18 Nov 7 Elements Every Business Website Needs!

For Any Business, A Business Website is a Must!

Do you have a business website for your business today?  No matter what size your business is, to succeed in gaining more clients or customers in today’s world you need to have a business website!  Not only do you need a website for your business.  You need a good website because if you don’t, you will loose customers.  Nothing detours a potential client or customer more than when landing on a website that looks like it was designed in the 90’s or even the early 2000’s.  You know the one I’m talking about, the dark narrow looking website with ugly colors, too much shadowing, and a bunch of words that gives you a sick feeling to your stomach?  You want to get out as soon as you can because it seems like everything is closing in on you.

After leaving that dark old website, you click and land on a bright new website with a full width layout, great looking photos, and cool moving objects and you think, I’ll definitely buy from this company.  The bright website gives you a good feeling and you know the company cares about what they do because they spent the time and money on a website that looks and makes you feel good.  They care about their branding and most likely care more about their service or product!  Their great branding creates more business!!

Now what can you do to create more business from your website?  Lets move on to the 7 must have components to an effective business website!

The 7 Business Website Must Haves!

1. Good Design

Like we talked about above, a great modern designed website can make all the difference in gaining more customers for your business.  What is your niche and your target audience?  After you know that, you can tailor your design to attract your target audience and portray the look and feel of what your business is all about.  Remember to find a Web Designer that is current in the new styles and coding so your business website will be ahead of your competition.  Do not go the cheap route because you will pay more in the long run with a site that doesn’t attract more business, and you will be redoing your website sooner than later to catch up.

2. Contact Page

Make it easy for customers to contact you.  Always have a contact page with a form they can fill out that will be sent to your email.  Have your phone number and email on every page of your website and make it easy to find.  If you are a business that has a physical address make sure that address is on your contact page with a map of your location using google maps.

3. Basic Search Engine Optimization

It’s not possible to ignore SEO these days. More than half of all website traffic comes from search engines. If you’re not optimizing for search, how will your website get found?  You need at least the basics of SEO on your business website to get some traffic.

• Optimize headers and title tags
• Content is King in the SEO world!  You must have good relevant content about the niche and business you are in.
• Internal links to your site from other sites (This is a daunting task and takes work).  They can’t just be any old site either.  They must be quality links!

4. Customer Testimonials

Approximately 90% of consumers say that online reviews influence their buying decisions.  If you have customers that love your service or product, get their testimonials on your business website for others to read.  Testimonials are real people with real experiences with your business, which is a huge decision maker for potential customers.

5. A Blog With Good Content

Good content about your service, product, or industry will inform your readers, and position your business as an authority.  If you know what you are talking about, your potential customers will see it, and be more likely to buy from you.  It will also help you rank better in search engines because remember, “Content is King”.

6. Sell Your Customer Online

What are you offering?  How can you fix the problem that your customer has?  You need to know your target audience and direct your branding and effort towards them.  Show them their need and show them how you solve it.  When your potential customer is on your business website they need to make that decision to by from you because you offer what they need.

7. Responsive Web Design

A responsive website is a website that smoothly operates across all devices including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops keeping design and layout structured for best usability experience.  About 93% of small business websites are not responsive.  And on average most online users are using their smartphones to use the web.  If that is true and your website is not responsive, you could be losing most of your potential customers because they can’t find what they need on your site or it is award to navigate on your site from their phones.

Though there is much more you can do, and should work up to on a business website, these 7 elements are a great start to a successful online presence.  Remember to find the right Web Designer who knows how to design a business website for today not the past.  And though you might want to save a little money, stay away from the easy cheap drag and drop websites because they have a limit.  You can only get so far with the do-it-yourself drag and drop sites and you most likely will upgrade to a real website in the future.  Do it now so you can continue building on a great platform instead of starting over.  Start with the 7 key elements and build from there!