What Your Site Needs to Succeed
So, you’ve decided to start a website for your small business. You’ve settled on a simple design and have a brand image you’re sure your customers will love. Now comes the meat of website creation: content.
An engaging web design can bring potential customers in, but it’s the content you offer that will make the difference between a sale and a shrug.
When creating content for your business’ website, there are a few key points to keep in mind.
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Know your audience.
Knowing who your target market is and catering your content to their reading style and interests is essential in online business. Are you looking to sell your plants to botanists or casual gardeners? Is your construction business geared toward residential or commercial properties? Understanding the language your customers use and the information they’re looking for will ensure that the content on your site is tailored to fit those who will visit it most frequently and let them know that they’re in the right place.
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Keep it interesting.
Running a business website doesn’t have to be all work and no play. Including engaging text, interesting blog posts, relevant links, and personal touches all enhance user experience and increase the likelihood of site visitors becoming customers.
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Pay credit where credit is due.
If you use information from another site, be sure to cite it through either a bibliography or in-text hyperlinks. This adds credibility to your claims while also giving customers the chance to browse relevant content.
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Keywords are key.
If you want to maximize the reach of your content, include keywords throughout the content of your site that are relevant to what your business does. This will increase your chances of showing up in search engine results and make it easier for potential customers to find you. Don’t overdo it, though – if you oversaturate your content with keywords, your website might be marked as spam. When in doubt, don’t force it. It’s better to let keywords crop up naturally in your content than to shove them in every chance you get.
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Break it down.
Walls of text can be overwhelming for readers and will often send them running in the other direction. Using short sentences, breaking up paragraphs, and utilizing formats such as lists and bullet points can all break content down into bite-sized pieces that customers can more easily digest.
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Put your best foot forward
When visiting websites, people tend to skim the first few lines of text to see if the site has anything they’re interested in. This is why you should always put the most important information first. This guarantees that skimmers and browsers find what they’re looking for without having to read your whole site, saving them time and enhancing your image of simplicity.
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Don’t forget the basics
No matter what kind of content you intend to include on your website, there are a few components you can’t skip out on. These include a homepage, a page dedicated to your products or services, an ‘about us’ section, and a link to your contact information. Your homepage should be a snapshot of your brand and what your business offers. It can include testimonials, photos, and other content that will reel in visitors and lead them to the other essential pages of your site.
As with every other aspect of website design, ensuring customers can easily find and navigate this content is essential to the success of your business’ website.
No matter what kind of small business you run, having a website means extending your reach and growing your business one click at a time. I can help you extend your reach. Contact me today.
