So, you’ve been in business for some time now and you have also had that gorgeous website of yours up and running a while, too. Business is dandy and your website is contributing to the overall effort by attracting clients and successfully enabling your online sales. You’re happy with your site’s overall performance and are, perhaps, thinking of leaving things as they are. You’ve gone down a list of things that a website is supposed to have and ticked them off one by one: home page, supporting pages, graphics, up-to-date content, links etc.
But those points concern only normal websites – any website – out there. In case you forget, yours is a business website which means a little more is expected from it.
And so, without further delay, we bring you a checklist of the 6 things every business website should have:
Bold Self-Advertisement – By Your Clients
It’s a tough world out there and you should never pull any punches back. Your site should push your image forward, without any reservations.
Apart from the usual content and graphics showing all that you are and what you can do, there is much more you need to say: bring in your satisfied customers and ask them to write reviews and testimonials about you. Share them on your site and include their contact information (with their permission, of course) in case there are skeptics who think you’re making it all up.
Whenever you conclude a successful transaction with a client, encourage them to leave a good review – most be will be more than willing to do so.
A Direct-Access Channel – To You
Anyone can setup a website and add contact information to allow visitors to contact the guys behind the site. But most of the contact addresses are either to tech support or some bored sales guy – who might not even be on the same continent – who reply at their own leisure (or so it would seem) and never really address their clients’ core concerns and issues… you get the sorts, right?
Well, your site should have your contact information and you, personally, should always take the time to answer any queries and address all issues and complaints forwarded to you. That way, your clients will appreciate the fact that there is an actual human being behind the digital face of your business who cares about them – and they will let other people know about it.
Introduce Yourself to Your Visitors
Your visitors need to see you and your staff and be able to know they can actually find you. Apart from the usual “about us” page add more personal bios that have photos of you and your staff. Also, it is now just a matter of signing up for Google My Business to put your business on a map – which you can in turn put on your website.
Being able to personally identify you and know that you actually have a physical address where you can be reached (by following your map, no less) will add to the trust and confidence you are looking for in your customers.
Call to Action – Everywhere
Your website wasn’t created for the purpose of simply being viewed by visitors. If you make online sales, you want them to actually go to the e-store and buy something. If your intention is to have them sign in or sign up for something, that’s exactly what you should do: tell them to go ahead and sign in or sign up.
Of course, you will need to be creative with the way you “order” your visitors to do that. Make your buttons attractive and captivating. Use keywords that tempt people into clicking on your links: “exciting offers”, “huge savings”, “hundreds of items to choose from”, “exclusive deal”… and the most popular one – “FREE!”
Needless to say, you will have to deliver on the promises and not leave your visitors feeling cheated – so make sure you find the right balance between your promises and what you can actually deliver.
A Good Search App – That Actually Works
How many times have you gone to a website and couldn’t find what you were looking for? You spot that “search” button up there, key in your query and click on it. When the result comes back you are either shown results on other websites or links (on the current site) that lead to nowhere, let alone anything remotely connected to what you asked it for.
Therefore, your search app should work perfectly all the time. The more items you have on sale or services you have on offer, the better your app should perform. Although search engines like Google have apps which you can add to your site, you need to fine tune them to not only fit in with your template, but also configure them to show results from within your site only and display them right there (without displaying the usual search results pages) on your site.
Keep High Security Standards
Your clients will want to trust you with their financial and personal information and you are expected to live up to the latest security standards to keep that trust.
This is a matter that should be primary in your website administration plan. Data encryption, secure hosting and website hacking prevention methods change as rapidly as new intrusion methods can be detected and your site should implement them as soon as they are available.
It might sound like an expensive and even needless endeavor to pursue, but investing time and money into it could result in your avoiding a costly disaster down the line. Just one of those (disasters), and you could find yourself out of business and inside a jailhouse.
So, if you haven’t implemented these 6 points – on top of the other usual and recommended website features – the time to go about doing it is right now. Do not wait until it is too late.
