Must Haves for Every New Website
Websites, as a powerful medium for marketing and online sales, can greatly improve business performance. Not only can they further convince customers to purchase your products and services, but they also help distribute additional information. However, it is easy to make beginner mistakes when building new websites and ruin this wonderful opportunity, so make sure that every new webpage has these items:
- Contact Information Many customers fear that the firm they are dealing with might turn out to be a clever fraud. The best way to do away with this fear is to provide accurate contact information on all mediums, not just e-mail. Older generations will prefer to make a phone call to get specific answers. Additionally, giving away your address will enable people living close by to come and receive personal service. Including a Google maps screenshot will make the company more authentic.
- Convincing Home Page The first opportunity to capture a customer is through an impeccable and convincing home page, which is both easy to use and very informative. You must select the most important features and links, such as calls to action, product details, customer reviews, social sharing, etc., to place on it. Furthermore, you must choose the appropriate colors to match your industry; for example, blue calms people down whereas red incites them.
- Lead Capture Form The purpose of this form is to enable some customers to contact you and ask some questions without the hassle of picking up the phone and initiating the conversation themselves. Plus, some would not want to waste money on an unknown business, or they have questions outside of your normal office hours. This lead capture form not only solves all of these questions, but helps you prepare specific information for their question, like energy consumption or retail prices.
- Social Media Nowadays, it is imperative that companies have specific staff to take care of their social images via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. By incorporating their share buttons and actively updating these accounts, the company can quickly distribute information about new products, discounts, promotional events, etc. Furthermore, it can quickly answer customer questions where other customers can see, and potentially carry out marketing surveys.
- Newsletter Social media would be effective for younger customers, whereas a good old-fashioned newsletter is for more formal business as it can highlight the most relevant current offers and stress the important parts. Therefore, include an easy-to-spot newsletter sign-up option on your home page. Consider adding customization options according to customer preference. For instance, if you sell both automobile and marine parts, have one option for autos and one for boats.
- Consistent Navigation and Smarter Links The way users browse your webpage reflects how they view your company. If the website has consistent navigation, which predicts user need and is always in the same place, then your customers will see you as a dependable and trustworthy company. The opposite is also true and this can greatly influence your sales1. Consider also adding a home page link on every page throughout the site to facilitate browsing.
- Search Function Users would like to reach their desired content with as few clicks as possible. The key to this is a fantastic search function, which is able to search for similar keywords, suggest synonyms and quickly find the desired page2. Furthermore, it should suggest alternative spellings and alternative results so that users do not need to try out different versions.
- Customer Reviews and Testimonials Potential clients are more likely to trust the words of other users than your subjective recommendation. However, make sure that your testimonials are easily noticeable and scattered throughout the whole website. They must be believable and helpful as well.
References:
- http://www.sitepoint.com/why-consistency-is-critical/
- http://www.google.com/enterprise/search/products_gss.html
