10 Things Successful Business / Commercial Website Must Have
Is your business website successfully pulling in visitors, keeping them around and has a potential for converting them to customers? If your business website is a more than an online placeholder, it’s now the time to start putting it to work so it will be easy for you to grow your business and take benefit of the huge potential customer base for the web market.
Today, more than 90% of customers are accessing the website from their laptops and desktops, and also from their tablets and smartphones. This article will help business owners make sure that what your business website must needs– that help companies increase their profits.
1. It must have a clear description about your business
Someone who visits your website should not have to do investigate work to find out what, exactly, it is that you do. This in simple words means always write your name as well as give a short summary about your products and services right on the top of the homepage, states John Zhuang, owner of SEO-optimization and Web-design firm Winning Interactive.
“Your website must tell people that this is the right website that they have actually been searching for,” he says. A clear and concise description about your company will attract the attention of the visitors at once within 2-5 seconds and encourage them to become your valued customers.”
2. A sensible, simple web address
Never make things complicated.
According to Ron Wright, the owner of a business web design and online marketing firm accented, “the domain name of any website is just like the brand”. Therefore, it must be easy for a user to type it into an e-mail address or web browser.
He further adds: “I always suggest the .com domain as users are conditioned to type that expand when they enter your company Web address. For organizations or non-profits, I usually advise using a .org domain for marketing purposes, but also suggest having a.com version of the domain in case a user by mistake types the.com address.”
Also, he suggests, avoiding numbers and dashes as it causes confusion and headaches for SEO and customers.
3. It must have an easily-navigated site map
There must be clear links to the most crucial pages and a sitemap are essential for guiding people/visitors to the information they are looking for.
“Always keep in mind that your navigation is clearly laid out. It is always better to use drop-down in the navigation menu so that it will be easy for visitors to see and find out the required content under each heading from virtually any page.
Make sure it will be very easy for your visitors to find their required information, or what you want them to know about your company or product, “Wright suggests.
4. Contact information must be easy to find
Of course you wouldn’t want to lose your customers to your competitor just because it is difficult for them to get in touch with you.
According to Zhuang, “Not every person who visits your website has the patience to click on every page on your business website to find your contact information.”
“The best place to add your contact information is on the top right or top left corner of your home page. Also, you can add it to the top of every page in the sidebar or footer or even at the top of the page, which helps the visitors to find you more easily,” he suggests.
“One biggest mistake that most business owners usually make is to force only single way to reach them,” says Wright. “The point here is to make it easy for visitors to communicate with the company on their terms and conditions.”
5. Customer testimonials
Honest words from your customers help make your brand more tangible to people who are visiting you online.
“Customer testimonials help potential customers to build trust in you, especially when you are new in the business,” says Zhuang.
He further adds, “People always love to hear stories from real people.” Customer testimonials help visitors figure out other things that you haven’t said or forget to say on your website.
6. A clear call to action
According to Zhuang, “always tell he visitors what you want them to do with a clear and concise call to action. For example, you may want them to call them for a free quote, or sign up for the exclusive online coupons, or add products to the online shopping cart, etc.”
And he further adds, call attention to the suggestions by highlighting the text or using special buttons, for instance.
7. Must have the know-how of the basics of SEO
Your business website won’t do you good if no one can visit it. It is necessary that you must have some familiarity with the SEO basics so that you can make it more accessible by search engine.
It is not necessary to employ black hat, ninja, and mysterious SEO types to rank on first place on the search engines. All you need is to make sure that the website is correctly coded, “Wright suggests.
This in simple words means always use correct keywords throughout the text, putting in ample of links, naming your URLs and page titles correctly, and using the magic of videos and images.
8. Fresh and quality content
For many businesses, especially small, the website is the first impression on a visitor. It is necessary to give your visitors what they are actually looking for, and perhaps there must be a specific reason for them to keep coming back.
Wright suggests, “The visitor visits your website because they are looking for something. Make sure you have something to give them… and always keep in mind that the content you post on your website must be valuable, original and well-written.”
Fresh content acts as a goldmine for SEO, as well. You can easily keep your content from getting out of date by regularly updating your blog.
9. A style and design that is friendly to online readers
Zhuang suggests three styles and designs that are friendly to online readers:
- Always use bullet points
- Break things into short paragraphs, with heads and subheads if necessary
- Highlight significant phrases or words
Wright adds, “In the end, basic colors and simplicity are the best things that attract visitors. Again the main focus is the content, avoid adding dancing clouds at the top of the page.
10. A safe and secure hosting platform
What’s the biggest nightmare of a business owner? Having their website information hijacked, and it should happen with any business, it might cost you customers.
“It is necessary that you have a trustworthy, secure hosting company that keeps your website away from bad guys and also keep your content up and running,” Wright suggest. “It is also essential to always keep your content management up to date in order to stay one step ahead of these hackers.”
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