Why you need a website for your business

Having a website is critical for business success, regardless of the industry it falls in. A website establishes a digital presence for your business and generates additional leads. In today’s age, most perspective customers check to see if you have a website before they make a purchase.

Here are a few of the many reasons why every business needs a website: 

• Credibility. Without a website, people may question the legitimacy of your business. A professional website provides a great first impression to perspective customers and shows that you’re a real business.
• Customer service. Websites save you time by answering your customer’s frequently asked questions like your business hours, location and contact information. Providing this information is critical on any website to ensure great user experience.

• Brand. A website communicates to your perspective customers what your business is all about. It tells them who you are, what you stand for and what you have to offer. Customer testimonials and reviews are a great piece of content to feature on your website to further show off your brand’s value.
• Exposure. Building a website and optimizing it for SEO will help your business get found online. This means that when people are searching for a product or service, there is a chance your website will be amongst the Google search results.

6 in 10 Consumers are more likely to do business
with companies who have a website.

The process of getting a website

The first step to getting a website for your business is deciding if you will build it yourself or hire someone to do it. If you decide to build it yourself, the good news is that building a website yourself has never been easier. 

Learn more about how you can build a website on these popular platforms: 

Tip: Don’t rely on the free domain extensions web building platforms provide you.

We know free things are nice, but they don’t always benefit you.
Using a free domain extension like yourwebsite.wordpress.com will make it hard for your website to be found online.
Best practice is to register your own domain name.

Best practices when designing a website

We aren’t all website designing pros, and that’s okay! Whether you’re building it yourself or hiring somebody to do it for you, you can create an amazing and effective website for your business.

Follow the checklist below to ensure you optimize your website and provide a great user experience for your customers.

Start Designing a website with Phatbiz Web Solutions

Website designing checklist

1. Stick to a colour palette. Make sure to incorporate your brand colours and stick to a few colours. Ensure that these colours are easy on the eye and complement each other.

2. No clutter. Leave room for content to breath on the page and include white space. This makes it easier for users to focus, process information, and understand what is important.

3. Break up text. No one wants to read an essay, so make sure to break up your written content into short paragraphs, accompanied with headers. This helps customers skim the content to find what they need quickly.

4. Proofread, proofread, proofread. When writing content for your site, read it over several times. Have a friend that’s a great writer or editor? See if they can be a second set of eyes.  Misspelled words give the impression to your customers that you don’t pay attention to your content.

5. Keep your navigation simple. A maximum of six to seven categories should be used in your navigation. Common practice is to put the most important items at the beginning, the least important items in the middle and the “Contact” page last as this is the standard location.

6. Include a “Contact Us” section. Make sure to have your business location, store hours and contact details listed and kept up to date. These are frequently looked at by customers so it’s important that they are easy to find.

7. Don’t make users scroll for years. Users want a fast and enjoyable user experience so ensure you keep short pages and make your navigation elements clear.

8. Link social media accounts. Provide accessible links to your social media accounts to generate traffic and help build your business credibility. Social media accounts are a great way to showcase your products or services.

9. Test site functionality often. It is critical that customers have a good user experience with your site. Make sure all items on your website work properly and test items like links, pages, buttons and forms.

10. Optimize for mobile. Seventy-two percent of Consumers are most likely to connect to the internet using a smartphone or mobile device. This is why you need to ensure your website is mobile-friendly. This may mean altering or removing some elements so users have a seamless experience.

 

Hiding the construction process

While you’re thinking of getting a website, publish a “coming soon” page

If you’re not ready to build a complete website, consider launching a “coming soon” page with some information to tease your audience. This helps with:

Hiding the construction process

No one wants to use a website that’s half finished. A “coming soon” page provides credibility and maintains a professional appearance while the rest of your website is under construction.

Building SEO early

It can take a while after you launch your website before it begins to rank well on search engines. A “coming soon” page helps search engines index and rank your website before you officially launch it.

Kickstarting lead generation

You can lose precious leads while waiting to launch your website. Capture these leads early with a coming soon page. Add an email subscription form so you can notify customers about your website launch.