In 2023, every business must have a website. It is a portal to your products and services, and it will allow you to reach not only those on the other side of the world, but people who might even visit a physical location, should you have one.
A website is multifunctional. You may be selling products or services without the restriction of location, with a firm SEO content strategy helping you reach a wide audience. You might be a local business just needing to let people in the vicinity know what times you open and close. Either way, you’ll need a website; it can be your shop window, first interaction point, advertising, and marketing. You can ensure it pops up on social media, letting potential customers know what you do and who you are.
However, it can also be detrimental to your business. A lack of information, poor design, or missing features could put off potential customers. A bad website can be as damaging as a good website can be beneficial. Take the Yale School of Art website, widely regarded as one of the worst websites out there. It’s poorly designed, garish and isn’t enticing for customers. They are backed by a recognised brand which helps, but you may not be.
So, how can you make sure your website has the right elements to promote your business? Following these simple rules should help.
Call to Action
The first thing your site must have is a call to action. It doesn’t matter what you do, whether you’re a fintech firm, or a local café, you have to have an offer and a call for people to get involved. Your website must give your customers a reason to interact further or a call to action. This might be a form to fill in for further information; it might be a simple tagline at the bottom of a menu that says ‘pop in today’. Whatever you do, make sure you ask for your website visitors to get involved; otherwise, why have a website at all?
Contact Details
It’s vital that people know where to find contact details for you on your site. Putting your business out there, brand and all, is hugely important, but the information you offer might not be what visitors are looking for. In that instance, they may wish to contact you, so you should make it clear and easy for them to do so. An example of a company doing this badly is parcel courier Evri; a piece on The Guardian notes that their contact information is difficult to find. That’s hugely damaging to their brand, something seen recently through the negative news stories circulating the firm.
Engaging Personal Content
It’s important to give people an opportunity to engage with you and your business on a personal level, which can be done through blog posts and the like. Many websites, certainly those made for smaller businesses, are done through a blogging platform such as WordPress. That means they’re designed for creating engaging content people can read, share and comment on, which promotes your business at the same time. An article by LHH on building an online brand highlights the importance of a personal narrative, which means creating something for your business that makes it stand out. It might be stories of your journey or examples of your work, but creating a personal narrative will make your website feel more appealing and engaging.
Mobile Friendly
Finally, make sure your site is mobile friendly; you might wish to include an AMP plugin which makes your site mobile friendly. Think about the last thing you interacted with regarding a business website. Did you do it via your laptop or your mobile device? Statista explains 60% of all internet usage is via a mobile device, so if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you may be losing out on potential customers. It’s easy to setup your site for mobile use, and even the most basic of websites for small, local businesses should ideally be
Once your website is up and running, check out our article titled ‘The Do’s and Don’ts of an Effective SEO Content Strategy’ to find out how to promote it further.
