Building your Small Business Website for Optimal Conversions
Even if your business is small, or only a local business, having
a website is still a necessity for nowadays consumers. That being said, a badly designed website
will hinder your business and create a loss of confidence in your company. Your
website should be effective and efficient for both your customers and your
business.
Here are a few things that you should take look at when
building or redesigning your website.
Decide What You Want Your Website to Accomplish.
Having a clear goal in mind is key to effectively create a
good website design. Do you want customers to call or email you? Do you want
them to purchase your product or service right on your website? Or do you want
them to come visit you in your physical location?
Don’t make your customers guess at what you want them to do
on your website. People don’t want to have to think about things, guide them to
your contact page, to your physical location or to the cart to purchase your
products/services.
Be Clear Who Your Target Customer Is.
When you target to everyone, you are basically “targeting no
one.” Nail down one target… the ideal
customer that purchases your products or services. Once you have your ideal
target customer, speak to them, in their language and terms. Leave out company “slang” and jargon, and just
keep it simple.
Speak to your local area, not the whole world. If applicable
discuss topics that are close to home for your customers, by doing this you
create a great rapport with them and generate confidence in your company. This
also creates higher rankings on Google for your local area.
The Design.
I have touched on this subject in a previous post, but I can’t stress enough that if you are not a designer
yourself, don’t attempt to design your site on your own. The countless hours
you will spend doing this, for little results really can be avoided by hiring a
designer that does this on a daily basis. You will be much further ahead time and money
wise by doing this. Clean and easy to
use websites, no missing links or re-directions up to date information are all
important parts of the process. Create an easy to follow menu and direction to
what you want your customers to do. You should be concentrating on the business
itself, not worrying about the design of your site.
Areas of Your Site.
There are a few areas that should always be included on your
site.
·
Home
·
About You
·
Services/Products Offered
·
Testimonials
·
Contact Info
These are the bare minimum for a small business website and
should be easy to find on your menu right when a customer accesses your page.
Capture Emails.
Once you have done the process of getting customers to your
site, to keep consistent traffic and leads. Having a customer’s email gives you
the ability to market to them through email marketing. Send out specials, ads,
newsletters etc. The best part is that
email marketing is very low cost and effective.
Lastly, Use Social Media to Drive Traffic.
Social media is fast becoming the number one way that people
communicate with each other and businesses alike. It is virtually a must to be
linked to at least one social networking site such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn,
Twitter, Pinterest etc.
Using these sites, you can drive traffic to your website,
customers can leave their input and feel engaged with your company and of
course, they can recommend you to their friends and family. Place social media
icons on your site so customers can easily link to you no matter what their preferred
social site is.
These are just a few of the basic tips for a good website
design. If you want to discuss your own project in more detail, please contact
me!
No comments:
Post a Comment