Your website is your online address, your very own portal which tells your clients about who you really are as a business or brand. And if you’re aiming to have an e-commerce website, it’s even more important to make sure that your website is as clear and easily navigable as possible. The focus of your website should be clearly stated as well, whether you want it to increase your customer base, provide detailed information about your business, and so on. Your website should give your clients the information they need on a silver platter. So how can you make sure that your website is successful? Here are the most essential dos and don’ts for a truly successful business website.
Do know your goal
You should, first of all, know your goal from the beginning. What is the actual purpose of your website? What is your reason for building it in the first place? Is it to increase and enhance your rates of conversion, or is it to increase your company’s sales? Is it to have more leads, or is it geared towards improving awareness for your brand? Knowing your goal from the start will make it easier for you to create a website that can really adhere to what you want and require.
Don’t underestimate your competitors
In any industry or sector, competition will always be present. This is why it’s also important for you to understand your competitors. Before making or rebuilding your own website, check out what your competitors are doing. Check their sites and take note of what they seem to be doing well. If you like a particular site’s look, there’s no harm in making something similar for your own site.
Do take time to create the proper content
According to specialists in website design in Oxford, the website design process can be slowed down simply because you don’t have enough content yet or your content is not good enough. For example, if you are planning to sell various products on your website, you should prepare photos and descriptions as early as possible. If you are planning to sell various services, it follows that you need good descriptions of your services as well. Develop and create as much content as possible before you begin building your website, and this will save you a lot of time indeed. Also, when creating content, make sure it also comes with clear and concise calls to action. With an effective call to action, your visitors will have an easier time deciding what to do next as you’re basically ‘leading’ them to a decision.
Don’t make your visitors work for it
When creating your website, you should have your users foremost in your mind. It’s not really about what you want – it’s about what they want. So it follows that you should make it easy for your users. Don’t make your visitors work for the information they want to get – it will often take them as little as 3 seconds to decide if they want to stay or leave, so if you make it too much of an effort for them to find what they need or decide what to do, you will have a disgruntled visitor who leaves in the end.