In this age of online shopping, online gaming, Facebook, Twitter and the host of other ways we interact on the internet, if you have a business, a website is a no brainer.

Why do I need a website?

The main reason is so that your business is showing up where your potential customers are….i.e. online! If someone is searching the internet for something that you sell, at some point they will come across your website. A website is like your shop front…but it is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It sells your products or services even when you’re asleep, on holiday or otherwise engaged. So you could be missing out on potential business if you don’t have one. And with loads of different website-building platforms to choose from, that have online tutorials and community based support, it’s a fairly easy process.

Other reasons to have a website include…

• Your customers expect you to have one. People are generally inpatient these days and want instant access to information about what they want to buy.
• 90% of consumers say that online reviews influence whether they buy a product or not. If you have a website, you can share positive customer reviews of what you sell.
• If you include a blog on your website, it will help you get your business messages across to your audience and shows a bit of your personality. It also gets information instantly in front of your audience, so faster than a printed ad or emailing brochures. Plus, you can put links to your social media sites.
• You don’t need to be an expert in coding as so many website-building platforms offer tutorials and support.
• Your competitors have websites…people use the internet to search for reviews and products they want to buy. If you’re not online, that business opportunity has gone.
• With a website, you are never ‘closed’, people can find you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you combine your website with a blog or newsletter, your customers can see when you have special offers and new products.
• A website showcases your products and services – you can use fabulous images, downloadable PDFs to help your customers and video tutorials about your products. This can give customers no reason to go elsewhere.

On average, people spend 4-5 hours a day on a device attached to the internet and 97% of consumers go online to research and find local businesses. There are over 3.5 billion google searches done each day.

You might think your business is too small to have a website or that you can’t afford to have one, but with the many self-hosting sites around these days, you can easily do a basic site for yourself. But to really stand out, it is a good idea to pay someone to do it for you. And it doesn’t have to cost a fortune…and is well worth budgeting for. The price of having a website is much better than it could cost you by being left behind in technology.

What is a domain name?

A domain name is the web address of your website – the name that users will type in to get to your website and how search engines find it.

It’s very important to first of all choose the right domain name for your website because you will hopefully have it for a long time and it becomes part of your branding. You might want to have a domain that is your name.

I use my name, along with what I do www.cindyfreelancewriter.com for my main website. I use just my name for my blog www.cindymobey.blog

It’s best to keep them as simple as possible; keep it short and easy to remember, avoid dashes and use a dot com whenever possible. There are loads of places you can buy a domain name – GoDaddy is popular, but I used WordPress, as my hosting site was going to be WordPress.

Host sites

There are several sites to choose from – my personal preference is WordPress, but I have used Wix, GoDaddy and Weebly, when helping others with their websites. Usually, if you go for a paid website plan, (which can be as little as a few Euros a month), you get a domain name included.

What pages should I have on my website?

Once you have your domain and host site, you’re ready to start building your website. Here are some tips you may wish to consider…

When people go onto a website, it needs to be easy on the eye and most importantly, easy to navigate. So, a clearly labelled toolbar is essential and information should be clear and straight forward – people don’t want to guess what you do, or have to work hard to find the products or services they want. You have a few seconds to make and impact, so it’s important to do just that. If they can’t find what they want on your site, they can click away and choose someone else.

It’s important for a website to be friendly to all devices and most hosting sites let you see what your website will look like on a mobile or tablet device, so that helps!

For a basic website, I would advise including…

Homepage – This is the first page that people will see when they land on your website, so it needs to have maximum impact. Create a good design that entices customers in, so they want to explore the rest of your site. It needs to provide basic information,  so say who you are, what your company does and what you can do for your customers – what do you offer them? Also, where you are located – include a google map if you can to make it easier to find you, especially if you have premises. If you like doing videos, you could include a video explaining what you do and how you can help your customers.

Contact page – Your customers will want to know how to contact you, so this needs to be prominent and clear. If you have Social Media pages, make sure that this information is up to date and consistent across all platforms. Information to include are your name, address (or area you are in), your email address, telephone number and the hours you are open for business. You can also include a link via google maps to your location and include links to your Social Media pages.

Products or Services – This is where you can give information about your products or services. Write a sentence or two about each product and give prices if you can, with images if possible. People shopping online need to know prices at a glance, they don’t want to find what they want, then have to send an email to find out how much it is – it’s easier for them to just google another company who does show prices.

About me/us – As it says on the tin, a little bit about yourself; if you have relevant qualifications, you can include them here and if you are a member of a professional body. The key here is not to waffle on about irrelevant information – it is good to add a photo of yourself, so people know who they are dealing with and you can also show your personality here by giving a little bit of personal information…just be careful not to get carried away!

Testimonials – People buying on the internet like to know what other customers think of your products or services, so including a testimonials page is a good idea. Some people include testimonials on the ‘About us’ page, but I prefer to have a separate page as it’s labelled so making it easier to find. But of course, it’s a personal preference.

Blog – if you write a blog, or are thinking of writing a blog, then include it on your website so people can learn more about what you have to say. A blog can help set you up as an expert in your field, as well as help you connect with your customers.

Please note: Wherever you can, on all pages, use good quality images. Put a good, clear photo of yourself and of your products. They always say that ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ and that’s certainly true to keep your audience’s attention.

Call to action

A call to action (CTA) is the opportunity for you to motivate your audience to engage with your brand and takes real steps towards becoming a customers. It might just be a ‘Buy now’ or ‘Find out more’ button. But it entices the customer to do something before they leave your website. You could use a button to point customers to subscribing to a newsletter, by offering a free PDF or tutorial if they sign up.

A CTA give direction to and creates a better user experience for your audience. It’s guiding them to the next step and customers expect them. If they’ve read about your business, like your products, they need to have easy access to what comes next. CTA buttons make it easy for your customers to buy from you, contact you… so giving them what they want!

Search Engine Optimization

Search engines, such as Google, are what brings traffic to your website, so you need to ‘optimize’ your site. It’s important to add keywords or phrases in your headings, text, URL and Meta descriptions. For more information on SEO, click here.

Look and feel of your website

It’s important to give some thought into what you want your website to look like. Before you design your site, look online at other people in the same field as you to get an idea of what your competitors do…you can then get an idea of what you’d like your site to look like. If you have a logo, the colours, font and style of your logo will determine the design of your website, so that everything is consistent.

Once you know what colours and fonts you want, you can think about how you want it to look. If you have an idea from another site you’ve seen, then you can work from that. When I design a site, I like to draw what a site will look like with notes on colour, font and what features need to be included on each page.

Don’t make your site too busy as people won’t know where to look first – the old ‘less is more’ is good here!

The most important thing is to enjoy setting up your website and playing around with all the features until you get what you want. The good thing about having a website is, that once is it all set up, it’s easy to change it as time goes on and your business evolves. You can add more pages, change colour, font or whatever you want. So, don’t delay, get going now, it’s not as scary as you think!