You’ve got your business plan ready. But you need a website. Everyone says it’s essential. Now you have to go through the features your website needs to have. So look through these 8 things you need to make your business website successful.
Ease of Use
Your customer has to successfully interact with and navigate your website. The average visitor can easily move on to a more accessible website on their search results page if they’ll have to scan and search the page for the navigation bar. There are a few things you need to take into account:
• The links in the menu should be clear. It should be in contrast to its background, so it stands out. You don’t want white text on a faded grey bar. You might also use ‘sticky navigation’; when customers scroll down the page, they might lose site of the navigation. Sticky navigation assures the navigation will be visible however much you scroll. However, you could instead stick a “back to the top” button after sections of a long post. The order of the navigation links can be helpful too. The most eye-catching buttons are at the start and the end, so put the most important buttons in those two spots. You can put the less important ones in the middle.
• The homepage should be easily accessible. To avoid the customer getting lost, put your logo in the top corner of the page which the customer can click and end up at the homepage.
• The structure of your site, the pathways, can be shown on a sitemap. Therefore all the pages on your website will be laid out for the user.
Aiding the User
If the user needs help, it’ll be all set out on your website.
• What are the possible questions your customer could have about how things work and how they can access your products? Put all the questions along with answers in the FAQ. The customer will find your website helpful and comprehensive.
• Contact details will give the customer a place to look to if the FAQ does not provide the answers.
• Think about which FAQs are most common. Stack these on top, and also put all the questions in separate groups. For example ‘technical problems’ and ‘payment’. Making the questions easy to find is good for the element of User Experience.
Feedback form
Customer feedback is a huge asset. It’s a measure of customer satisfaction. Your business’ processes and products can be constantly developed and improved, so a feedback form will be handy. Assure your customers with an automatic email you’ll get back to them as soon as possible. Show you’re willing to cater to them, and that they will hear of their message again!
Link to social media
A customer likes your product? Their friends should know, and check it out too. A social media presence will appeal to the millions who use social media. Conversations on your facebook page can give you vital information on the customer’s perception of the product and their demographic.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Let your site be found. The crawlers (bots) from Google search the webpages on your site, and if they find relevant keywords, index those pages (add them to Google search results). There are these things to take into account:
• Your focus is helping your readers. Your readers should gain something useful from your blog post. This is the quality factor. Don’t fall in to the trap of using the same keyword over and over again, and pack in writing on your blog so there is some content. It is quality not quantity. Overuse of keywords can actually hinder your position in Google search.
‘Key word density’ is used to measure the number of a keyword or phrase relative to the number of total words in an article. You can calculate this by dividing the times you used a keyword by the number of total words and multiplying the result by 100. There is no ideal keyword density, but it should not be very obvious that you are repeating the same keyword one hundred times for Google search. It should be natural.
• Now to keywords: These are words or phrases which hint at the content of a web page. Google search can use these to bring up relevant search results when relevant queries are typed in. However, they’re not the only thing to determine your ranking. Here are five places you could put keywords:
• The title tag. This is the title that comes up in the search results page, the blue link. It is the title of your webpage. You can also find it as the heading on the tab in your web browser. It should be eye-catching. This is the first glimpse they get. It’s a contribution to the user experience. The title tag is between the head tags in your web page’s HTML code.
• The URL of your webpage.
• Headings and sub-headings.
• The body of the text.
• In image alt tags. These are descriptions for your image. The subject of your image shows the subject of your content.
• SEO is also dependent on ‘backlinks’. With ‘backlinks’, there are links to your website on other sites. If a link to your site is mentioned on other sites, it gives a hint to the search engine that your site is popular.
• User experience. Google knows if someone bounces back to the search engine after being dissatisfied with a site. Make sure everything is easily findable and professional looking.
Customer testimonials
Customer testimonials show there are other people on their own end who have tried your product. And that they like it. It makes your products seem well-worn, in a good way.
However, some testimonials may seem a bit ‘fishy’ to potential customers. Rather than just gushing, descriptive words, you want to hear the customer’s story, and how your product improved their way of living. How it has provided a solution. Add a photo of the past customer; a face helps make the business feel more human.
Blogging
• Blogging is good for SEO, if you fit the right keywords in. People can search their query into Google and with a catchy head line, you’ll get a horde of clicks. Your ranking will edge upwards.
• With all the ‘like’ and ‘tweet’ buttons available now, if someone appreciates your content, they can shout out to their friends and family. Social media is good.
• You could write about things pertaining to your business: Achievements, goals and latest news, updates on your products. It can be informative.
• Try not to get too formal. Also, avoid flowery language; people are looking for information, and do not want to be distracted.
• Do not wander off! Keep to the topic, so people can find their answer easily. A lot of irrelevant information and hefty amounts of text to scavenge through will only annoy readers.
About us page
Your description should be appealing. This is the place to let the potential customers see the philosophy behind your business. Just communicate, with heart, to the customer. Talk them through your story. What was that push that made you start your business? You’ll be speaking in the customers’ language, because they desire to have an emotional connection with your business. It’s important to provide the solution the customer wants. Show how you can help. Don’t just write down an arbitrary list of features.
We are sharing our experiences from developing many corporate websites.
