Although there are many different reasons to set up a website for your business, they all boil down to one common purpose: Convincing potential customers that doing business with you (rather than a competitor) is the best way to solve their problems.
Viewing your website as a tool for generating leads is an example of a more specific purpose that falls in line with that general purpose.
Professional Appearance
A professional appearance tells visitors that your business is trustworthy and reliable. Don’t put too much faith in automated site-building tools and cookie-cutter templates; a website that’s smoothly designed but also very similar to many others may end up being counterproductive. In the end, the best way to give your site a professional and distinctive look is to entrust its design to an experienced professional.
Clear Contact Information
This is particularly important if your website is only the first step in your sales funnel: Make sure it’s as easy as possible for visitors to contact you once they’re interested in your business. Provide complete contact information, including phone numbers and your mailing address. An email address alone is not enough, particularly if it’s a generic one like “[email protected].” For the best results, incorporate your contact information into every page on your site.
Useful Content
While the straight sales pitch has its place in online marketing, you shouldn’t build your whole website out of it. Try to think of your visitors’ very presence on your site as a clear sign of their interest in your business, products, and/or services. Instead of stuffing your website with “hard sell” language, make it informative and educational.
If, for example, your business is an accounting firm, you can provide significant extra value for visitors by offering tax tips and advice on organizing your financial records. Providing useful content for a sales-oriented business is even easier. Instead of simply touting your products, offer suggestions about how customers can put them to work.
A Working Storefront
If it is at all possible to sell your product online, your website should make it possible for visitors to buy directly. Invest in building a secure, reliable shopping cart system and provide as many different payment options (online options such as PayPal in addition to credit cards) as you can. If you and a competitor are selling similar products and all else is equal, customers are going to overwhelmingly prefer the seller with a trustworthy online shop.
Clear Statement Of Security Principles
This goes hand-in-hand with the storefront discussed above. It becomes vital to handle your customers’ sensitive information ethically and securely. This means using appropriate technological measures (e.g. SSL encryption) to protect customer data. You also should inform your visitors about what you do with their information — the hows and whys of your security setup and privacy policy. Make it easy for security-minded visitors to find this information on a FAQ or Privacy Policy page.
Social Media Integrations
Your website needs to be part of a wider online presence, including affiliate social media accounts on the platforms your potential customers are most likely to use. (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) Social media activity can itself drive additional traffic to your website, and successfully engaging with your audience through social media will improve your website’s search engine performance (see SEO below).
Quality Web Hosting
You have lots of different options for hosting your website. When you’re running a business and projecting professionalism, steer clear of free hosting services. They aren’t as reliable as you’d like, and some visitors may even take free hosting as a sign that your business is not professional at all.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This is the part where you DO take an interest in convincing potential customers to visit your site. Once your website is running smoothly, you want it to be easy to find. Search engine optimization is a complex field, and it deserves your attention, time, and even money.
Every page of your site can and should be tweaked to ensure it ranks as highly as possible when search engine users look for relevant terms. Research the search “keywords” that are most relevant to your business and incorporate them frequently (but naturally!) in both the text and tags of your pages.
Visit website.builders to start your website project today.