Components Of Your Website You Need (But Might Not Have Thought Of)
Your website is probably the most influential piece of your online presence — sure, your social media pages are a major way that you interact with your customers, but your website is where people go to learn more about what you have to offer. It needs to have all the information people could possibly want to know about you, and it needs to be presented in a way that’s easy to navigate.
You make a great first impression with your homepage as soon as people land on your site. But from there, there are any number of pages people can click their way through to. So the question is: Do you have all the components of your website that you should?
Not every detail will be relevant for every website. Or there might be a variation that’s more relevant for one industry than it is for another. Consider each one and think about how these could improve the information available on your site:
About Us: This is the most common one, and you probably already have some variation of an About Us page on your site. But consider the many ways you can build it out and include more details that are of interest to your potential customers. You might have a little bit of business history on here, as well as some background on you as the founder. There might be short bios of each of your staff members, as well as a vision statement or a roundup of awards and achievements. The overall idea of this part of your site is to establish trust and reliability. You let people know who you are so they are more inclined to choose you over a competitor.
Services: While you might already have your services listed out on another section of your site, consider giving the list its own landing page so it’s easily accessible. It’s up to you whether you want to include prices alongside each service or not — some businesses do it in the interest of transparency, but if your rates are negotiable or if they change based on varying factors, then just say prices are available upon request.
Contact: Have a landing page on your site that is dedicated entirely to how people can get in touch with you — and provide as many means of contact as possible. Not only should you have your phone number and email address but also you should have the street address of your office or physical location. Don’t forget to include operating hours so people have a realistic expectation of when they can get in touch with you. This is also an appropriate place to link to your social media pages.
Testimonials: Your customers say great things about you, so why not dedicate a section of your website to listing all of them? It’s a great way for your web visitors to see that you have many satisfied customers. If you don’t have any testimonials, don’t be afraid to ask for them! Most people are more than happy to carve out five minutes to send something your way.
Media: Words are great, but they aren’t always as interesting to look at as photos and videos. Set up an image gallery where people can scroll through and get a better sense of what you do. Captions are entirely optional if the pictures and videos speak for themselves, but don’t forget to include some alt text so that search engines can pick up on what’s depicted in the media.
Merchandise: Maybe selling brand swag isn’t a primary part of your business, but it never hurts to get your logo and name out there more often. Consider having a section of your website where people can order T-shirts, hats, bumper stickers, or other merchandise with your logo on it.
Blog: Are you blogging? If not, you should! Blogging gives you more content to share to your social media pages and establishes you as a trusted resource in your industry. It’s also great for boosting SEO and web traffic to your site.
FAQs: Web visitors always come with a lot of questions. If there’s no simple place to provide answers elsewhere on your site, consider having a designated place where you can list frequently asked questions and provide answers to them. These could be questions you’re frequently asked in person or via email.
Latest News/Press Releases: If you have a big announcement that you’re putting out there to local news sources, don’t forget that you should also run it on your website. And if you’re featured in a local newspaper, magazine, or website, be sure to embed a link to it.
Now Hiring: Even if you don’t currently have any available positions, it’s always a good idea to solicit resumes from potential future employees. Give a brief description of what kind of background and skills you like to see in your ideal employee, plus what benefits you offer to make your employment competitive.
So now we have to ask — is your website as thorough as it could be? Or do you need to add some additional information based on the ideas you read here?
If you need help improving your website so that it has more of what your visitors want,the team at Ann’s Social Media & Marketing can help. Reach out today by calling 443-679-4916 or emailing ann@asmmdigital.com.