Are you getting ready to get your new website online for your business?
Before you start building a business website, it pays to learn how to do it right. With 82% of mobile users researching businesses online before purchasing in stores, you need to give a good impression online.
If you don't have experience building websites, then it may be hard to get your site up and running. This post on website building will help solve that problem.
Use the 10 top tips below to help build a business website that your customers will love.
1. State Your Business Website Goal
Unless you have a goal in mind for your small business website, you're going to be at a loss for how to organize everything. Before starting your build, define the purpose of your website.
Do you want to use it as a portfolio, or do you want to sell products with a store? This knowledge will help you create your design.
The goal of your website should be to inform your visitors about what your products or services can help with. When you have a clear goal in mind, you can do this better.
Lastly, the goal for your site will inform the promotional strategies you use to achieve it. Will you be using your site as a means to generate leads that convert into in-store visits? Or creating quality content to help build a relationship with the visitors that land on your site? If you'll be building your email list, you can't go wrong with popular tools like GetResponse or ActiveCampaign.
2. Know Your Audience
The chances are you have a specific audience for your business. You need to have a site that speaks directly to your audience.
Before you build your site, develop a persona for your visitors. When you do this, you can build with your target audience in mind.
Doing this will allow you to tailor your messaging to your target demographics. This targeting will lead to a better return on your investment.
3. Create a Page Hierarchy
It's essential to plan your page layouts before you build them. Doing so will help you guide your visitors through your website to where you want them to be.
This process isn't difficult if you're only building a brochure type website. You'll need to have a homepage and a way for your visitor to contact you.
It gets more complicated when you offer services and products on your site. Your visitor should be able to find what they're looking for in as few steps as possible.
It's essential to plan your page layouts before you build them. Preparing an outline of the website and its sitemap is one of the key parts in creating a well-designed website. Doing so will help you guide your visitors through your website to where you want them to be.
4. Don't Overly Complicate Things
Wanting to impress your visitors is fine, as long as you do it without hampering the user experience. Less is better when it comes to design.
Try to keep things as simple as possible in your web design. When your visitors go to your website, they should be able to find what they need without any issues.
If your visitors can't find what they need from you, they'll go to the website belonging to one of your competitors.
5. Tell Your Visitor What to Do
Getting someone to your website is only half the battle. Once there, you need to convert them to a customer.
How can you convert guests to customers if you don't tell them where to sign up for your services?
Keep call to actions through your entire site. You can direct visitors to sign up to email lists, browse your popular products, or sign up for a call.
You should design your user experience to drive your customer to the pages that give you sales.
6. Don't Ignore Mobile Users
Mobile internet use is higher than ever. You can't design your website for desktops and ignore your visitors that use smartphones.
Over 56% of all internet traffic last year was through mobile devices. Mobile traffic is only increasing every year now. You would be isolating more than half your potential visitors if you do not prioritize mobile first for your business website.
To take care of these visitors, you need a responsive web design. Your website should resize and change based on your visitor's screen size. Doing this will provide them a great experience on a smaller screen.
You also need to watch page size. Internet speeds are slower on mobile phones. If your visitors can't load your site quickly, they'll find somewhere else to go.
7. Start a Blog
Yes, creating a blog and updating it is a lot of work. But when you create blog content correctly, you're giving your website to appear in Google for a lot more searches.
When deciding on topics for your blog, head to the Google Keyword Tool to find the search terms people are using to look for information. If a keyword gets a good volume of searches, write a post about it.
By creating blog posts around these keywords, you're solidifying your authority in the industry and giving people more ways to find you.
People don't only search for products. They search for information too.
8. Secure Your Website
Privacy wasn't as much of a concern in the early days of the internet. But now that we have more information online, people are beginning to take it seriously.
When you build your site, make sure you encrypt your traffic with an SSL certificate. You can get one for free using the LetsEncrypt service, through WordPress, or your website host.
A security certificate will encrypt all the website traffic on your website. This means nobody can spy on your users and their personal data is protected.
SSL certificates are also a ranking sign for Google. Having one might give you a small bump in the search results. It also just makes your website look more trusted and professional in general, which again will boost your Sarasota Local SEO with Google.
9. Connect Your Social Media
With people spending more time than ever on social media, it's hard to get away from ignoring these marketing channels. Make sure your social media accounts are visible on your website so visitors can visit them and follow your accounts.
You can use your social media accounts to connect directly with your customers and give them content updates from your business website.
On top of that, you have more of a chance of your fans sharing your content. When you create great sharable content, you increase your chance of being seen by new people that wouldn't have found your business otherwise.
10. Build Backlinks For Stronger SEO
Now that you've built your website and begun to share it online, it's time to improve your website SEO. Building backlinks to your business website helps Google and other top search engines to realize that you are an authoritative site that should rank higher on searches for various relevant keywords.
Build Your Business Website Right
A lot of business owners still underestimate the importance of business websites. When you build your website the right way, you're creating a 24/7 advertisement that will continue to bring you business for years. Make sure you get the business website building job done right so you generate plenty of traffic, leads, and revenue.
Once you get your business website up, you need to bring traffic to it. Read more of our blog to learn the latest promotion strategies that will drive people to your site. Visit the Web Dev section of the Bootstrap Business Blog right now for more great tips on website design and development!
Build Your Business Website Right
A lot of business owners still underestimate the importance of business websites. When you build your website the right way, you're creating a 24/7 advertisement that will continue to bring you business for years. Make sure you get the business website building job done right so you generate plenty of traffic, leads, and revenue.
Once you get your business website up, you need to bring traffic to it. Read more of our blog to learn the latest promotion strategies that will drive people to your site. Visit the Web Dev section of the Bootstrap Business Blog right now for more great tips on website design and development!
