8 Features Every Small-Business Website Must Have

In today’s competitive marketplace, having a business website is just as important as having a phone number.

That’s because, with a website, customers can access you easily, you can provide detailed information about your products and services in a convenient manner, and if optimized for SEO, a website can help attract numerous potential customers EVERY DAY, hence becoming a source of constant leads, higher sales, and boosted revenue.

But are all the websites this effective?

The answer is, no.

Although almost every business, big or small, has a website that they think would positively impact their sales, not every business website delivers the desired results.

And according to some recent stats, 57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business that doesn’t have a good website. Now, that’s a huge number of customers you’d be losing if you don’t have the perfect web presence.

What are the criteria of a perfect business website?

Well, for starters, it needs to be generally appealing, must include all the important information regarding your business, services, and products, and should be easy-to-navigate through for your visitors.

Apart from this, we’ve listed down some important features that all small-business websites MUST have. Read on to learn more!

What Increases the Efficiency of a Business Website?

Business websites are like a company’s sales agent – they help attract new customers, get more leads, and if powered with the right design elements, they can convert visitors into buyers.

However, planning a new website design is never too easy. The process involves hours of contemplation, consideration, and expert opinions to create a masterpiece that you won’t be embarrassed to show your clients.

Although there’s never a one-size-fits-all solution for websites, since each business has its own different requirements, there are certain basic functions, design elements, and content sections that every business website must have.

Here’s the list:

Information Related to Your Business
Clear Contact Information
Easy-to-Navigate Design
CTAs Everywhere
Professional Coding
Unique, High-Quality Content
Customer Reviews and Testimonials
SEO Strategy

1. Information Related to Your Business

If you own a small, localized business, most of your potential customers may not already know you. Start with these four W’s to introduce your business:

Who are you?

Tell your customers all about your business; how and when you started it, the amount of experience you have, your aims, objectives, and mission statement, introduce the team behind all the work, and add basically everything that your customers would be interested in knowing or should know about you.

What are you willing to offer?

Anyone who’s learning about your business for the first time needs to know the kind of services or goods you offer, how your products can help them in their daily life, and why should they buy from you.

To persuade your prospects, try adding in come traits that set you apart and make you a better choice than your competitors.

Where can people buy your products or/and services?

Once you’ve told them what you’re providing, it’s time to help them understand how and where can they avail your services.

For instance, if you own a local pizza place and don’t sell products online, add in your address and contact info for delivery.

On the other hand, if you do provide services online, guide your visitors by adding in CTAs such as “Buy Now”, “Add to Cart”, etc.

When and how can your customers contact you?

If you have a physical store, ensure that your complete address as well as store hours are posted on your website. In case of an online store, let your customers know how to order and when your customer service is available.

2. Clear Contact Information

Once visitors get an idea of what your business is about, make it easier for them to get in touch.

All your contact information must be highly visible on every single page of the website.

You can also include a form on your site for those who may have questions. In case a potential customer contacts you via email, always get back to them in a way they expected, and try persuading, but not pushing them into buying from you.

A Frequently Asked Questions or (FAQs) section can also help your prospects in easily finding the answers they’re looking for without having to email or call you.

Afterall, losing a customer to the competition just because they weren’t able to contact you is the last thing you’d want.

3. Easy-to-Navigate Design

When a visitor gets to your website, it takes about 0.05 seconds for them to form an opinion and decide whether they want to stay on your site or leave. During this short time period, if the user can’t understand your web design or finds it difficult to navigate through the site, they’re likely to leave immediately and move to the next site they find in the search results.

How to fix this?

The best way to make your visitors stay is by improving your site’s design and ensuring that it’s clear, engaging, and easily navigable.

Being too enigmatic about things can turn-off your visitors and push them to the sites of your competitors.

4. CTAs Everywhere

While you’re working on the navigation strategy, consider adding in CTAs too. This seems simple, but as much as 70% of small businesses miss out on it.

Why are CTAs so important for your site?

They guide users through their buying decision process, and may even help convince them to make a purchase.

Some good CTAs are:

“Request a Demo”
“Schedule a Consultation”
“Get in Touch”

In case you have an offer going on, then be sure to add CTAs such as:

“Avail 50% off”
“Get Free SEO Audit”

Another thing to remember while adding CTAs is that they should be clearly visible and the user must see them within 3 or less seconds of being on your webpage.

5. Professional Coding

A lot of small business owners often create their own websites with the help of free tools. While it may seem more budget-friendly, there’s a risk that your website may not be perfectly put-together.

For instance, the contact form may not actually redirect to you, your videos and images might not load properly, etc.

If you know how to do this stuff, that’s great too, but having a team of experienced developers do it would ensure that there’re no issues whatsoever.

6. Unique, High-Quality Content

If you think that any content would work as long as it fills up your web pages, think again.

Your website needs to have content that’s unique, original, and creative so that your customers would be interested in reading it. Also, the content must be easily perceivable and include important business information that your customers would be interested in knowing.

If you’re writing the content by yourself, make sure there’re no syntax or grammatical errors, and use powerful words to attract readers’ attention. However, it’s better to hire professional content writers who can create SEO optimized content that’s innovative, original, and infused with catchy phrases.

According to a survey conducted by Social Media Examiners, 58% of marketers think authentic written content is the most important content type in terms of digital marketing and SEO. Which means, if you don’t have the time or capacity to create graphic content, you can still succeed in generating more leads by focusing on written content.

7. Customer Reviews and Testimonials

Do you own a small business and want to build the trust of your new customers? Have a look at these stats first:

Customer testimonials can help build your site’s credibility and convince potential customers to trust your services.

What’s the best way to share your track record with visitors?

Add customer testimonials on your homepage or create a “Our Clients” page that includes all your case studies and positive reviews from previous customers.

When doing so, remember that real endorsements can be quite effective in building your business’ reputation as compared to anonymous reviews.

8. SEO Strategy

Want your prospective customers to find you when searching for the kind of products/services that you provide?

Get your site optimized for SEO!

An SEO optimized site would rank higher in Google’s search result pages. Hence, it would attract more customers, generate more leads, and help make more sales.

Also, considering the fact that 75% of people don’t scroll past the first page of Google’s SERPs, if your site isn’t optimized for SEO, you’re losing a huge number of customers to competition EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

You can either optimize your site yourself, or hire a team of certified SEO experts who can develop accurate strategies and deliver faster results.

All in all, when getting your business website developed, be sure to hire the best web development agency out there, because your site would be your company’s digital face, and it better be designed to attract customers, not to repel them.

If you already have a website but it’s not performing well, review the design and check if it includes the features stated above. You can also get your website redesigned by experts or optimized for SEO in order to increase its productivity.

By VROX Content Team - 07 Sep 2020