Are you a small business owner wondering if you really need a website? The short answer is yes, you absolutely do. In today's digital age, having a website for business is not just a "nice-to-have" – it's a must-have. No business owner today should ask themselves, “why do I need a website for my business?”
But why, you ask? Well, that's exactly what we're going to explore in this article. We'll dive into the many reasons why you need a website for your business, and we'll provide you with a comprehensive checklist of the 10 must-have features your website should include to ensure success.
Why Your Business Needs a Website
Let's start with the basics. In today's digital world, people turn to the internet for almost everything – from researching products and services to finding local businesses. If your business doesn't have a website, you're essentially invisible to the vast majority of potential customers.
Having a website for business is essential for building credibility and establishing a professional online presence. It allows you to showcase your products or services, share your story, and connect with your customers in a way that simply isn't possible through other marketing channels.
What are the key features your website should include? We've compiled a checklist of the 10 must-have features, which we'll explore in detail throughout this article. From user-friendly navigation to mobile responsiveness, from calls-to-action to search engine optimization, we'll cover all the essential elements you need to create a successful website for your business.
1. User-Friendly Navigation
Now that we've established why your business needs a website, let's talk about how to ensure that website succeeds. The first feature on our checklist is user-friendly navigation.
Clear And Concise Navigation Menu
Having a website for your business means you need to think about how your users will use your website. Your website's navigation menu is like a roadmap for your visitors – it should be clear, concise, and easy to follow. A cluttered or confusing navigation menu can cause frustration and visitors to leave your site.
Image taken from Strikingly
Make sure your navigation menu is organized logically and includes all the important sections of your site. Keep the labels short and sweet – visitors should be able to easily understand what each section is about without having to think too hard.
Consistent Layout And Design
Consistency is key when it comes to website design, especially when you’re building a website for business. Use the same layout and design elements throughout your site to create a cohesive and professional look.
Ensure your branding is consistent across your website – use the same fonts, colors, and imagery as your other marketing materials. This helps reinforce your brand identity and makes your website more memorable.
Easy-to-find contact information
One of the most important elements of your website for business is your contact information. Visitors should be able to easily find out how to contact you if they have questions or want to learn more about your products or services.
Ensure your contact information is prominently displayed on your website – consider including it in your navigation menu or in a footer section on every page. And don't forget to include multiple ways to get in touch, such as a phone number, email address, and contact form.
By following these user-friendly navigation tips, you'll make it easy for visitors to find what they're looking for on your website – and keep them coming back for more. Having a website for your business isn’t as difficult, right?
2. Mobile Responsiveness
In today's world, more and more people are using their mobile devices to browse the internet. That's why your website must be mobile-friendly. In fact, having a mobile-responsive website is so important that it's the next feature on our must-have checklist.
Did you know that over half of all website traffic comes from mobile devices? If your website isn't optimized for mobile, you're potentially missing out on a huge number of visitors and customers.
Not only that, but Google also prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in their search rankings. If your website for business isn't mobile-responsive, you could also miss out on valuable search engine traffic.
Tips For Optimizing A Website For Mobile Devices
To ensure your website is mobile-friendly, you should keep a few key things in mind. First and foremost, ensure your website's design is responsive – that means it automatically adjusts to fit the size of the device it's being viewed on.
Other tips include simplifying your website's design and content to make it easier to read on a smaller screen, using larger fonts and buttons for easy navigation, and optimizing your images to load quickly on mobile devices.
Luckily, creating a mobile-responsive website doesn't have to be difficult. Platforms like Strikingly make it easy to create a website that looks great on both desktop and mobile devices.
With Strikingly's responsive design templates, your website will automatically adjust to fit any screen size. Plus, their drag-and-drop website builder makes it easy to create a mobile-friendly website without any coding knowledge.
By making sure your website is mobile-responsive, you'll be able to reach a wider audience and provide a better user experience for your visitors – and with Strikingly, it's easier than ever to create a website that looks great on any device.
3. About Us Page
An About Us page may not seem like the most exciting part of your website, but it's a crucial element for small businesses. In fact, it's the next item on our must-have checklist. Your About Us page is a chance to tell your business's story and connect with your visitors personally. It's an opportunity to showcase your brand's personality, values, and unique selling proposition.
Image taken from Strikingly
When done well, an About Us page can help build trust and credibility with potential customers. It's also a chance to differentiate yourself from competitors and stand out in a crowded market.
Key Elements To Include On An About Us Page
What should you include on your About Us page? Here are a few key elements to consider:
- Your brand's story - How did your business get started? What inspired you to start this venture?
- Your mission and values - What does your business stand for? What are your core values?
