Congratulations you have picked your unique URL / Domain Name for your business. That is Step 1 accomplished, but there is a lot more to a website than just your domain name. The hosting is the next step and is also very important for you and your business. Choose this wisely as you want to ensure you keep the content as yours and that you have sufficient support should you ever need some advice or help.
Once your hosting has been chosen and set up, then comes the research to find a THEME that you like, the colours you need (usually to match your brand) and if you are not tech savvy – someone to help you create the most important marketing tool you have for your business – YOUR WEBSITE.
NOW, even though you may outsource the creation of your website, you should ensure that you know what the top items to include in your website are. This is why I have created the list – which is not absolute as there are always other things you feel may be important to you and your business. But here are the Top 10 items I feel are important as the starting point to any website.
1) BE YOU – in your information, your images and your style. For example if you own your business and everything is you, then don’t pretend and make your business look bigger than what it is. The more personal and personable you are, the more likely it is that you will strike a chord with your customers and clients. Remember, people do business with YOU. So choose a writing style which reflects you and ensure for example if you are a service based business that you choose images/photos which reflect what you do and how you want to be seen. If you are selling a product, make it easy for website visitors to find out about your product and view images.
Example 1: If you are a florist, show images of flower arrangements you have created and perhaps an image of a happy customer holding their bouquet.
Example 2: If you offer a de-cluttering service, then show images of before and after shots which will allow potential clients to see how you can help them.
2) BE SOCIAL – not only do you want your current clients to see your website, but you want others to as well. The easiest way for this to happen is to ensure you have Social Share widgets included on your website. Have you ever been on a website and wished you could easily share content by email or to one of your social media platforms, but no Share Buttons have been present? This is so annoying. You want to make your site easy for everyone to share your products or your services. So make it easy for them.
Example: You have a new service and you advertise it across your own Social Media and in your Newsletter. A current client clicks through to read your information. She/he thinks it would be relevant to their cousin and wants to share but gives up when she does not see a Share Button. She moves onto other sites.
3) CAPTURE SUBSCRIBERS – We all want our businesses to grow and a great way to do this is to have an Email Subscribe button on your website. This can easily be done through your Newsletter platform and wherever possible offer something to those who subscribe. Perhaps you have a video offer, a free e-book or a 30 min consultation. Make sure your website visitors can see this and have a reason to join your mailing list.
Example: Imagine you offer a 30 minute consultation for your service. The person signs up and contacts you to find out more about your service and tells them about the issues they are having. You can use this 30 minutes to find out how you can provide an upsell on your service to them.
4) FAQS – what are these really? Are they an absolute necessity? YES – they are. Make them easy to find by your website visitors and use comments which may have been made by previous or current clients to make up your Questions and Answers. By having these prominent on your website, you will be able already answer questions for your potential clients that they may be too scared to ask.
Example: If you are a beautician and you have a FAQs page. You can ask the question “Do you travel to me for all treatments?” Then answer “Yes, except for spray tans”. Obviously your answer would be longer than this, but it immediately gives the person an answer to their question.
5) CONTACT INFO – Sounds simple right? Well, you would be surprised how hard it is sometimes to find the contact information for a business through their website. You need to show contact information on each page, even if just a phone number or just a way for people to email you. If they are interested in speaking with you but cannot find a way to connect with you within the first 30 seconds, they will more than likely move away from your website. That would be a disaster for your business – a potential client lost.
Example: Imagine that you only have a Contact Form on your website but someone needs your assistance or your product immediately. They cannot locate a phone number for you and do not want to rely that you are sitting at your computer just waiting for your response, so they move to another site!
6) GOOD NAVIGATION – Although you do not want hundreds of links everywhere, you do need to have a well laid out way for people to find what they are seeking when they have found you through Google or Word of Mouth. You can have two menus to cover information you want on your website. For example why not have standard items on a bottom menu such as Contact Us, Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, About Us down the bottom and put what your products / services are at the top of your page.
Example: Work out what you are offering and on paper create your layout first and then create your menus around this. Make it EASY!
7) TESTIMONIALS – We all start accumulating Testimonials and Feedback. Make sure you use them. If you don’t add these to your site, how will anyone who visits your site even know that you can accomplish what you say you can… Do not make them up, make them real. You want to be able to let potential clients contact the people who provided the testimonial. It is also a great idea to have a link back to that person’s site.
Example: Your previous and current clients are your best referral system. Imagine someone is wanting to buy one of your products and discovers an amazing testimonial about that exact product and how it helped someone. Don’t you think they will be buying that immediately from you?
8) VIDEO – a great tool to add to your website is a Video of you. If you are not comfortable being on the front of your website, then use tools such as Camtasia or Screen-O-Matic to create a video showing your products or services. You can do this and tell everyone about each product or service without having to have your face showing on screen. But the good thing about video is that people are seeing exactly what you have to offer and can hear it from you. Another way is to get someone to briefly interview you about your business and use this on your website. Remember a Call to Action at the end of the video.
Example: You are a business coach and you are seeking more clients. Be in front of the camera and tell people about you and what you offer and then provide a brief case study of how you have helped someone. This will be much more effective than someone just reading your all important content.
9) BLOG – you can have a separate blog but make sure it is branded the same to match your website. However, the best idea is to have your Blog on your website. Keep this relevant an as up to date as you can. Remember you have an expertise and experience which others do not – therefore you have a lot to share to help others. A good way to get others to your website too is to ask for guest bloggers perhaps on a monthly or quarterly basis. This will also bring others to your site.
Example: When a recent topical blog post by a friend of mine went live, she shared this via her social media and it ended up going viral globally. This in turn sent her website visitors skyrocketing and led to some more MC roles and speaking gigs.
10) FINDING YOU ‘SOCIALLY’ – We all want people to find our business on various social media platforms, so make sure you have links showing on your website. You may have your Twitter Feed or Facebook page posts showing directly onto your website which will allow visitors to immediately like your page or follow you on Twitter and it will also show them that you may offer specials or daily tips etc by them LIKING your page. Remember to keep your branding the same for your clients wherever they look.
Example: Recently someone visited a friend’s website looking for some fitness information. The visitor noticed on the Facebook Feed that there was a special offer happening. She clicked through to Facebook, liked the page and accepted the offer immediately. WOW – a new client.
These are just 10 top tips that I think are very important for your website to MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU. There are many more such as SEO, using Keywords effectively, where to find some great free images and more, but that is another blog post!
Would love your comment.
If you feel that there are any elements you find too difficult to even contemplate, I would love to hear from you and can offer you a FREE 30 minute consultation to find out what you are struggling with and how I can help you.
Warm wishes,
Hazel your Small Business Trainer
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