7 ‘Must-haves’ For Your Website

As a company or business owner, your website is the most important marketing tool your target audience visits first, to find more information about your product or service in this digital era. Therefore, the importance of having your website accurately reflect your brand in a concise and engaging manner, cannot be overstated. Here are 7 important tips on how to improve your website design and content:

  1. Design – Your site must be user-friendly, modern, engaging and easy to click through, with an attractive design. The flow of pages should allow you to present your products or service cohesively. As soon as a visitor lands on your website, your chosen design should engage your target. Don’t forget to include excellent high resolution photos of your company, products, employees and other important visuals (not stock photos) worth communicating about your company.
  1. Site Content (My 5 Seconds Rule) – Within seconds of landing on your website, visitors should have an idea of the service or products you offer. This means, your site content must be crisp, legible and filled with keywords that accurately define your offerings (this also helps your ranking on search engines). One of the most important strategies in creating content on your website is the art of storytelling. You need to tell a compelling story about your brand and how what you offer can help your target audience. Remember, do not miss any opportunity to present your CTA (call to action) effortlessly.
  1. Testimonials (written or video) – Enough of you talking about your brand, let your customers and clients tell your story. Let them tell your prospects what you did for them and what you can do for others. The process of purchasing a product or service for many consumers involves high, low, rational and emotional involvement (Consumer Involvement Theory). Hence, many people rely on testimonials as part of their research to make an informed decision about a product or service. Consumers want to hear from real people; they look for opinions from others who are/were in their position, live in the same city or country and many at times, are from the same social class.

Furthermore, testimonials give your company an unbiased advantage and goes a long way in helping to create credibility, which is the ultimate goal of any business. One business owner once said to me, “Testimonials are too much of a hustle for what it is worth”. I replied, “70% of consumers between the ages of 18-34 seek out opinions from others before purchasing.” Information is KING!

  1. Mobile You want your site to be RESPONSIVE. Responsive websites function seamlessly on every device, regardless of the screen size of the technological device being used. This will enable you to increase the reach of your marketing platform and cater to a larger user base, who may be using different technological gadgets to find you. For instance, “Over half (55%) of online Canadians use their mobile device to comparison shop while in-store” (Ipsos, November 30, 2015). The key to a great user experience on mobile is to:
  • Design a slim website with less text – only highlight extremely important information
  • Include great images and provide a fast on-the-move type toolset for visitors
  • Always remember, when a visitor lands on your page with a mobile device, they are expecting a completely different experience from the traditional desktop experience
  1. Social Media Integration – Display all your social media icons on your homepage and throughout your website pages where feasible. This enables visitors to easily follow and engage with you on multiple social media platforms seamlessly.
  1. Contact Information – You have worked so hard to launch your site. Make sure your preferred form(s) of communicating with customers, clients and prospects is/are very visible on your website and throughout your subpages. Your contact information such as phone numbers, email and physical address should occupy the prime real estate on your website.
  1. Display Products and Services – You want to show some samples of your products or services. Let your target audience envision themselves using your product or service. You want your audience to see that what you offer is the real McCoy and you are the only company with the solution.

While there are many areas to discuss under website development, the above top 7 tips should always be on your checklist when revamping or building a new website. The key point of this exciting subject – which is sometimes intimidating for some companies and business owners – is, when your site visitors land on your page with whatever device they choose, they want excellent information and they want it within seconds. If they are unable to find what they are looking for within their time frame, unfortunately, they will leave your site and may never return. Therefore, make sure your website can flawlessly tell the most compelling and concise story about your brand on all technological platforms.

 

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