Are you a small business looking at creating your first business website? These days it is important for a business to have some kind of online presence. If the business involves customer service or selling products the need for a business website grows.
It’s important for a business website to be professional and to meet the goals of the business. But getting it started could be overwhelming. Below are some quick tips to get you on the right track.
1. Understand the goal of your business website
The most important thing to know before getting down to building your website is knowing exactly what you want to get out of having one. Is it there to inform people what you do? Is it to sell products? Is the website there to let people know how to find you? OR Is it there to get leads through a contact form. By really knowing how you want the website to contribute to your business the better you will be able to create a design to fit that purpose.
2. Know your target audience
Now that you know what you want out of the website, it’s time to find out what your target audience may be expecting to see on your website. You can do this in several ways. One way of doing this is if you already have a list of the past/current customer is to ask them. Send them a survey on what they would like to see on your website and ask them and what they love about your business. Another way of doing this is by checking out other businesses similar to yours. Look at multiple sites and find commonalities and start off with that as a foundation for you to improve on down the line.
3. Keep it simple and clear
Make it easy for your visitors to see what exactly you can do for them. Keep this message above the fold. If you “sell books” your message above the fold of your website should be along the lines of “We sell books online….”. Then provide them with a clear actionable Call-to-action(CTA) like “Buy Books Now”. This simple and clear concept should be applied to as much as of your website content as possible this includes navigation. These days nobody has time for long-winded content and hard to find page links. Your content must always address the purpose as quickly as possible. Website pages must always be at the most one click away from any page of the website.
4. Page speed is important
It is important to know that the speed that your website loads for a user can affect your website’s goal quite significantly. People’s patience when it comes to a slow website is quite low. A web page must be able to load if possible within 5 seconds at the slowest mobile data speed. You can see case studies on how your website speed can affect your business on Google’s page here.
5. Mobile-Friendly
These days the majority of users consume content on their mobile has grown quite significantly. See Smart Insights Research. It is important for a business website to look great and be very useful for mobile users. It is important for your website to have a responsive design or adaptive design. Google also now considers this in their algorithm when placing the correct website for a user who is doing a web search.6. Make sure you can be found
There is no point in creating websites if search engines don’t know you exist. Search Engines usually crawl through the website pages and collecting data on current websites and new websites and this could take a long time to get to your new website. However, you can speed this up by registering your website directly to the different search engines.
7. Hire a professional
Small businesses, who are thinking of saving money will most probably go for a DIY approach in creating a website. With several tools that will help anyone create a website, this is not impossible. You will save money and potentially create a functional website. However, it’s also important to consider the amount of time it will take you away from actually running your business. By hiring a professional you get to focus on your expertise and running your business while you let a professional solve your website problems.
To Wrap it up
Learning to create an effective business website is not an easy or quick process even a very simple one. But it doesn’t have to be a stressful experience, the 6 tips above should help you get started in the right direction. If you have any website inquiries feel free to contact me.