In the world of modern business, it is almost impossible to run a successful venture without having a great website. Unfortunately, creating that successful facility doesn’t always seem to be that easy. Until now…Because I am going to share the best tips on how to create a great website.
It can seem hard because most companies do not truly understand what they actually need from their website. Here is all you need to know and what you need to apply.
A Great Website Should Be Seen
First and foremost, your website needs to be visible. There are over 1.4 billions active sites on the World Wide Web and people won’t just arrive at yours by luck.
Boosting your SEO to fire yourself up the Google rankings is essential. SEO means Search Engine Optimisation and basically means that your website employs several SEO techniques that will ensure that the search engines will rank your site highly when people search online. If you have a business that is limited demographically to who you can serve as customers then take a read of my post on local SEO.
Getting rankings can take time so in the meantime, an active social media game and some positive reviews will work wonders for traffic to your site. If you can build a sense of trust and familiarity with your potential customers then, success is virtually assured.
I make no bones about the fact that for most businesses, using Pinterest is by far the best social media platform for driving traffic to your site. That is not to say you should ignore the other major social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
While getting people to your website won’t be enough on its own, this is a major hurdle that you will have achieved.
A Great Website Should Wow The Visitor
Once the visitor opens up your website, you have roughly 3-5 seconds to make a good impression. That sounds scary but it is so true. Firstly you need your website to load quickly and whilst that is out of your hands to a certain extent you should ensure where your website is hosted has the capability to load it in a short time.
Before worrying about any content, the web design elements need to be perfect and relevant to your ideal customers. From logos and brand imagery to general layouts, you cannot afford to make a mistake. Furthermore, the site must look as good on mobile as it does on a computer screen. There is a WordPress plugin called AMP for WordPress that I use to make sure my mobile users get a good experience of my site too.
A Great Website Should Be Clear
While a pleasing aesthetic will have a positive impact on visitors and make them stay to find out more, the content needs to be right too. All of your contact details should be clear as this will give users one less reason to doubt your credentials. Meanwhile, it is vital that you learn to write compelling product descriptions and use photography in the right fashion. Above all else, all content should be created with your key demographic in mind. Different people will respond to different tones of voice. Do not underestimate their preferences and your potential customers will all be fairly similar in their preferences. If this worries you then just write as if you were actually speaking to a potential client and you won’t go far wrong.
A Great Website Should Keep Customers Coming Back
Research shows that the average user will visit a website seven times before making a purchase. So, it is vital that you give them a reason to keep coming back. Using email marketing streams is a particularly great way to ease them down the conversion pathway.
Alternatively, adding a blog, video or audio content to the site offers another incentive for them to return. So many website owners forget that a regular blog post related to your business will enhance both your SEO and customer retention. Once prospective clients are using your site on a regular basis, your chance of gaining sales is substantially increased.
A Great Website Should Be Built For Sales
It is easy to forget that the purpose of your website is to help your business make money. It’s one thing to make customers want to buy your goods, but it’s another to actually gain that sale. Your ecommerce systems, facilities are vital, and accepting as many payment types as possible is crucial to getting more sales.
On a separate note, you may wish to think about getting content translated. If it is easier for non-English customers to understand the transaction process, it will remove one more barrier to that sale.
Final Thoughts
If you ensure that your website does these five things then your success is almost assured. It may take time for your website to gain organic traffic through your SEO efforts but once it starts being indexed and ranked you will see your website traffic increase exponentially. The more traffic you have the better the opportunity for it to be converted into sales and profit as long as you are applying these tips on how to create a great website.
I hope you have found this post useful. If you have please give it a share on your favourite social media platform.
As ever if you have any questions or just want to share your thoughts please leave me a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen