A website gives you the opportunity to tell your prospects who you are and what are you into. It satisfies two purposes, on one hand, it acts as an information channel for your prospective clients and on the other it gives insights about your product to your potential customers. A small business website should be rich in content which is compelling and exciting for your prospects and gives your visitor the opportunity to know more about you and your services. Here are a few tips to make your website work for you.
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Home page- As this is the first page that your customer sees, it becomes very important to design it in the most simple and organised manner. “If the home page is not well organised and user friendly, people will navigate away from your site.” avers Goya.
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Content- A well-written content gives your website a sophisticated look and helps you in putting your idea across to your prospective customers. Your website content should have the right words for SEO (Search engine optimisation) so that your website becomes a tool to expand your business.
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‘Product/ services’ page- Use this page/ section to describe “Who you are?” and how are you different from others in terms of product and services you offer, market recognition and position. You should also take advantage of this page by letting your readers know your company in terms of team size, members, their education, experience and expertise so that people get an idea of the benefits they can have by joining hands with you.
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Third party Validation (Testimonials and case studies)- This section would contain recognitions, awards, case studies, news clippings and other third party validations along with present and previous client list so that people can understand your business and you better and can relate your previous clients’ problems to theirs.
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‘Contact us’ page- Readers cannot reach you in spite of all the smart work done by you on the website if the contact information is not properly provided. So it is important to give the full address (physical location), telephone number, and e-mail address of key people of your office. A proper address tells your prospects that you are real and legitimate.
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Special offers and personalisation- By personalising a sale with a special offer, incentive or coupon a small business can have an edge over others. Things like a hand written thank you note, free gift wrap service, special offers for bulk and repeated sales does create value.
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Keep it simple- Last but not the least, keep your website simple.
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Avoid using flash as these take time to load and you might lose a prospective client.
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Keep your content simple, short and straight. Goyal recalls, “I made it sure that my website was user friendly and organised”
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Personalise your website by adding pictures of your company rather than putting pictures of foreigners.
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Ensure that the colour of your website is simple yet attractive. “I kept my website’s colour simple because I wanted the pictures of my product to get highlighted” concludes Goyal.