Set Website Goals
What is your target audience? Consider how you want visitors to navigate through your site, and what information they will be looking for. Do you want them to read about your company history, or are you more interested in selling products? If it’s the latter, you may want to consider creating an e-commerce site where customers can buy products directly on your website. You should also look into creating a blog or news section on your site that gives readers fresh content and helps build their loyalty to your business.
Effective Website Content
When you’re ready to build your website, it can be tempting to just jump in, but there are some things you should consider first.
What to Include in Your Website Content
Your website is the face of your business, so it’s important that it contains all of the information people want or need. Here are some ideas for content you should include:
About Us – This page should include information about who you are, what you do and why people should hire you. It could also include a short bio about each member of your team.
FAQs – These are questions that potential customers may have about working with you. It’s important that they’re answered clearly so there’s no confusion later on down the line.
Services – This section should contain descriptions of all the services offered by your company. It could also include pricing information as well as links to pages where interested parties can learn more about specific services (i.e., links to individual product pages).
Testimonials – Testimonials from happy clients can go a long way toward convincing new customers that they should work with your company too! Make sure testimonials are authentic and from real customers who had a good experience working with
Website Functionality
Photography: Use professional, sharp, images to enhance the appearance of your products and services. Poor image quality, confusing messaging can reflect poorly on your business.
Messaging: Choose one type of messaging copy to use such as: friendly, bold, luxury, adventurous, persuasive, or empathetic, and use it throughout your entire website and marketing initiatives (social,email, print, ads, etc) to create a clear brand consumers can trust.
Navigation: Clear navigation using clear titles, and hierarchy can guide your website users to where they need to go on your website. Less is more in this case. Consumers are busy, they need to find what they are looking for immediately or they will move on to the next website.
Search Engine Friendly: Use keywords in your content, and descriptions. Titles and sub headers are especially important and should use descriptive words. Be sure to title, and alt tag every image on your site. Include a sitemap in your files. Build links into each page.
The key to creating an effective website is knowing exactly what you want it to accomplish, who your target audience is, and how much time you’re willing to devote to its maintenance.