We get asked the simple question all the time from our clients – what should I include on my business website? Most website designers view it as a simple checklist and copy and paste the format across all of their client projects.
At Norba Design, we focus on what makes sense for your business and what’s going to get your business results. What statistics, information, or story can you place on your website that is going to build trust for a stranger that happens to stumble onto your website?
Here’s how we think about the structure of a website, feel free to use this to compare to your current business site to see if you meet all of the following criteria:
Opening Section – This is what’s above the fold on your homepage. The main goal here is to clearly show your website visitors what it is that you do. You’d be surprised how many people just place a scenic picture and give no context of what their business actually does. In addition to this, you should have a clear call to action. The call to action is different for each site though. For an e-commerce site, you may want someone to view your products. If you own a financial services firm, you want the call to action to lead to a section about your competitive advantage to build trust and then have the viewer reach out after they’ve been educated further.
What Makes Your Business Different – Adding in a generic paragraph about your business isn’t going to cut it. Using the example again of financial services, most businesses have a catchy tagline with no meaning behind it. You only have a few seconds to grab your viewer’s attention to clearly show why you’re different. One strategy that we’ve used successfully for our clients is to show a quick section about statistics. It could be client satisfaction %, assets under management to show your expertise, years’ experience, etc. Simply put, it easily grabs the attention and shows what makes you superior to your competitors.
Educate the Client on What You Do – If the opening section is just a brief intro to what your business does, you will need a section to further expand on this and clearly show your website visitors what products/services that you provide. This section is aimed at the interested prospects who dig deeper than the average website viewer. Let’s say you run an e-commerce site; this is where you highlight not only the features of your products but also the benefits. What problem does each product specifically solve? How will it make the consumer’s life easier, more entertaining, etc.?
Encouraging Website Visitors Engagement – We’ve already gone over the key of having a clear call to action in the opening section of the website. However, one frequently overlooked item to a website structure is the lack of call to actions. Each page should have at least one specific section that clearly shows your visitors how they can get in contact with you / your team. This could be leading them to a contact form, a phone number, a messaging software built into the website, etc.
Try thinking about your website with the previously mentioned guidelines instead of the typical homepage, about, services, and contact page. This format is designed to turn your website into an online sales system. That way when someone lands on your website, it’s clear what makes your business different, they can educate themselves further on your products/services, and then easily reach out to you.
If you have any questions at all about your current website and would like a free website audit, please feel free to contact us at [email protected]
