Written by a Collaborator
Nowadays, a website is essential for any small business’ success. You just have to have a website if you want to experience as many sales as possible and high levels of success. At the end of the day, we’re living in a technological age and people are living their lives online a lot more. We work from our laptops. We socialise through our smartphones. We get most of our information online. Perhaps most importantly for your business? We spend our money online. There are plenty of reasons for this. The main reasons that people seem to like to shop online right now tend to be convenience, ease and variety. When you set up online, people can browse your stock at any given time and can make purchases at any given time – in the middle of the night, on weekends, on bank holidays. This maximises the amount of sales you’ll make. They can also shop with you regardless of their location, as long as you offer international shipping. People from around the world can tap into your brand and you never know where your biggest market may lie. So, if you don’t have a website yet, it’s about time you set one up. Let’s go through some more of the details below!
Why Focus On Your Website?
Of course, we’ve outlined why you should have a website above. However, it’s important that you prioritise and focus on your website rather than simply setting one up. At the end of the day, you need a high quality website. Running an online store takes a whole lot of effort if you want it to be as successful as possible. It takes a completely different set of skills to setting up and running a traditional brick and mortar store. Your customers can’t come into your store and look at your products in real life. They can’t touch them. They can’t try them out or (if you’re specialising in clothing) try them on. So, you need to make sure that your site can give them all of the details they need to feel confident in making a purchase. Remember, this is the only source of information your customers will have. On top of this, you need to make sure that you can actually get people onto your site and encourage them to stay on your site. There are so many different sites online and you need to put effort in to make sure your competitors don’t secure sales before you do. This means focusing on design and development.
Secure a Domain
So, let’s start focusing on the steps you need to take to secure a high quality website. The first step that you need to take is to secure a domain name. This is the website address that you will have. While there are free platforms out there, they’ll generally include their brand name in the site URL, so it comes across as much more professional. Sure, you’ll have to pay for a domain name, but it’s generally not all too expensive and is more than worth the investment.
Collaborate with Web Designers, Developers and UX Designers
Next, you need to find yourself a competent and reputed specialist in Web Design and web developer. These professionals will ensure you have a site that works well and looks great. Aesthetics and functionality are essential for a great site. Studies have shown that people tend to decide within a matter of seconds whether they’re going to stay on a site or click the exit tab. You need people to stay in order to get them to look around and make purchases. You need the site to work so they don’t get frustrated and leave. Your web designer and web developer will help you to achieve this seamlessly! Just make sure to give them the information they need and to stay in touch throughout the process. Ideas to highlight include your branded colours, your logo, your branded fonts and different pages you’ll want included on your site, including product pages, an about page, a contact page and additional features such as a mailing list sign up. As well as this, you need to focus on user experience for people landing on your page. User experience or “UX” is essentially the process of ensuring customers can use and navigate your site easily and in a straightforward manner. A UX designer will ensure that customers can find any products or information that they’re looking for. Clever design can also encourage customers to direct their attention where you want them to. All of these different factors can work together to make your site as good as it can be!
Product Photography
Another area that you need to really place importance on is product photography. When it comes down to it, product photographs will allow your business to show its products in the best light, giving different angles, showing products being used, lifestyle shots, ingredient or materials labels shots and more. So many small business owners, especially those with a small budget often attempt to take product photographs themselves. If this is your only option, you can rest assured that smartphone cameras are constantly improving and you can get some good quality pictures. But if you do have the budget to invest in professional product photography, this will be a whole lot better. An experienced and specialist product photographer will have much better quality equipment, years of knowledge and training and the creative flair that will produce images that can see a spike in product sales.
Website Copy
You may not be familiar with the term “copy”. Copy is another word for saying words, so website copy is any written content on your page. This is so important and much more important than just page titles. It spreads to product descriptions, important information such as shipping options and details explained, as well as further content, such as your website’s blogs, social media and more. If you want high quality words that employ psychological elements that can encourage customers to purchase products or become loyal to your brand, you need to have the right words. This involves using the services of a professional copywriter with a great portfolio.
SEO
Now, it’s all good and well having a high quality website ready and waiting to go. But you also need to focus on getting people onto your site in the first place. To achieve this, you’re going to have to join the majority by focusing on and investing in SEO. SEO stands for search engine optimisation and is the process of getting your website to rank top of search engine results. Now, you may be wondering how this benefits your business. Well, when customers shop online, they will often search for key terms in a search engine. If they search for terms that apply to products that you are providing, you want to be top of results so that you’re the first website that they click. This will give you a better chance of getting the sale before one of your competitors does.
Of course, there are many more areas of your site that you need to focus on. But these are the bare basics that will help to get the ball rolling in the right direction. Implement the steps into your process and you should see sales start coming in!
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