Setting up a company website is relatively easy, getting it right is another story.
Many times people are put off doing business because of a clunky, unusable, unfriendly website.
How many times have you visited a website only to have the screen covered by irritating popups or that buying something takes you through a voyage of remembrance trying to come up with ridiculously over-complicated passwords that you forget in an instance?

In this article i’ll cover a few essentials that will make your website look and feel more professional and help your visitors do business with you.

Me And Me Dot Com
Buying a domain these days is a very easy process and fairly inexpensive.
Relative to how important it is to your overall branding, the rewards can be huge.
Much better to have a propername.com than myname.other-firm.uk.com

Even if you’re using a platform like wordpress.com, spend a few pennies on using your own domain and make sure you don’t need to explain its spelling each time.

SSL Surely
SSL technology provides secure communication between a web browser and a web server. This turns a website address from HTTP to HTTPS – the ‘S’ equals ‘secure’.
For the last year or so, there has been a big push to get companies to use SSL certificates on their websites.
Although very minimal, Google also adds SEO weight to a properly configured domain using https and eliminates the ‘insecure’ notice displayed by modern web browsers.

Correct Company Creds
Although you don’t need to splash this information all over your website, you do need to include things like registered company details, contact address, email, phone etc.
If you want me to do business with you, i’m going to check out your website. I need to know if you’re a legitimate, currently trading, company that is accessible and approachable.

Legally registered firm? – Display your registered address, number and, if appropriate, VAT number.
Selling online? – Include details about returns, customer support and include a clickable phone number for mobile users.

It’s Not About Me, We and He
A clear concise message about what you do, what you provide and what problem you can solve is primary to setting your customers at ease.
Are your visitors on the right website?
Does what they see, fit with what they were searching for?

Telling me how many years you’ve been in business, how many awards you’ve won or how much you give to charity means nothing if I still have no idea what you’re selling.

The only company that needs an all-singing, all dancing website is the firm selling all-singing, all dancing websites.

Stop The Stock Rot
Everyone has access to a camera of some sort and generic stock photos are, well, generic.
Why use the same photos as your competition and why risk a huge fine from the stock library?
Get your own, original, shots, either taken yourself or through a professional, and own them outright.

Write For Me, Not The Robots
So many times I can spot when an SEO firm has written website copy. Usually the product or service and location are mentioned many times, plus the voice and narrative simply doesn’t sit right.

When writing content, remember this simple rule:
People buy your products, not search engines.
And don’t be fooled into thinking you need to SEO your content to be on ‘page 1 of google’ – it’s not as simple as that.

Write for your customers, write what your customer wants to read, write to convince your customer you are the business to do business with.

Now Sell Me This Pen
Hopefully you’ve digested the above and, even more importantly, compared the advice with what you’re currently displaying to the world and decide to make changes where needed.
Spend the time to apply the above to your online presence and you’ll make more sales easier, and grow your business faster.

Naturally, if you need help with anything mentioned in this article, get in touch today.

 
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