The world of websites is a world that’s been around for some years, but will likely never cease its unending utility for businesses and individuals alike. Without a website, your business seems ethereal, lacking substance, perhaps untrustworthy. However, a bad website can be worse than having no website at all, because then at least a customer can give you the benefit of the doubt and refer to your social media profiles.
No, a great website should be the hub of your business. It should be there to welcome new customers, to cater to existing customers, and to soothe those who might have a problem with their experience.
Does your website truly honor your business? The following advice can help you find out:
Design
The design of your website can often either compliment your brand, or take away from it. Even a website that looks a few years out of date can be damaging to the overall slick nature of your brand design. Using outdated social media widgets, unattractive popups, or linking to expired web pages can lead a user to think your firm simply does not pay attention to the details. This is, of course, the last impression you want to promote about your brand. With the best website design firm, you can not only find a design that best compliments the palate and other interface matters of your firm, but routinely update with the latest in features, and ensure that the end user experience is smooth.
Utility
Your website needs to be the referral hub of anything that goes on in your firm. It needs to list all of your products or services with expert explanations of what they are and how to interact with them. It can benefit from a ‘meet the team’ page. It needs your story and history celebrated in its feature linked pages. It needs to allow customer accounts, connect to social media and continually update with new information. If possible, a personal business blog can be excellent too. A pretty, well-designed website is one thing, but form must always underly function.
Promotion
Is your website promoting your brand with its presence, or is it simply a boring rendition of that which can be found on every one of your social media profiles. What rewards are you granting your customer for interfacing with your website and crafting a customer account? Might free trials, exclusive promotions and referral codes help you attract people to your website. You must always ensure that your website contains the informational and financial motivation for an end user to bookmark it, perhaps even place it in their browser bookmark bar. With updated promotions, continual news, regular updates and even a community spotlight, your website becomes something that people want to view, rather than do so out of convenience for the sake of managing an account. It all helps.
With these simple trademark efforts, you’re sure to have a website that speaks brilliantly about your business.