9 Essentials Your Business Website Needs

1) A blog. This is almost too obvious, but I see site after site that refuse to maintain a blog. It's a fresh way to keep your visitors (or customers) engaged, and it provides search engines with a wealth of new information to index.

2) A sitemap. Yes, the trusty sitemap is still important to letting search engines know how important each page is to your website. Without one in place, you could find your terms of service showing before your homepage on search results.

3) Company hours. People like to know when they can contact you and how often you're available. Even if you have a virtual business, this is something that builds a sense of trust.

4) A picture of you (or employees). In the modern age, a website can be set up in less than an hour (yes, I've done it many times) and so building online trust is sometimes more important than even SEO. Adding a quick photo of you or your employees helps people see you are trustworthy enough to put a face behind the name.

5) Prices. Nothing is more frustrating to customers than having to fill out a contact form, and possibly be spammed, just to get simple prices. You should list service prices clearly up front, unless it is something that can only be calculated with customer information.

6) A privacy policy. This is actually the law, but a very small number of websites adhere to it. If you collect information from visitors, you need to have a privacy policy. With online generators, it can take a few seconds to build one.

7) Terms and conditions. Both to protect you and your customers, clear terms must be laid out. What if the want a refund? How unlimited is their service? Who can modify their order? Again, online generators can help with building a quick base, but a lawyer is the safest solution.

8) Social media accounts. Almost another obvious thing, but it is nearly a requirement in today's world. Just like you wouldn't have a brick-and-mortar business without a phone number, you shouldn't have a business website without social media outlets.

9) Spelin' & gramer check. Your business website is your business image, and so it should be free of error both in the code and the text. Whenever I personally see a website that has glaring spelling or grammatical errors, I'm immediately suspicious of who might be running it. Granted, we all are not English Majors, which is why if you don't feel confident with the task, hire someone who can proof-read for you. Also on that note, proper English should be used on the main site, whereas casual English is acceptable on the blog and social media.

Comments are closed.