Everyone seems to have a website nowadays. The expansion of the internet and its increased accessibility has made it a wonderland of information that almost anyone can access.
It’s commonly said that a business that doesn’t have a website may as well be invisible. This assertion becomes truer every day as more and more consumers switch to shopping on their internet connected phones.
But it’s not enough to simply register a domain and throw up some pictures of your business. You want your website to be a driving sales conduit for your product or service.
But how do you do this? Well, in an increasingly competitive online space the art of building a website that both markets your business and drives sales is a complex task.
There is an entire industry for helping businesses build and expand their online presence which includes the development of their websites. Short of buying consultancy, let’s take a look at some of the general tips you should follow in designing a suitable website for your business.
Designing your site
You’ve created your domain and are eager to start decorating. The most important part of creating a visually appealing site is that the colours, fonts and graphics are all consistent with your existing marketing material.
Don’t make the rookie mistake of using a variety of fonts and colours to draw attention. These websites look tacky and are unappealing to the modern internet user.
Make sure that the images you use are relevant to the content of the page they appear on. For example, an “About us” page is a perfect place to throw up images of you and your staff.
The website content
The actual content of your website should cover all the usual bases. Contact information, product information, staff information and whatever else is appropriate should be included.
Don’t jam everything on a single information page as this will be less readable for visitors. Make sure you have an individual page for each different information section so that visitors can easily navigate to the information they specifically want.
Use SEO
What’s SEO you say? SEO is short for ‘search engine optimisation’ and is a discipline of digital marketing that deals with promoting the organic visibility of a website.
SEO is used so that when someone uses a search engine to look for a product or service they will see your business in the top results. This is an incredibly important part of digital marketing as organic search results are given more trust by users than online advertisements.
While paid advertising still has its place on digital formats, proper SEO can gain your website the trust and authority that drives people to your business. If someone sees your website at the top of search results they will subconsciously see your business as a highly reputable one.
SEO can be done on your own but the best method is to solicit the services of SEO agencies that use their experts to help drive your website’s search engine ranking to the top positions.
