A professional website
is very important for every business. If you’ve never had your own business website before, your first one can be intimidating. Here are some suggestions for creating your first business website.
1. A Clear Goal
Every business website is different because they all serve different purposes. Are you selling products directly, or are you asking your prospects to contact you? A website without a clear purpose will consume your time and money and is unlikely to provide any benefit.
2. Your Own Content
You need to decide what you want your website to say. Experts recommend that the website owner should start creating content for their site. Whether you plan to do it yourself or hire someone, you know the core message of your business better than anyone else.
3. State Your Purpose Concisely
Make sure the key points about your business, it’s staff and offerings are clear and simple for visitors to find.
4. What You Can Do for Your Prospects?
Read your content as a if you were a site visitor. A common failure is a tendency to focus on what your business does, rather than what benefit you can give to prospects.
5. Professional Website vs Personal Accomplishment
If you’re short of cash you may be tempted to look at the DIY options. Although it’s possible, it’s not easy for a business owner to create a professional site. It’s very common that business owners want to build their own websites. Once completed, they feel so proud and they learnt a lot. However, customers really don’t care whether you’ve had a great learning experience. They will only notice whether your website looks professional. It it isn’t professional, it will be harmful to your business.”
6. Own Your Domain
All businesses should purchase their own domain name. mybusiness.co.nz is much more professional and easy to remember than mybusiness.wordpress.com.
7. Future Growth
If you expect your business to grow quickly, choosing a low-cost platform may not provide your best outcome. Platforms like Wix and Squarespace are great for small business who will use only a few features. However when you outgrow them, transferring your site to a new host can be a challenge.
8. Personalise
New website owners often want to make their businesses look large. That’s not always beneficial. Most customers want to know that a real person will be working with them. Including good photos of yourself and your team, with a personable bio is always a good idea.”
9. Contact
Your business website must include contact information. This should include an email address, phone number, address and social media. The more channels you give people to contact you, the more likely they will reach out.
10. Easy to Read Text
As your relevant information is contained in the text, it’s important that it’s easy to read. Core typefaces, like those that your designer or theme suggest, are best for readability. Don’t change your fonts just because they look cool.
11. Valuable Images
Images and videos add interest to your business website. Relevant media could include team photos, examples of your work, and sometimes even relevant stock images.
12. Customer Reviews
Customer reviews are a key element of your business site. If your business is new, look at getting quality reviews as soon as you can. A few comments from customers will help build your credibility.
13. A Mobile Site
You must make sure that your site is responsive and mobile friendly. As of February 2017, mobile web traffic accounted for 50.3% of all internet traffic. A site that doesn’t work well on mobile drives customers away, damages your search engine rankings and is unprofessional.
14. Search Engine Optimisation
SEO is extremely important, ensuring that your prospects and customers will find you online. Your web designer will integrate this into your initial website. However you’ll definitely want to educate yourself so you can maintain and improve your search engine rankings.
15. Keep Improving
Once your website is live, the process is just beginning. A business website is never complete. You will want to add or change it as your business evolves. Always try to improve your search engine optimisation.
Remember your your website is targeted at your prospects and customers’ needs, so always keep them as the focus as your develop and enhance your site.
Contact us for an obligation free discussion of how we can help you with you business website.