Some time ago, I outlined why your business needs a website and now I want to walk you through how to create a good website that is attractive, user-friendly, and professional.
First and foremost, you want to include all the information that people need to know, and none that people don’t. By this I mean don’t clog up your Home, About Us, and Services pages with massive chunks of text that contain lots of unnecessary information.
Less is more: “What does your business do? Why should I choose you? How do I contact you?”
Make sure every sentence on your website is important, engaging, and error-free. If it isn’t, get rid of it. Your blog is a different story, but we’ll get to that shortly.
Once you’ve got all the information down, you want to add a personal touch. This lets people see that your business has a face – literally! Include photos of yourself and your staff and positive testimonials from satisfied clients or customers.
The About Us page is your chance to be a little more light-hearted and creative in how you tell people your story. Again, short and punchy is always good but you might find another approach that works for you!
Finally, be sure to include a CTA (call to action) on every page: a very direct message to the reader that aims to persuade them to buy your product, schedule your service, or contact you today.
In regards to the internet, people have incredibly short attention spans – first impressions are everything. If your website looks sloppy, cheap and unprofessional, users will quickly navigate back to Google and try another one.
That’s why your website needs eye-catching imagery and branding. Make it as sleek and cutting edge as you can. Play around with different colour themes and fonts, and make sure that all images are high quality and not pixelated or blurry.
Whatever theme you end up rolling with, stick with it throughout your entire website – consistency is key!
Now that you’ve included all the information and made your website pleasing to the eye, it’s time to make sure that visitors enjoy a seamless experience.
Check all the internal links on each page of the website work properly, so that people can navigate around your website smoothly and intuitively. Browse your website on a mobile device to make sure it also looks good on a smartphone screen and that everything loads like normal.
Speaking of loading, it shouldn’t take any longer than three seconds to load a webpage – if your website is taking longer, it could be worth asking your web hosting provider why this is the case.
By this step, you should be the proud owner of a fantastic website – now share it with the world!
This is where SEO (search engine optimisation) comes in, and when done properly, it’s what puts your website at the top of any internet search for the products and/or services that you provide.
Writing occasional blogs to reinforce yourself as a reputable business keeps your website fresh and regularly updated with new content. By using the right key phrases, this process will also help your website climb up the Google rankings.
Include social media sharing buttons with any content you post, to make it easier for readers to spread the word. Post the content on your own social media channels, and consider an incremental e-newsletter to send to your subscribers.
These are just a handful of the countless techniques you can employ to make your website informative, engaging, functional, and accessible!