- Your team - Introduce your team members and highlight their skills and experience.
- Testimonials or social proof - Include customer testimonials or social proof to build credibility.
- Call-to-action - Encourage visitors to act, whether contacting you or making a purchase.
By creating a compelling About Us page with Strikingly, you'll be able to connect with your visitors and build trust with potential customers.
4. Product/Service Pages
Your product or service pages are where the magic happens. It's where you showcase what you have to offer and convince potential customers to take action. It's no surprise that this is a must-have feature for any small business website.
How To Showcase Products Or Services Effectively
When it comes to showcasing your products or services on your website for business, you want to make sure that you're highlighting the benefits and features that matter most to your customers. This means focusing on things like:
- What problem does your product/service solve?
- What makes it unique?
- How will it improve your customer's life or business?
You'll also want to include high-quality images and videos showcasing your product/service. This can help give visitors a better sense of what they're getting and increase the likelihood of a purchase.
Tips For Creating Compelling Product/Service Descriptions
Writing product or service descriptions that are both informative and compelling can be a challenge. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
- Focus on benefits, not just features - Instead of just listing the features of your product/service, highlight the benefits to the customer.
- Use storytelling - Use storytelling to help visitors connect with your product/service on an emotional level.
- Keep it simple - Avoid using technical jargon or language that could confuse visitors.
With Strikingly, you'll have plenty of customization options to help showcase your products or services effectively. For example, you can:
- Create custom product pages - Use Strikingly's drag-and-drop editor to create custom product pages that showcase your products or services.
- Add high-quality images and videos - Strikingly makes adding images and videos that showcase your product/service in action easy.
- Enable online payments - With Strikingly's e-commerce features, you can easily enable online payments and start selling your products/services directly from your website.
By creating compelling product/service pages with Strikingly, you'll be able to showcase what you have to offer and convince potential customers to take action.
5. Testimonials and Reviews
As a small business owner, building trust with potential customers is essential for success. One way to achieve this is by showcasing testimonials and reviews on your website. Customer feedback can significantly impact your business's success. Positive reviews and testimonials can help establish your brand's credibility, improve your online reputation, and ultimately drive sales.
Best Practices For Displaying Testimonials And Reviews
To ensure you get the most out of your customer feedback, consider implementing these best practices:
- Use real names and photos
Adding real names and photos to testimonials and reviews can make them more authentic and trustworthy. It also adds a personal touch to the feedback and makes it easier for potential customers to connect with previous customers.
- Showcase a variety of experiences
While it's tempting to only display glowing reviews, showcasing a range of feedback can demonstrate that you value all customer feedback, whether positive or constructive criticism. It shows potential customers that you're committed to listening to your customers and making improvements.
- Make it easy to find
Ensure your testimonials and reviews are easy to find on your website. Consider displaying them on your homepage or in a dedicated section. Making it easy for customers to access feedback can help establish trust with potential customers.
Strikingly offers customizable templates that make it easy to showcase customer feedback on your website. Whether you want to include written testimonials or video reviews, Strikingly has a template to suit your needs. You can quickly and easily customize these templates to match your brand and attract potential customers.
Don't underestimate the power of customer feedback. Including testimonials and reviews on your website can help establish trust with potential customers and ultimately drive sales.
6. Calls-to-Action
As a small business owner, you want your website for business visitors to take action, whether it's making a purchase, booking a service, or subscribing to a newsletter. Calls-to-action (CTAs) are essential for guiding visitors towards the desired action and converting them into customers.
CTAs are important because they prompt visitors to take action, which is the primary goal of your website. Without CTAs, visitors may leave your site without taking any action, resulting in lost opportunities and revenue.
Image taken from Strikingly
Best Practices For Creating Effective Calls-To-Action
To create effective CTAs, make sure they are clear, concise, and prominent. Use action-oriented language, such as "Buy Now," "Subscribe Today," or "Book Your Appointment." Place CTAs in prominent locations on your website, such as the top of the homepage, the end of blog posts, or on product pages.
7. Contact Forms
Incorporating a contact form into your small business website is a simple and effective way to improve communication between you and your customers. Here are some of the benefits of having a contact form on your website:
- It's convenient for customers. A contact form makes it easy for customers to get in touch with you without having to navigate through different pages of your website.
- It reduces spam. By using a contact form, you can reduce the amount of spam emails you receive.
- It helps you collect important information. A contact form can be used to gather information from customers such as their name, email, and phone number.
Image taken from Strikingly
Tips For Designing An Effective Contact Form
When designing a contact form for your website, keep these tips in mind:
- Keep it simple - A cluttered contact form can be overwhelming for customers. Stick to the essential fields such as name, email, and message.
