Business website is essential to start your new venture/ startup. Talk to anyone in the field of online promotion and sales, and they will tell you just how important social media has become in the modern age for selling a product. They are right, of course. The use of social media has been shown to pay dividends for many businesses, and in some cases has overtaken the use of traditional advertising.
In the age of Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and now Tik Tok, viral advertising is the ‘soup de jour’ for anyone looking to increase brand recognition. However, no company should rely solely on such platforms, and those who do can find out rather painfully why it isn’t a good idea to put all your eggs in this one basket.
This is where the humble website comes into play. Giving businesses an air of legitimacy, whilst also acting as a hub for showing exactly where their branches are showcased on other platforms, websites have not lost any of their importance in the age of social media. Because of this, it is important to make sure your website looks great, performs well, and it easy to navigate. A well-functioning business website can make all the difference to a successful business.
So how exactly do you take your business website to the next level?
1. Web Hosting
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, choosing a good web host should be the number one priority. A fine web hosting provider should always keep your site reachable, have super-fast page loading speeds, and preferably, great customer service for the odd occasions where you may want to resolve an issue. Boast of great ‘uptime’ reliability these days, but it is worth looking at the speeds these web hosts can provide.
Good and reliable web hosting providers have servers situated on multiple sites across the globe, allowing web pages to quickly load no matter where someone tries to access them from in the world. A slow web page takes over 3 seconds to load often results in visitors leaving a page and not returning, so it is vital to not underestimate the importance of making sure your host can be relied upon.
2. Attractive, Responsive Design
The design of your website is as important as the speed at which it loads. Create a business website that visitors find difficult to navigate, and they will soon leave in frustration. We have all been there; perusing a site, not knowing where to click to find the information or product that we need, giving up, and moving on.
For example, if your business website visitors can’t find a website click to call button whenever they want to contact you, they’ll leave to the competition. By converting your company phone number into a link, you enable potential clients to reach your business with the least amount of friction.
Any business website section should not be more than a click or two away from any page on the site, sections should be clearly labelled, and the information easy to read. A simple, clean, easy to navigate website is the key to clearing the path in which potential visitors will take when perusing your wares. Make it as easy as possible for them.
The cleanliness of your site isn’t simply a case making sure it looks great on your desktop either. Most decent web design services will provide you with a mobile responsive site, meaning that whatever device your patrons view the site on, it will always look great.
3. Search Engine Optimization
SEO is hugely important in making your business website discoverable in the first place. Optimizing the site will push it higher up on the search engine rankings, making it far more likely that people will see your site ahead of others. SEO relies on a multitude of factors, some of which are tricky to keep up with (it is a fluid skill to know exactly what works best), and if in doubt, you can always hire an expert to go through your business website and tune it up.
However, making sure your pages load fast, have a decent number of active links to other sites, and keeping it updated is all useful in making sure your SEO is in a good condition.
The business website is no longer alone in the world of business as the only portal for potential customers to be drawn to, but it is still an important one. In the modern era, keeping a website fresh, and functional is not the chore that it used to be. With so many services and applications available to help your site look and perform to its fullest, all it takes is a little effort on your part to get things going.
