..Whether you’re new to the web or a full-fledged online expert, there are 10 rules that everyone needs to consider when launching a new website.
1. Use simple, clean design.
While it’s tempting to put every imaginable bell and whistle on your site, your visitors would rather you didn’t. Remember, your goal isn’t to dazzle them with your design skills — it’s to get them to follow through with whatever action you’re looking for (such as calling for appointments, buying something, or signing up for your mailing list).
Try to pare down anything that could slow down a customer’s visit or obstruct your point.
Too many social media icons, extra images and unnecessary information can make your site seem cluttered. Look at sites you frequent; chances are, they have a streamlined design. If you use a clean layout, your users will thank you for the improved experience.
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2. Start with the five core pages
If you’re not sure what information to include on your website, the best approach is to start with the five core pages. These pages set the right expectations for visitors and cover your basic business needs:
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Home
Add a prominent call-to-action, and the primary way you want visitors to contact you.
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About Us
Create trust: Share what your business is about, why you started it and include photos of you or your staff.
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Products/Services
Include things like detailed descriptions, images, pricing, warranty and return policy.
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Customer Testimonials
Include quotes or reviews from satisfied customers.
People trust other people, especially those who’ve done things they want to do. For example, let’s say you want to buy your first motorcycle. You’re likely to ask your tattoo artist, who runs a small bike repair shop on the side, the difference between a cruiser and a cafe racer. One step further, and you’re likely to ask him which dealerships you should check out. Why? Because he’s been where you’ve been, but now has firsthand experience you can use to inform your decision.
That, in essence, is why your website needs a customer testimonials page. By giving visitors (and potential clients) a firsthand account of your business, you’re accomplishing three things:
Remove the mystery. Firsthand accounts (even by total strangers) are persuasive and make the unknown feel more familiar.
I’ve heard good things. By selecting positive statements from your customers for your testimonials page, visitors will have only heard good things about you.
Establish credibility. Your business feels less mysterious and the visitors read good things about it — that formulates credibility and trust. And people are much more likely to do business with those they trust.
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Getting customer testimonials
However, especially when you’re starting out, you might not have anyone to vouch for your business — that’s OK. There are a few ways you can start raking in testimonials:
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Ask your customers
If somebody comes to your business (or contacts you online), ask them to write testimonials for your website. If they’ll let you, snap pictures of them, too. Putting a face to a name (and a testimonial) makes it even more credible.
If you’re doing any kind of email marketing, you can reach out to customers that way, too. Something as simple as a comment box at the bottom of a survey will suffice.
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Use third-party resources
Online recommendations are a huge part of many people’s shopping practices. Even if you don’t sign up for them, your business might still find its way onto a site like Yelp or Angie’s List. If someone has something nice to say, put it on your website! It’s a good practice to link back to the site, as well.
Don’t let a few bad reviews on those sites scare you off, either. Very, very few businesses have 100-percent 5-star ratings. Potential customers know to take the bad (and the good) with a grain of salt.
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Tell the truth
No matter what you do, don’t fabricate anything. Don’t gently rewrite a testimonial to be something it’s not. You’re breaking an implicit trust that future customers have in you — and that’s not the kind of relationship you want to have.
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On your website
How you format your customer testimonials is up to you. We’ve found a few of the following things to be good guidelines, though:
Have a Testimonials page dedicated to nothing but customers singing your praises.
Photos of your testifiers make them much more compelling.
Link back to the original source if it’s online. This lets potential customers make an even more informed assessment, which builds greater trust.
Use a consistent layout to make your testimonials easy to read. You’re asking someone to take the time to read the content — don’t make it harder for them than it has to be.
With all of these tips in mind, once you have a few examples of satisfied customers, you’re ready to go. Always remember that you’re aiming to build credibility and trust with your clients. That kind of earnest, well-earned relationship pays the largest dividends in the long run.
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3. Use strong calls-to-action.
A clear, decisive call-to-action helps you generate sales and capture future customers. The most effective calls-to-action have a clear, explicit purpose; there’s no harm in telling people what you want from them, such as “call us for a quote” or even “order now!”
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4. Include sign-up forms.
Email is an invaluable tool to create loyal customers and increase sales. Stay connected with your customers and potential customers by asking them to sign up to receive your online newsletter.
An email sign-up form helps you re-engage your existing customers, and promote your business to potential customers.
Entice visitors to sign up by offering something of value in return for their email addresses, like exclusive VIP offers, future discounts, or expert advice.
Entice visitors to sign up by offering something of value in return for their email addresses, like exclusive VIP offers, future discounts, or expert advice.
add an email sign up form to your website, and helps you create and send professional looking email campaigns.
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5. Keep information ‘above the fold.’
In web design, the “fold” refers to the bottom of a customer’s window on a web page; for visitors to see anything “below the fold,” they have to scroll down. If the content above the fold isn’t engaging, visitors are much less likely to bother scrolling for more, so make sure your most captivating or valuable content isn’t buried on the bottom of your page.
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6. Invest in images.
Even on the web, pictures are worth a thousand words. The key is to make your visitors feel confident about what they’re buying. If your product photos are too small, or there aren’t enough product views, they might look around for better images and end up purchasing from a competitor. Even if you’re on a tight budget, a few product shots from a professional photographer can pay for themselves many times over.
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7. Make it easy to contact you.
Make sure your visitors know how to get in touch with you. Display your business phone number prominently on your home page or have a dedicated Contact page in your site’s primary navigation. Customers want to know that you’re trustworthy and that there’s a real person behind the website.
Pro tip: Posting your email address online makes it more susceptible to spam, so consider using a contact form as a way for visitors to reach you.
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8. Add customer reviews.
Consumers trust word-of-mouth, so share what satisfied customers have to say about your business. By adding these reviews, you’ll increase their confidence to do business with you. You can start by asking your top customers to write a few short sentences about your products or services.
Better yet, list your company on popular FREE online business listing sites like Yelp. These sites are set up to allow consumers to leave and share reviews. You can integrate some of these directly with your website so they update automatically whenever you get a new review, or you can hand-pick from the ones you want, and add them manually to your site.
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9. Get personal.
Adding an About Us page to a website is more important than most people realize. When a new visitor comes to your site, it’s your chance to create a relationship with them and connect on a more personal level. People want to do business with people they feel they know and trust, so share who you are and your passion for the business.
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Don’t make the About Us page a sales pitch.
Get passionate and get personal. Explain who you are, where you come from and why you started the business. Here you can introduce members of your team and share fun photos of you and your staff.
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10. Make friends with Google.
Your website won’t do you much good if people can’t find it. Search engine optimization (SEO) makes sure that search engines like Google and Yahoo! find your website and rank it high in search results. There are countless articles on SEO and how to identify and use keywords and phrases on your site — plus our free SEO guide for small businesses — as well as some really good tools and services that can do the heavy lifting for you.
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Free Website Planning Worksheet
Now that you’ve got the basic rules for building a website down pat, let’s get started! Simply sign up to download our free Website Planning Worksheet. It’ll guide you through the fundamentals to get your site online.
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