It's one thing to have a website for your business, but it's another to have a website that successfully promotes your business and/or sells your product. There are many factors to take into consideration while getting a website created for your business. I went ahead and came up with 10 questions you can ask yourself to improve your website's function. Now it's your job to answer them.
1) What is the main purpose?
What do you want your website to do? What is the main function of your website? Is it to sell, promote, inform? Figuring this out will help your web designer focus on the most suitable concept for your website.
2) Is your site appealing and consistent with your brand?
The overall quality and appearance of your website should be clean, modern, and professional. If you have a bland site, odds are, it will be overlooked. Making sure it is comfortable on the viewers eyes is extremely important. Things to take into consideration are font sizes, colours/contrast and the visual hierarchy (where the eye is lead from most important to least important). It is also crucial to keep your website's design consistent with your brand. Using different colours and styles may confuse the viewer to think it's a whole different company.
3) Is your social media platforms linked with your website?
Having your social media accounts linked to your website is a great way to increase your likes/followers. You can do this by having little icons in the header or footer of every page and/or placed within contact page.
4) Is your website optimized for Search Engines?
If someone searches your type of service/product in a search engine will you come up on the first page? Making sure your website is indexable and is using the right keywords can really help google find and rank your site. If done correctly, your website will rank within the first page for that related search. As it turns out, over 80% of the crowd does NOT view the second page of their Google search results.
5) How many pages/items do you have in your navigation menu?
You may want to consider keeping your websites menu to a minimum. A cleaner navigation menu makes it a whole lot easier for the viewers to find what they are looking for. It's quite easy for some web users to get overwhelmed when they visit a website. Anything over 8 menu items would start to overcomplicate the main function of your website. You could alternatively have subcategories within your main menu items, also known as 'child pages'.
6) Are you blogging periodically?
Having a blog on your website is a great way to show that your website is active all the time with newly updated data which improves your ranking within Google. It's also a great way to show your audience you are an expert at what you do, by informing the viewers using helpful tips, recommendations, or any other related topics. Keep in mind, you would ideally like to blog about something that would interest your potential readers.
7) Do you have an 'About' page?
Having an about page offers two main purposes. It demonstrates to the viewers what you have to offer them and it shows you are a real person. Whether you want to put a biography, some history/background information on the business, photos or videos of you and your team etc., it's your call. As long as you have a way of connecting with your audience on a more personal level and convincing them they want to go with your product/service.
8) Is your website responsive to other devices?
Nowadays everyone has some sort of smartphone or tablet. Not having a responsive website is like driving in winter with summer tires on. It will drive but not very well. Having a website that is responsive to all devices makes it incredibly easier for your visitors to navigate around your site. It will prevent them from having to constantly zoom in and out, avoiding frustration.
9) Do you show any proof of your product or service?
It's one thing to say you offer a service but it's another to actually back it up. You can either show your work using a portfolio type method or have your recent customers write up a testimonial/review on how your product or service has benefited them.
10) How easy is it for your audience to contact you?
Having a contact page on your website is a given. Without it, you couldn't receive any phone calls or emails and would without a doubt seem like an untrustworthy business. Make sure your contact page is not over cluttered and presents the information clear and concise. This will help your visitors contact you with ease. You may also want to consider placing your phone number and/or email in an easy spot for your visitors to reach. The top right of your website is usually the most ideal spot.
4) Have your site backed up just incase anything does happen in the future.