The primary purpose of the business website is to establish an online identity. This online identity imparts individuality to the business. And to promote the individuality of the business over the internet, one has to be thorough with the art of creative presentation of “business-personality”. Here are 11 must-haves for a business website to help you craft a website which will help you in achieving the goals of a business.
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An Effective Landing Page
A landing page is a custom page tailored and designed specifically to target and engage new visitors. A landing page is the “first impression” of the business in the eyes of the potential customers. An effective landing page comes in handy for providing a fair overview of the business in terms of products and services offered by the company. Apart from providing an overview of the business, the landing pages serve the purpose of making business by enticing the customer to resort to the “call to action”. Check out the examples of effective landing pages and a tutorial on creating a landing page in WordPress here.
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A website is a collection of web-pages each designed to cater to a specific requirement. The intelligent web-design is the one which enables its visitors to easily find their way out for choosing the product, adding it to the cart, making payment or gaining the contact information effortlessly. The navigation links play an important role in making it easy and simple for the visitor to move to the desired page and seek information or buy the service / product. Check out the tips for better navigation here.
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An About Us Page
Every client prior to joining the business (either as a customer or an employee) is concerned about the establishment and identity of the business. The “about us” page serves as the gateway for providing an overview of the company and the business. The about us page holds the same value as the interview question “Tell us something about yourself”. This one question gives a fair idea about the personality of the candidate in an interview and acts as the revelation for various aspects of the business.
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Contact Information
The business websites are designed with the primary goal of multiplying the clientele base for the organization. And in this process of having a strong customer base, the contact information plays an important role. Providing the contact information in form of e-mail addresses, physical location, Twitter & Facebook page, etc provides a platform to the customers for discussing the requirements or issues (if any).
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A Blog
A professional blog serves the dual purpose for a website. Firstly, it helps in establishing the credibility and expertise of the business and secondly, the blogs play an important role in optimizing the website for required services (or products). The blog becomes the company’s voice for making announcements and platform for launching new products and services.
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Visually Appealing Design
The aesthetics of a web-design plays an important role in holding the customers. If the text on the website is not readable and the web-page is cluttered with advertisements, links and improper navigation, the result is the web-design that “sucks”. A sensible choice of the color scheme, typography and other design elements help in giving an identity to the online presence of the business.
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Your Own Domain Name
While there are some free web-hosting services which provide a free domain name, it is always better to opt for registering the domain with paid services like GoDaddy and buy the domain name which best suits the nature of your business. The domain name establishes the online identity of any business and choosing and buying a domain name that is simple, unique and easy to remember, helps in flourishing the online business. And that one very important things you get with your own domain name is the critical SEO boost — yes the same website on it’s own domain will get higher SERPS ranking.
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Reliable Hosting
A reliable and an efficient web-hosting service paves way for an effective website. Keep away from the free services when it comes to hosting your website. Free services bring with them the providers own terms and conditions, your data is never your own, backups are not warranted and uptime isn’t stated. You need a host that gives you a good uptime so that your website never goes down and is available round the clock. It is in fact a better option to pay something around $10 to ensure and insure your website.
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Customized E-mail
The customized e-mail for the business gives a professional touch to your online presence. The domain registrars (like GoDaddy) provide the plans for creating the personalized e-mail addresses to match the website domain. Select the plan which best suits your requirement. If you are looking for a free option, Yahoo and Google apps have the solution for you.
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Search-Optimized Website
Search engine optimization is the critical requirement for making the website search engine friendly. Having a visually appealing website is good for retaining the customers, but bringing the customers to your home-page is a preliminary requirement for an effective business website. Optimizing the website for the products and services you offer, will help in directing more traffic to the site (and more traffic is analogous to more business).
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Customer Support + Social Media Presence
The business is an on-going process, where the cycle starts with making a sale. After making the sale, the business is bound to provide the after-sale services in form of customer support for any discrepancies or issues confronted by the customer. Having a strong customer support system helps in establishing the trustworthiness of the business. The same holds true for online presence of the business. The business website must provide the customer support through feedback forms, discussion forums and by providing the contact info.
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