Putting together a customer-friendly website is an essential step in establishing an online business. If you are in the process of taking your entrepreneurial endeavor online, congratulations. This is a major step in the right direction; however, there are several website components that you should consider to make your presence as customer-friendly as possible. For guidance, check out these tips.
1. Put Users First with Your Design
Although you can choose to do the work yourself, there are numerous benefits if you want to hire a website design company to help. One of the biggest benefits is that a professional design team has the skills and experience to help you focus your web efforts on your customer. Not only can a web design team improve user experience and improve SEO rankings, but a great company can also help you gather audience research and provide you with a reliable website.
2. Create an Effective Navigation
With your focus on the customer, one of the first things you should pay special attention to on your site is the navigation. Think about it: Do you spend much time on websites that you cannot figure out how to navigate? In most cases, absolutely not! Make your customers’ lives easier.
3. Remember Mobile Compatibility
Given the large number of people who use their smartphones and tablets to access the internet, making sure your site is mobile-compatible should be another top concern. Although most web design pros will already have this on the website to-do list, it is something to make sure no one forgets.
4. Include Simple Forms
Whether you need a way for customers to contact you with feedback, request orders and communicate with you for another straightforward purpose, the inclusion of simple forms on your company’s website can be a great idea. Not only is this a cost-effective way to stay in touch with customers, but it also provides an alternative route for people who do not like calling.
5. Provide Clear Call-To-Action Content
If the information on your website is not directing your readers to buy something or take another type of action, you are missing out on a lot of potential sales and company promotion opportunities. That does not mean you have to spam your site with promotional selling, but it does mean that you should encourage visitors to take action.
6. Offer Fast Load Time
How long does it take your website to load? This is definitely something you should pay attention to as well. After all, no one likes to wait on a website to load when there are a million other things to do with your time. Depending on the content and setup of your site, you may run into slow load times. If so, try to correct it immediately. Regularly testing your site’s load times on different devices can help you prevent any issues that may stop a customer from completing a purchase.
7. Keep Things Simple
Although you want to include enough information to be useful and engaging, you also want to try to simplify your website as much as possible. In large part, this is because it can be easy to overwhelm visitors with graphics and text. Instead, try to find a comfortable balance that makes visiting your company’s website a pleasant experience.
8. Solve a Need
Maybe the reason you want to build a website is to promote your business and help make more sales as easy as possible, but the underlying purpose for any successful online company needs to be one that solves a need of some kind. When you think about the products and services that you are offering, how do they help other people? Is there information you can provide on your website that can enhance that? On the other hand, your website could solve a need just by existing, depending on what kind of industry you are in and what information is available. Consider starting a blog.
If you want to have the best chance at success with your online company, you need to put some thought into creating a customer-centric website. Let these tips help.
