Want to start your own business website?
If you do, then there are a lot of questions to be answered. Almost every new business requires a website, because it’s important for building your online brand, reaching target audience, customer retention, and an overall presentation of your company to the world.
However, those who don’t know anything about the process and who have never launched their own business website before can find all that intimidating.
Points to Keep In Mind When Launching a Business Website
These things are crucial for every business owner to know to launch a comprehensive and quality business website.
#1 Know What You Want
- Do you know what your target audience is?
- What kind of websites do they visit?
- Why would they look for your website?
- What keywords do they search for?
If you haven’t answered these questions, then you don’t know what you want. Remember this: you want happy and satisfied customers.
#2 State Your Purpose
Make sure that your website’s written content isn’t too long-winded, because website visitors don’t like to spend a lot of time browsing through pages just to find some basic information.
Your company’s offerings and important points should be clearly stated and easy for your visitors to find.
#3 Avoid Using Free Themes
Free themes often aren’t as secure as the ones you purchase. Don’t be afraid to make a small investment in a quality website theme. It doesn’t have to be a huge expense, but it will help keep your business website secure.
If you don’t have enough funds to hire a professional website design team, check out pre-made themes. Browse for purchase-available pre-made themes, find the one that fits with your branding, make some small edits, and you’re ready to go.
#4 Hiring a Web Designer
If you’re considering to hire a web designer for your first business website, choose the one who’s the most suitable for the job according to your opinion.
Look for the websites you like, find out who’s behind the work, and get their contact info.
#5 Simple Design Elements
There are various benefits of keeping your business website design elements simple. They are easy to maintain, cheaper to make, and have faster loading time, while the visitors will have an easier visual processing task.
Buying a website is not like buying a book, because it requires ongoing maintenance.
Don’t go wild with different design elements, don’t add too many different font or type sizes, and stick with a few textures and colors.
#6 Avoid Adding Cheap Stock Photography
Good visuals can add interest to your business websites. As for images, add relevant ones such as examples of your work and team photos.
When it comes to stock photography, you can add relevant stock images, but don’t go too crazy.
An overwhelming number of stock photos that are low in quality and don’t show anything about your business won’t benefit you much. Skip it if you’re not ready to invest in some good images.
#7 Utilize Call to Action
Utilize calls to action to make your business goals clear to visitors.
Do you want them to browse through your new collection of products? Tell them. Do you want them to sign up for receiving your newsletter? Add a newsletter form to your landing page.
#8 Decide on Page Hierarchy
Websites usually contain at least several different pages. The simplest website page formats usually have a Home page, Contact page, and About page.
You can go further by adding different pages for different services, with a main, landing page that gives your website visitors a general overview.
Before building your site or hiring someone to do it for you, consider what you would like your website’s page hierarchy to look like.
#9 Hosting and Domain
Working with WordPress is a great customizable and scalable option, but there are also plenty of other hosting platforms to choose from. It all depends on the needs for your particular site.
Related – Best Web Hosting Company – BlueHost, HostGator or inmotion Hosting?
Related – Points to Remember While Choosing a Blog Name
While some domain providers offer free domains with some extensions, the best thing to do is to purchase an actual domain name.
Make your domain name short and as catchy as possible. In order to make it more simple, forget about including keywords in it.
#10 Consider the Website’s Scale
When searching for a business website example online, remember that a particular site’s elements may not be applicable to your own website project.
If your project is basic and small, look for a designer who has worked on websites for companies similar to yours. Take the scale of the project along with its design elements into account.
#11 Text Readability
It is important that your website’s visitors actually read the text which should contain only relevant information.
To maximize its readability, use basic typefaces and don’t change all of the fonts to some fancy lettering only because you think it looks more attractive or cool.
#12 Tell Your Personal Story
Telling your story is a great way to make people feel connected to your business.
Your story should be about why you started the business in the first place or your own personal story, which will show them that there’s something more to it than simply making money.
- How was the idea for starting that particular business born?
- Did a specific event lead to it?
- Did you do it to contribute to your community or out of a desire to help others?
#13 Customer Testimonials
Another website element that can greatly contribute to your business. People are influenced by those who tried and tested your products or services.
Millennial’s (people born between 1980 and 1999) are affected by the opinions of their peers.
Instead of publishing generic recommendations, work on getting some quality testimonials before launching your business website.
Even a few sentences that describe your business in a positive manner can help build your credibility.
Also, consider adding video testimonials, because the importance of video content has been on the rise over the past few years.
#14 Mobile-Friendly User Interface
Today, everyone carries a smartphone in their pocket.
Thus, no matter what type of content you’ve decided to include on your new website, make sure that the site is made to be mobile friendly and responsive. Otherwise, it will look unprofessional and can hurt your SEO.
#15 Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
It is important to optimize your business website so potential customers can easily find it online.
Your web designer should know how to help you with the basics, but make sure to educate yourself on the subject or hire an SEO expert to help you create the best possible SEO marketing strategy.
Keep this concept in mind throughout the entirety of running your site.
The process is not over once you set up your business website, but this is rather just the first step.
As your business changes and grows, you should change or add other elements to it.
Author Bio: Emma Miller is a Sydney based writer with a degree in marketing. Interested in digital marketing, social media, start-ups and latest trends. She’s a contributor at Bizzmark Blog.