In business, making a great first impression is a step closer to making new acquaintances to potential customers. The same philosophy applies to your website. When someone visits your site, they should instantly have a clear understanding of your message and what you can offer them. This sounds so simple, right? However, it’s not that easy to achieve because in reality, a lot of websites actually lack the basics; and if your business website belong in this category, then you are at risk of losing customers.
An unattractive site will only hurt your business so before you launch it, make sure that it has these elements:
Contact Information
This is a standard for every website, but according to a recent survey, 75% of small businesses don’t have an email in their homepage; and 6 out 10 don’t have a phone number. The “Contact Us” button is one of the most important parts of a website. It should include not only your email and phone number. If you have a physical location, include it as well (incorporate Google Maps too) so that people will have the chance to visit you.
Quick Loading Homepage
This is the door to your site so from here, make sure that they feel welcome. Your homepage should not have more than 80k in graphics because otherwise, it will load slowly and if so, the chances that the visitor will “drop off” or exit the site is high. Also, go easy on the video, Java Script or Shockwave on the homepage because there are some viewers who get easily irritated with a graphics-heavy site and of course, not everyone knows how to navigate these icons.
Social Media Share Buttons
Social media is one of the fastest channels to reach your potential and current clients. That’s why it is imperative that your business should have Facebook, Twitter or Instagram (it really depends on what type of business you have) and incorporate social share buttons in the pages.
Adding a social share widget on your site will make it easier for the visitors to share the content on their networks; and this is a way to market your services and products.
Images that Speak of your Brand
Graphics and images are important because it lends visual appeal to texts. Moreover, don’t just use any photo. Instead, use images that speak of your product or service. If you are a pastry shop, don’t just put a photo of your kitchen or friends hanging out in the mall. Trust us, this happens.
At the same time, don’t overuse them. Four images are ideal in the homepage and lesser in other subpages (unless of course you have a portfolio to show off); just make sure that it is related to your content and not distracting.
Easy to Navigate
Even if you have an awesome-looking website, but does not have a clear roadmap on it, your visitor may likely get lost. Make sure that your site is comprehensible and use proper names on the pages of your site; dong otherwise might just turn-off your visitors.
In relation to this, you should have call-to-action (CTA) words spread throughout the site and once you link it, make sure that it works so that viewers can quickly find what they are looking for.
Mobile Responsive
More and more people are turning into their mobile devices for information so you have to keep up with this trend. People who use mobile devices to access a website mean that they know what they are looking for. To meet this demand, make sure that your site is mobile responsive—this means that the layout will adapt to the screen of a mobile device.
Having a mobile responsive website makes for a more pleasant browsing experience for the user because they they don’t have to zoom in on the texts and they can see the photos clearly.
Videos
There are some people who don’t read the content and oftentimes, they resort to images and videos. Because videos are retained 8x better than texts, if necessary, have one on your site. You might also consider putting short videos on the different pages of your site to tell a story.
Videos don’t have to be expensive; in fact, there are free video making sites that you can tinker with so you might want to take advantage of that.
Google Analytics
This is a little technical, but if you want to know how many people visit your site or your conversion rate (the percent of people who took a desired action towards your objective i.e. send an inquiry via contact form), install Google Analytics on your site (you can ask your developer about this). It is free and you can use the information to plan a marketing strategy or which pages bring you the most conversions.
Remember:
It’s not enough that you have a good-looking website. It must also:
- Have the correct contact information and make sure that it works.
- Contain the most important messages on the Homepage.
- Include your social media buttons all across the site so that readers can share your content easily.
- Have images that speak the brand.
- Be easy to navigate so that your readers won’t get lost.
- Mobile responsive
- Comprise videos, but only if needed.
- Have the right tools to track its progress.
We’ve barely scratched the surface, but combining these with a splendid design and you are in the right direction. Remember to have these elements if you’re going to put up a business website, but of course, don’t forget to engage with your viewers, too.