1. Design
Brilliant, award-winning design is not the most important thing in a website, but if you fall below a certain standard of design quality, your potential viewers won’t take you seriously, people will assume you’re unprofessional.
A well-designed website instantly communicates that you are big, stable and successful, and that you care about quality. Good design doesn’t cost a lot – it just requires dealing with a designer who knows what they are doing.
2. Content
Give your potential viewers the information they want and need. That requires knowing your viewer. Find out what are the essential things your viewers need to know.
Your home page should establish, right away, who you are, what business you are in, what products or services you provide, and what sets you apart from your competitors. Anyone should be able to glance at your home page and understand all of these things right away. There should be no question as to what you do and the benefit you provide.
And keep the text viewer oriented. Talk about their problems, their needs, their concerns, and how you solve them. Forget that company mission statement or the glowing letter from the president. They don’t care. They want to know what can you do for me?
Have reasons for viewers to return to your site. Offer such things as product information, specifications and operating manuals, professional tips, recipes, and tutorials. Keep this content ungated (doesn’t require registration). Convert your PDF files to web pages and make the PDF available as a free download at the bottom of the web page. Give your viewers and potential viewers lots of reasons to return to your site again and again.
Photographs and videos are a great way to show your products and demonstrate them in action.
3. Navigation
You may have many different types of viewers that you serve. Effectively directing the viewer and channeling them to what they need is vital. Before you start or re-do your website, work out your navigation in advance. Viewers should be able to glance at your home page and see exactly where they need to go.
Consider making your catalog available as part of the website itself, so customers can search it online.
4. Make sure people can find you
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a big subject. Ideally, you should have an SEO specialist work over your site and make sure that search engines can find it. But even if you can’t afford that right now, there are some simple things you can do to make your site visible.
One of the most common mistakes is to embed key text and information in graphics or Flash animation. Search engines cannot read text that is embedded into pictures. You can test this by attempting to select and copy the text on a website. If you can’t select and copy the text, then search engines can’t read it.
Include in your informational text key words that people normally use when searching for a product or service. Use the most obvious ones, and any common variations.
Take the time to learn and use title, description and keyword metatags. Or hire someone to handle these SEO basics for you.
5. Keep it timely
There is nothing worse than an out-of-date website to communicate to your viewers that you don’t care. Outdated contents detract from your image as an efficient company that will provide great service. Make sure your website has a user-friendly content management system so you can update frequently and easily.
6. Capture and care for viewer leads
Provide reasons for them to contact you and give you their name and e-mail. Include contact forms. Offer a newsletter and tips. Include "calls to action" or "live chat".
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