Features of Small Business Web Sites
It is not at all true to say that every business web site has the same needs. In fact, business web sites are very different from each other. Because businesses are not all alike, the web sites will neither function nor be organized in the same manner. Directly proportional to a company's business size are the features and organization of its web site. For example, consider Fortune 500 companies and small businesses and then consider their website's needs. They are not nearly the same, are they?If you are a small business owner, most of the appropriate features that your web site requires and that the Attention Interactive Los Angeles Web Design And Development Agency would like to share with you are:
- The strong appeal of a professional-looking web site. If your company is young and your company's name doesn't sound familiar, the most important thing is to make a great first impression on your web site visitors by having a professionally designed web site. You can be sure that your visitors will judge your business by the level of professionalism incorporated into its web site design. Just consider the fact that there are only a few ways for your web site's visitors to know whether you business is a amateurish, a fraud or legitimate. Therefore, that first impression is very important, as you might not get a chance for a second one. Also, the impression that your web site makes on the visitors lasts only a few seconds. That is why you should choose a professional web site design team like the one at Attention Interactive Los Angeles Web Design And Development Agency. To read more about this, follow this link.
- Great organization and structure. Whether your business is a small one or a large one, you need well-organized and well-structured web site navigation. Your web site's navigation should be simple to use and follow, the same on every page and user-friendly. A sitemap is also a very useful, popular and great way of improving the usability of a web site, and it also reveals the organization of your web site pages and features. As a small business owner, make sure you display your main product and services on your home page. Using product and service categories for display on a home page is also a good design idea. Related to this, many of studies suggest that more than 60% of visitors leave a web site after looking at home page. That's why the best practice is to clearly show on the home page what it is that your web site has to offer to the visitors.
- A well-defined Frequently Asked Questions, or FAQ. The most time-saving page can be a FAQ page. If you already have a web site without a FAQ section, you have surely noticed that significant time is wasted on answering the same questions from your web site's visitors over and over again. The procedure would be as follows: Collect these questions and make detailed answers, organize them into a FAQ page and make a link to the page on a main navigation menu. After a short time period, you will notice that you reduced the amount of time spent on repetitious communications between your staff and your web site’s visitors. That is beneficial for both parties.
- A simple and usable contact page added to the main navigation menu. On the contact page, commonly titled the "Contact Us" page, make sure you add your contact information for your visitors, so that they can reach your offices, either via phone, mailing address, fax, or online contact form. Also, always display real-world contact information (like a phone and street address) because it is one more step in building trust in the online environment.
- Interactivity with visitors and implicitly or explicitly expressed demand for action from them. Ask yourself several questions. What is it that you want your visitors to do when they first visit your site? Would it be to place an order for products or services? Whatever the answer to those questions might be, incorporate that message throughout your web site, paying attention to specific actions that can be related to some pages. Also, invite visitors to take action by clearly stating what is the next thing that they can do. For all the features your web site's visitors might take an action with, make sure it is easy for them to use and test it well so they do not run into any kind of problem. For example, if you would like to direct your visitors to place an order for either products or services, or both, make sure that the process of ordering goes smoothly. Also, there are people that do not like leaving credit card information online. For them, and for any other questions, make sure you provide telephone support. A live chat feature is also very useful for fast customer support.
- Directions to your company's physical location. Directions should be easy-to-follow if you have offices at some physical location. This is where a Google Map, or just a printable map, is extremely useful, so that visitors can have an easy way to find your offices.
- A blog would be very attractive and would make your web site more personal and easier to work with. A blog that you would add to your web site also offers various valuable pieces of information that visitors usually find very useful. Blogs are also easier to update than the web sites.
