Now it makes no sense to ponder on whether or not to engage in the development of a corporate website to create its representation on the Internet. Even 6-7 years ago it was obvious that in this area the future. Still, there are some skeptics in small businesses, who think they are too early to start, or large companies owners, where, and without any internet, things are going well.
However, if we look at the statistics on the growth of online sales in recent years and take into account the development of the availability of the global web among the population, the questions should fall away by themselves.
Market giants like Android in the field of technology, or 22Bet in the gambling industry, have long appreciated the enormous benefits of having a website in the post. The latter, for example, not only has its official site but has also created a mobile version of its site, subsections of the site type https://20bet.com/prematch, as well as many different web pages, which had a favorable effect on the development and attraction of customers. In this article, we would like to consider all the nuances of creating websites for businesses. We hope that this collection of tips will be useful to you.
Define the Objectives and Your Target Audience
Myriads of posts on marketing and promotion in the network start with the stage of working out the target audience, ie, the future buyer/client: what he wants, what kind of information he perceives best, what nuances are more important for him, etc. Obviously, the content of the online store of youth clothing is different from the resource on pension insurance.
In addition, the approach to designing sites for small businesses depends on the objectives. When you need to sell a single special product, it is better to make a single-page landing page. A wide range of assortment requires a larger store with the appropriate functionality. Someone prefers to create thematic portals, where, among other things, offers its services/products. Each project must perform certain tasks, which should be set before it.
Hosting and Domain
Even if you have a limited budget, do not use free and cheap hosting. A server on which your website will be placed must be reliable and first-class – safety and speed are the most essential factors. All of it will be recompensed in the future due to the increase of the number of clients, sell advertising, etc. Try to place a project on the server located in the country of a basic target audience. Domain name for a corporate website it is better to choose identical or even consonant with the company name. If a variant with a brand is busy, it is possible to pick up something suitable on the subjects of your sphere of activity. For resources for metropolises often plug the name of a settlement in a domain.
The Choice of CMS, an Independent Development
At this stage, there are several interrelated issues. The main ones are two:
- On what CMS engine do you want to make a business site;
- Who will deal with this task?
For complex corporate portals, stores, and projects with unusual extensive functionality are better to entrust the work to the appropriate professionals.
As for the business site engine, the choice depends in part on the functionality required. For some tasks, there are special solutions, for example, for online stores is PrestaShop, OpenCart, WooCommerce, and if you want to make a thematic blog, then better than WordPress did not come up. Some platforms are suitable for different situations – the same WordPress, Joomla, Drupal can be used to create corporate websites. In this case, focus on:
1) ease of operation
2) availability of good specialists
3) experience of colleagues/competitors.
Development of the engine from scratch will cost you a lot more expensive + there are additional issues.
Design of Web-Site
The original appearance of a resource must correspond to maintenance and his orientation. If it is needed to create a corporate website in his classic understanding, then a strict minimalistic design is fully enough. For the specialized firms it is possible to think of something more interesting: for example, when a company sells luxurious mansions and real estate, then it is desirable to underline the effect of luxury in a template; And in tourist projects logically to insert the graphic arts, related to rest, trips, etc. Try to create a character that expects to see your potential client.
Adaptivity
Presently the design of the corporate website and all its functions must well work on mobile devices. Firstly, all more people accomplish purchases on the internet, and secondly, even for the receipt of information about commodities or services they use smartphones often. The absence of a due adaptive version can result in the loss of potential clients, testify to the bad level of knowledge of developers, and also negatively influence SEO- parameters.
Comfort and Speed
Both these nuances influence the final impression from the visitors of your web page. Speed of loading of pages is important not only for the comfort of users but also is one of the factors of ranging in the searching-systems. Purchase of quality, high-performance hosting + optimization under a rendering engine will give good results.
Feedback
When creating a corporate site of any complexity, you need to add contact information to pages. Specify phone numbers, addresses, emails, links to social profiles, etc. The more data, the more confidence. Often this information is placed in the site title, as users should be able to easily and quickly contact you. For convenience, it is advisable to make an active link to the phone number in an HTML template.
Filling, Media Content
Here are a few points to which you should pay attention. Before you start developing a site for business, you should decide on the information that will be placed on it. It is better to begin preparing the materials before starting all the work and decide who will deal with this issue. Completed, but half-empty web projects look bleak.
It is very important to pay attention to media content, which is now, firstly, very popular, and secondly, much better perceived. In online stores, of course, all products must have unique, high-quality photos. The same applies to any other sites for small businesses, where the visitor chooses products, guided by their appearance – ordering food, buying clothes, renting space, etc. Complement the graphics with videos on the topic – some popular eCommerce projects have their own Youtube channels with reviews.
Personalize
For online business sites where there’s no physical contact with the customer, it’s important to create the impression that there’s a real person and team behind the whole web interface. Place appropriate photos on the “About” page or add a special section with information about employees (works well in the legal niche, for example).
Such a seemingly insignificant nuance increases the credibility of your company. In addition, you can insert video content on the page, say, a tour of your company – so the interactive effect will be even greater. Of course, for a large, globally recognizable brand, this is not particularly relevant, but small and medium-sized businesses will come in handy.
Regular Updates
After completion, the customer receives a ready-made engine (admin panel) to manage the web resource, and should continue to develop it. Online we saw a statistic that somewhere around 27% of corporate sites for businesses update their project less than once a year! Irrelevant and outdated information can scare away your customers. It’s bad when the user gets to you and, for example, sees news from the year before last, and in the footer – an even earlier date.
Promotion and Social Networks
Of course, the process of creating a corporate website should involve its further promotion. Without this stage, no fancy design, trendy selling texts and different chips will not make sense. Take this factor into account when formulating the budget.
If the money you have much limited, then the first time you can save on design and features – to make the project a little easier, and then scale it as income. This is especially true when you decide to create a website for the business in an unfamiliar new niche or are a novice entrepreneur.
In Conclusion
These wishes on the development of corporate projects and sites for small businesses should be enough for you at first. All these important nuances should be well thought out in advance. Also, you can search the web for tips on the key “Tips for Business Website” or review thematic blogs like mkels.com and similar, which publish articles about design, website creation, SEO, etc. This will give you a slightly more detailed look at each of the points in the post.
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