaks to your audience is also very important. Keep the content simple and direct. You don’t want to confuse your viewer and misguide them with links that are taking them to areas that are not relevant. Also have a call to action to have the viewer take an action. That could be calling, signing up for a newsletter or filling out a form.
Along with well written content about your products and services, many successful businesses provide pages/content areas on their website in the following:
- About Us/Who We Are
- Information About Your Products/Services
- Photo Galleries/Portfolio
- Case Studies
- Staff Directory
- Careers Page (Job Opportunities)
- Features and Benefits
- Video/Media Page
- FAQ’s – This can save a lot of general phone calls or email inquiries
- Latest News Information
- Affiliates/Partners
- Privacy Policy
- Application/Forms
- Protected Areas protected by password/login
Educate Your Viewer
Many businesses miss the boat on this item. From my case studies, many businesses want to have the BUY NOW right in front if the viewers face immediately entering the site. This is the wrong approach. You want to become a resource for your viewers as they will feel they can trust the information you are providing and not just trying to get them to buy something. Taking the educational approach vs the selling approach opens up a lot of opportunities when building out your website content. The viewers will feel more comfortable making a transition from educational resources to dong business with you.
Ways to Educate
- Digital Publications/eBooks
- Video Tutorials
- Podcasts
- Blogs
- Email Newsletter
Content Sharing
Allowing users to share your content to their social media platforms is common and great way to spread your voice on the internet. It has become very common to see the social media icons on websites to share the piece of content to your social media platforms. Be sure to provide this within your shareable content (Blog Posts, Tutorials).
