Every business needs a website, if not for functionality, then just for the sake of appearances. Imagine someone hearing about your business and trying to look you up and being unable to find any site. It really wouldn’t play out well for your business, would it? So, you need a business website; however, if you’re going to make one, you owe it to yourself and your organization to do things right, but what does this even mean?
For those curious about this topic, here’s how you can start a business website.
- Define your target audience
The first thing you need to do when making a business website is to define your target audience. This will determine almost everything else. Knowing your target audience will help you choose the layout and intuitiveness of your website, as well as determine its color palette and messaging. In some scenarios, even the choice of the font and imagery on the site.
Once you start picking up your site’s analytics, it will be easy to tell your target audience, but this is difficult before you have any data.
Now, one of the things you can do is handle competitor research. Who are competing sites attracting? Is your USP (unique selling proposition) so different that you risk attracting a different demographic?
Just remember that casting too wide of a net is a horrible idea. By trying to attract everyone, you’ll end up attracting no one. Your goal should be a narrow starting demographic, and you can expand later on.
- Handle the technical issues
Next, you need to handle all the technical issues.
First, you want to pick a domain name. For the sake of SEO (something we’ll discuss a bit later), you want to pick something simple and memorable. Many people go straight to the address bar (they use it as an alternative to the search bar). You want something that they’ll easily remember and recreate from memory.
Just make sure that the domain name is available.
Also, ensure that your domain name and URL are keyword-friendly; your marketing efforts will be thankful.
Next, you want to choose the right host. While you could technically go with free hosting, this option is so inferior that it’s usually not even worth considering. Instead, find the right host. Check their features and ensure you get at least 99.99% uptime.
Also, make sure you pick the right host the first time because changing website hosting locations may impact your SEO.
- Make it easy and intuitive
People need to have an easy time understanding the intended user experience. They must know where they are from when entering your site. This is important for reducing their bounce rate.
Then, you need to make a formal introduction, give them just enough info to understand what’s happening, and then give them a clear CTA. They need to understand what you want from them (to read more, subscribe, buy, etc.) and know where to click. A few things are more frustrating than knowing where you should/can click next.
Also, you need to understand that familiarity is good.
People are used to specific sites following a certain layout/pattern. For instance, if you’re an e-commerce business, you want to put the filters, sort by, etc., where all the other sites position these buttons. This way, you’re helping them get a better UX with your brand.
- Boost your site’s visibility with SEO
Once a site is up, you must ensure it has as high traffic as your infrastructure can handle. A few SEO tips for beginners could help kickstart any SEO project you decide to start.
First, to succeed, you need to conduct a proper SEO audit of your site, do your keyword research, and improve your landing pages. Next, you need to proceed with on-site optimization (technical SEO). Once this is done, you should proceed with the most important part– creating commanding content.
Content creation and curation take the most time and effort, so have the right team. While quality is essential, it’s not all that matters. You need to get enough content out there, as well. Only quantity and quality together will give you the results you’re looking for.
The most important thing about technical SEO is that it always takes time. You plant the seeds, water them, and watch them grow. There are no shortcuts.
Since SEO takes time to build up, if you want an immediate traffic boost, you should also consider investing in PPC. This increase in traffic will benefit your SEO, as well, since it will drive highly-targeted leads to your site, potentially boosting your CTR and lowering your bounce rate in the process.
- Add CRM
Customer relationship management (CRM) software is essential for any business website. First of all, it gives you centralized customer data. This means that all the information regarding your customers goes to one place. From here, you can analyze it effortlessly.
Next, you can improve your CRM. Imagine AR goggles that bring up all the relevant data you have on them every time you meet a person, as well as quotes from previous conversations. How easy would it be to leave a good impression in that scenario? The same thing happens with CRM and how it helps you provide a customized approach to every customer.
The best part of a CRM is that it can turn your site into the optimal business platform. First of all, it does wonders for your automation and efficiency. When done right, it can make your site run semi-autonomously. Also, while it gives you the final say, most suggested options are usually data-driven.
Most importantly, CRM systems are made to be easy to integrate into many different tools and platforms. They work perfectly with email marketing tools, analytics tools, and more.
Wrap up
In the end, your website is a reflection of your business. If it’s neat, sleek, responsive, and functional, this is exactly what its audience will perceive you as. The same goes the other way around, too, so you must be extra careful when dealing with these matters. While everyone’s blueprint is different, this should be your approximate roadmap when developing a business website.
Apart from that, if you are interested to know about All you need to know about learning WordPress then visit our Web category.
