There are many factors to consider when you are building your business’s website. How can you best represent your brand? How do you reach a larger audience? How can you showcase your work and open opportunities for new work to come in. Many of these questions can be answered in the website design process. Follow along for advice on what you must have when designing a new website for your business.
Easy Navigation
First and foremost, your website needs to be easy to navigate. Users do not want to spend very much time hunting down the information they need from your business. Within the first few seconds of loading, a viewer should be able to find an options menu, services offered, contact information, blog, and social media links. Do not overcrowd your website with images and text. Making your website easy to navigate includes capitalizing on white space and using classic colors that are easy to read.
Quality Content
Your website must provide quality content. Doing this on a consistent basis is difficult, but it is required to maintain customers and increase your SEO (we’ll talk about this later). High quality content includes content that is relevant, tailored to your customers, informative, and keyword optimized. If you are presenting yourself as being an expert in a certain field, like construction, you need to prove how you are the expert people want. Posting to a blog related to your website is an excellent way to showcase your work and provide the quality content your customers are looking for.
Mobile-Responsive Design
Mobile devices have become increasingly popular over the last ten years. Today mobile devices account for over half of all global web pages served. It is crucial to make your site mobile friendly and responsive. If your site takes too long to load or the dimensions do not adjust to mobile devices, you will lose more than half of your visitors. A mobile friendly website displays options upfront, caters to font sizing, and makes navigation especially easy. On-the-go traffic happens from the phone, so give your visitors the most immediate information they need upfront. If they need to delve deeper, they’ll pull out their computer, but only after they’ve been satisfied with a mobile-responsive design.
Website Security
The integrity of your brand relies on your website’s security. If your website is easy to hack, your information and the information of your customer’s is not safe. Even if it is not your fault, your customers cannot trust you if you can’t keep their information safe. Using the right software can protect your business from IT threats. Secure your website by following best practices like having a website firewall, using the latest version of CMS, plugins, and enforcing strong password requirements. By following these guidelines and frequently checking for suspicious activity, you decrease the risk your website has of a security breach.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is all about finding ways to get your website noticed. This is where things like keywords and hyperlinks come in handy. Key-word optimization takes advantage of the product you offer and what people are searching for. Individuals do not want to spend a lot of time browsing the internet, or your website to find what they are looking for. Taking key phrases and using them frequently instead of coming up with your own creative description will let search engines display you more often. The more traffic you bring into your website, the more you increase your technical SEO and move up in search results. Search engine optimization has to do with the design, traffic, and searchability of your website to enhance your website’s standings in search results.
Contact Information
This may seem like a simple element to have for your website, but the truth is that most business owners fail to do this. You need to have your contact information listed, everywhere. At the top or bottom of each page, you need to have a phone number, email, and an address people can reach you at. Contact forms should be simple and easy to use. Make the forms brief. People do not want to spend more than one minute filling out a contact form. Having your information readily available increases the likelihood a customer will remember and reach out to you when they need your service because they know exactly where to look.
Customer Reviews
Gathering and displaying customer reviews goes a long way in establishing your credibility with customers. About half of customers consult reviews before making a purchase. Positive reviews reassure potential customers that you are worth investing in and are a great marketing tool. Unfortunately, many reviews tend to be negative. Work with poor reviews to solve bad experiences and show your ability to problem solve. When you demonstrate good customer conflict resolution you retain business and instill confidence in future customers.
Social Media Links
You can increase website traffic and improve organization brand awareness by displaying social media links on your site. Creating social media profiles lets your customers stay up to date on who you are and what you are doing with the business. Including social media links on your page gives customers a direct link to your social media sites. It is important to remember that many customers value the relationship they feel they have with you more than the physical product. The relationship you create with your customers will make or break the success you have with your business, and that relationship can easily be built with a connection to your social media and a more casual view of the operations of your business.
It is not a surprise that today’s world is almost entirely online. No matter how big or small your company is, people find the information they need about your business online. More than ever it is crucial to have a seamless website design. Be sure to keep these factors in mind as you are designing your new website.
Need a new website? We can build one for you! Contact us today to get started.
Website Plans & Pricing