The 8 Golden Rules for your Business Website

If your business  has a website, it should  accurately represent the business that owns it.

A Website  can say more about your brand than you realise. There are many different elements it needs to be effective, like a great design and unique, quality content to name just a few. But what are the most important elements that you simply shouldn’t launch a site without?  Read on and you will find out.

1. . User Friendly, Logical NavigationThe amount of sites that get this wrong is truly astonishing  If your navigation isn’t user friendly/logical, you can’t expect a visitor to stay on your site for too long. Chances are they’re going to get annoyed when they can’t find their way around, and go straight over to one of your competitor’s sites! You don’t want that, do you?
2. A Compelling “About us” PageThe ‘about us’ page needs to be compelling for the visitor. In other words make sure you know your target audience. You need to show who you really are rather than just spout off facts; share your company values, include pictures, tell people how you can help them, give examples of how you’ve helped others, and lastly, inject some personality into it show them you are real!
3. Easy to Access Contact InformationIf your contact information is hidden deep within the content of your site, you can’t expect many enquiries, or any feedback. Somebody may even have the intention of contacting you with a fantastic business opportunity, and you could miss out all because you haven’t made your contact information easy to find.
4. A Mobile Friendly DesignGoogle introduced new ranking rules in Aril 20105 to list the mobile responsiveness of a website among the ranking criteria. Browsing on mobile devices such as phones and tablets are increasing globally on a daily based.  Do you  really don’t want to miss out on all of this traffic, which you will if a user tries to find you, only to land on a jumbled up, nonsensical homepage. With a mobile site, you need to strip your original site down to the most important information, and make it easy to scroll through/look at
5. Well Chosen ImagesA picture paints 1000 words.Images always draw a person into reading something more, no matter what it is. Your images need to be vibrant and clear, preferably taken with a high quality camera to get the best effect
6. Clear ‘Calls to Action’Your calls to action are the part of your site that encourage visitors to become a conversion, whether you’re looking for more email addresses, newsletter sign ups, sales, or completed surveys. Many businesses find that their calls to action do much better when placed ‘above the fold’ – the first part of the website you see when you click on to it, without scrolling down. Your calls to action should be large and attractive enough to warrant a click, placed strategically throughout your website
7. A BlogBlogs have become a huge part of any great marketing campaign, so it’s essential that you have one on your business website. If you share helpful information, useful knowledge, and unique, high quality content, you could develop a loyal readership and suddenly find yourself as an authority in your industry. People will come back to your site when they want to learn more about a relevant subject, and may even share your blog posts with friends/family, increasing your brand awareness.
8. Social Media IntegrationsThere are almost 2 billion people using the biggest social media sites, Twitter and Facebook, alone. Then you’ve got popular sites like the photo sharing platforms Instagram/Pinterest, the professional LinkedIn, and plenty more to choose from. To decide what social media platforms are best for your business if you haven’t already, work out where your target audience are most likely to be spending their time and focus on those. Also make sure you have social media integrations on your business website, making it very simple for visitors to check out your social media platforms, follow you/like you, and share any content that they deem amazing! Again, this increases your brand awareness and will more than likely result in more traffic and conversions
9. Include the above elements in your business site if you want to guarantee the best results!