Regardless of your industry, an effective website is a valuable and essential way to communicate with your customers.
With the right strategy, design, and content, an effective website can attract your ideal customers, establish credibility, and best of all, convert visitors into buyers and raving fans.
But simply having a website isn’t enough. make Good website.
For your website to function effectively as a communication tool, you need to set out exactly what you want your website to accomplish and make sure your site and domain name reflect that. But what does a website do?
“The most important thing is to know the purpose of your website. [for your business] “Think about what action you want your visitors to take,” says Wendy Tan White, co-founder of DIY website builder Moonfruit and venture partner at Entrepreneur First, a pre-seed investment program for talented European tech founders. “Are you asking for a lead (email/call), providing information (directions/service information), or selling a product (transaction)?”
Once you have a clear idea of what you want from a great website, you can start thinking about the most appropriate elements and communication channels for your business, depending on the purpose of your website.
But what does a website need?
1. Clear value proposition
Recent studies have shown that you have less than 10 seconds to impress and interest a new visitor, so you need to know how to layout your website effectively. Your domain name and home page should immediately reveal who you are, what you do, and what the visitor's next step is.
“Be clear about who your audience is and what you want to communicate to them,” says Chiara Pensato, director of marketing at MOVE Guides, a cloud platform for talent mobility. “Invest the time and resources necessary to clearly and articulate your company's vision and core messaging.”
Once you've decided this, make sure you communicate this clearly on your website. As you do this, you should think about what you want to have on the homepage of your website, but remember that not everyone will actually access your website from the homepage. If you blog effectively, many people will deep link directly to your specific articles via social media or Google, so think about how you can guide your first-time visitors, regardless of where or how they got there.
A descriptive business name and domain name can help with this, as can a clear, concise tagline that appears on every page (for example, in the header of your site).
2. Consistent branding
Once you have a clear vision for your business and your audience, every decision you make for your website should reflect that, from the colors and fonts you use, to the language and tone of your site, to the content you create. Consistency is trustworthy and memorable, so a consistent message and experience is key to making the right impression.
“Always stay true to your brand,” says Pensato. “As you look at each component of your website, it's important to ask yourself: does this look, feel, and sound like your company, and how does this fit into your overall journey and vision.”
Not only will a poorly designed website look unprofessional, but confusing web pages may actually turn off visitors. While website design and usability can make visitors feel at ease, establish credibility, and increase conversions, they can also cause visitors to leave your site and never return.
3. About Page
When thinking about what to put on your website, your About Us page is an important one. It's one of the first places potential customers will go when they want to know if your company is right for them. It's also your opportunity to tell your unique story, explain what sets you apart, humanize your brand, and establish the purpose of a website for your business.
4. Blog
Blogging is one of the best ways to attract new visitors to your site, establish your expertise, and gain a loyal readership. But while blogs are a great place to share important news and updates, no one wants to read endless company announcements. The most effective business blogs are reader-focused, prioritizing content that provides value to your ideal customers and addresses their questions, interests, and needs.
“The website needs to be engaging and provide more than just company information,” says Pensato. “We use the blog as a key tool to foster dialogue about how cross-border talent can be realized in any modern organization.”
5. Further Resources
MOVE Guides goes a step further by creating and delivering more in-depth and valuable resources. Examples of effective website marketing incentives include white papers and case studies, aiming to become a destination for those seeking industry knowledge.
You can also offer these types of resources as free downloads and encourage people to sign up for your email list, which is another great way to stay connected with potential customers and build lasting relationships.
Pensato added: “[Aside from our blog]”Other channels that generate the highest response rates include customer case studies, industry white papers, fact sheets and user references, bringing our story to life for our community.”
6. Explain how the business works
When you offer something new to the market, one of the first things customers want to know is how your product works and how it is different. Videos and infographics can be great additions to an effective website layout, helping to convey a large amount of information in a short amount of time or explain a complex process.
7. Social Buttons
Another place users will go to find out more about your business is your social profiles. Placing social buttons in a prominent location, such as your sidebar (if you have one) or footer, that are visible on every page, makes this a lot easier and allows users to easily follow you and get the latest updates from your business.
8. Client Portfolio or Testimonials
When you do business online, trust is fundamental to the buying process, and showing examples of previous clients (with permission, of course) reassures potential customers that you're a company they can trust.
“Having access to third-party validation, whether from customers, press, partnerships, vendors or investors, is essential to establishing your credibility as a company and gaining trust at the earliest stages of engagement,” says Pensato.
9. Press Page
Speaking of coverage, a dedicated coverage page or section that collects articles you've guest written or contributed to elsewhere can also help position you as an authority in your field, but like many of these features, they're only worth doing if you update them regularly.
A sparse press page (like a neglected blog) can have the opposite effect to the intended one and raise doubts about business outcomes.
10. FAQ page
As your business grows, you'll get more and more inquiries. Be careful and take note of the questions you get asked repeatedly. Answering these questions on an FAQ page will make your communication more efficient and improve your conversion rates (not everyone takes the time to contact you). It might also spark ideas for blog topics or other content.
11. Live Chat
While live chat isn't right for every business, it can be extremely effective at converting web visitors into buyers and subscribers, and it can also be a useful tool for getting feedback from your audience.
“When more complex services or a more human touch can help your purchasing decision, [live chat] “It's a great tool,” says Tan White, “and these days services like Olark allow you to add live chat in no time, and most offer a free trial so you can measure the impact on conversions before investing.”
12. A clear call to action
If you know the action you want users to take, using “calls to action” in your menus and other key points throughout your site can help encourage them to act. Examples might be “book a consultation,” “download a guide,” “work with me,” or even “start here.” These can link to sales pages, sign-up forms, or whatever suits your business and goals. You can also use tools like Optimizely or Visual Website Optimiser to test different page layouts and wording.
The key is to make sure whatever features you add to your website make real sense for your business. “There's no point adding a bunch of trendy features if you don't have the skills and resources to manage them effectively,” says Tan White. “Where possible, try them out at low cost and see the impact. Some features, like a blog, may take some time to gain traction, but then commit to writing one article per week for a few months before deciding whether to continue with it.”
But how do you really know if something is working? It all comes back to understanding the purpose of your website and paying attention to the metrics you monitor. For example, having 100,000 page views per month means little if no one is actually buying or engaging with your brand.
Tan White agrees: “Be clear about what you want to achieve – 20 leads a week, £20,000 in ecommerce sales a day, 3,000 visits and 200 likes a week. Whatever the metric is, it should drive revenue for your business. Once you know what success looks like and how to measure it, try features that will affect that number so you can measure success objectively. Good luck!”
