6 factors that make a business website simply awesome!
A website makes your business go global — literally. People can get in touch with you from anywhere in the world. Now that indeed is a fabulous thing, but only if your website is built and designed the right way. Of course, there’s no one path that leading to an awesome business website, but there are a few crucial factors to keep in mind while designing and maintaining a website.
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Maintain the brand look
A good website will derive its personality from the brand's offline look and persona. Your brand messaging and look should be consistent across all channels. This helps in building a strong recall for your brand in your customers' minds.
Tip: Avoid the temptation to make your website look like any other site in the same segment. Try to be unique and creative within the confines of your brand guidelines to build a truly awesome business website.
Pay attention to content
With increased availability of website templates and advances in website design software, business sites look impressive but utterly fail to deliver on content. Your website needs to have a clear message that gets through to your customers in an interesting way. Keep your messaging sharp and concise. The three key points to remember when writing content for your website are the home page intro, the call to action (CTA), and overall SEO optimisation. The homepage intro paragraph must smartly summarise your offering in a precise but interesting way. People are in a hurry most of the time and have very little time to read through paragraphs to understand what you have to offer them. The CTA should be short and persuasive. Avoid vague CTAs like, ‘Call us now to know more'. Instead, try more targeted statements like, 'Click here to sign up for a free customised plan'. Needless to say, one must have a freebie to give away before offering one. Awesome business websites are beyond just content and design — they also reflect the integrity of your business.
Include the search feature
People may come back to your website looking for specific information. Make it easy for them to find what they're looking for by including the search feature.
Avoid vague icons
An awesome business website will not confuse people with vague icons. Try and stick to tried-and-tested icons unless you come up with something really whacky. For example, the age-old magnifying glass icon will be effective enough to mark the search feature. Force fitting something in the name of creativity will only confuse people.
Include footer
Including a footer is a great way to make all essential information available to users without getting in the way of the design. The footer sits at the bottom of the page and hence it is unobtrusive. Include the sitemap in the footer section. This will make navigation easy for the users.
Common sense – the foundation of a great website
When building a website, people often make sure that it’s built on the latest and best technology platform. They make sure it fits in with the latest trends. They sweat over the design. Though these factors are important, the key factor that makes any old regular company site an awesome business website is common sense. So follow your heart and do adapt these strategies to your business and what works best for you. Also remember, your website is your place of business in the virtual world. People come there expecting prompt responses to their queries.
Last but not the least, it would be a good idea to get feedback from your target audience or clients on what they consider to be the hallmarks of a great website. The best people to help you build an awesome business website may be a phone call away, so get in touch with them and see what inputs they may have to offer. Good luck with your website and do leave comments below if you agree or disagree with our six factors.