- Make it visually appealing - Use contrasting colors and clear font to make your contact form easy to read.
- Add a call-to-action - Encourage customers to submit their information by adding a call-to-action button such as "Send Message" or "Get in Touch".
With Strikingly's contact form feature, you can customize your contact form to match your website's design and branding. You can add or remove fields, choose different field types (such as dropdown menus or checkboxes), and even set up email notifications so you never miss a message from a potential customer.
8. Blog
You have a small business, and you've heard all the buzz about having a blog, but you're still not sure if it's worth the effort. Well, let me tell you, friend, it is! Here's why:
A blog can help you establish yourself as an expert in your industry and build trust with potential customers. It's also a great way to drive traffic to your website and improve your search engine rankings. Plus, a well-written blog can be a valuable resource for your customers and help you stay top of mind.
Best Practices To Create A Blog
To create a successful blog, it's important to focus on quality over quantity. That means publishing well-written, engaging content that provides value to your readers. It's also important to be consistent with your publishing schedule and promote your blog on social media and other channels.
With Strikingly's blogging feature, you can easily create and publish blog posts directly on your website. Our templates are designed to showcase your content in a visually appealing way, and our built-in SEO tools make it easy to optimize your posts for search engines. Plus, our social sharing options make it easy to promote your blog on social media and other channels.
9. Social Media Integration
When it comes to running a small business, social media can be a game-changer. It provides a platform for businesses to connect with their customers and showcase their products and services. That's why social media integration is crucial for any small business website.
Social media can help small businesses to reach new audiences, engage with customers, and build brand awareness. By creating a strong presence on social media platforms, small businesses can establish themselves as leaders in their industry and increase their customer base.
Best Practices For Integrating Social Media Into A Website
Integrating social media into a website for business involves adding social media buttons and feeds to a website. It's important to choose the right platforms for your business and ensure that your social media handles are visible and clickable. It's also important to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly, as many people access social media through their mobile devices.
Strikingly makes it easy for small businesses to add social media buttons and feeds to their website. With Strikingly's social media integration feature, users can quickly and easily connect their website to their social media accounts. Strikingly also offers customizable social media buttons that can be placed anywhere on a website. This makes it easy for customers to follow and engage with businesses on social media.
10. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important aspects of building a website for business. Why? Because it's what helps your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), which in turn drives more traffic to your site. And as we all know, more traffic means more potential customers.
Best Practices For Optimizing A Website For Search Engines
To optimize your website for search engines, there are a few best practices you should follow.
First, make sure your website is well-structured and easy to navigate. This means organizing your content into categories and subcategories, and making sure your website's menu is easy to use. You should also make sure your website's pages are properly tagged with keywords and meta descriptions.
Another important aspect of SEO is creating high-quality content. Your content should be informative, engaging, and relevant to your target audience. This not only helps improve your search engine rankings but also helps establish your business as a trusted authority in your industry.
Strikingly offers a variety of SEO features that can help small businesses improve their online visibility. For example, Strikingly's SEO checklist helps ensure your website is optimized for search engines by providing step-by-step guidance on things like page titles, meta descriptions, and alt text. Strikingly also automatically generates sitemaps, which help search engines crawl and index your website more efficiently.
In addition, Strikingly's built-in analytics tools allow you to track your website's traffic and performance, so you can see which pages are performing well and which ones need improvement. This information can help you make data-driven decisions about how to optimize your website for better search engine rankings.
By following SEO best practices and taking advantage of Strikingly's SEO features, you can improve your website's visibility and attract more potential customers to your business.
Conclusion
Image taken from Strikingly
To sum up, a website for business is essential for any small business looking to establish a strong online presence. By using Strikingly's user-friendly platform, businesses can easily create a website that showcases their brand, products, and services. Here are the 10 must-have features for a successful small business website:
- Clear and concise navigation
- A visually appealing design
- Mobile responsiveness
- High-quality images and media
- Easy-to-find contact information
- Product/service pages with effective descriptions
- Testimonials and reviews
- Calls-to-action
- Contact forms
- Blog and social media integration
Creating a successful small business website doesn't have to be a daunting task. With Strikingly's intuitive platform, businesses can easily create a professional-looking website that attracts and engages customers. By incorporating the 10 must-have features mentioned above, businesses can ensure that their website stands out from the competition and helps them achieve their online goals.
Stop asking yourself, “do I need a website for my business?” You do. You need a website for your business.
Why wait? Sign up for Strikingly today and take the first step towards building a strong online presence for your small business!
