5 Things Your Small Business Website Must Have

Your website is the one place that you actually own on the internet. What you put on your small business website matters. It could mean if you land the customer or not. That is a big deal! You didn't get into business to not have customers. That would mean you would be on the road to end of your business and I don't want that for your business. Making sure that you have the right content on your small business website is important. Wellspring is here to help you with that.

In this post we are giving you 5 things that your small business website must have. This not an exclusive list of what your website needs but these are important so that your website can do its job. Meaning that your website is educating and selling your services or products well. Let's dive in.

1. Share What You Do At The Top Of Your Homepage Above The Fold

This is what most small business miss on their website. They put one of two things in this spot. They will either put a fluffy phrase that doesn't describe what they do or they will but their business name. Both of those are not helpful when you have 50 milliseconds to to capture your users attention. That is not a lot of time to help them.

Stating what you do at the top of your sites homepage helps the user to decide if they have found what they want. An example of a statement that shows this would be the following.

"Let Us Build Your Dream Home"

This example could be for a home builder that specializes in custom homes. Notice that it states what they do, build homes, in an a glanceable statement. It also puts an image in the users mind that you can build the home that they have been dreaming about for years.

Stating what you do is the most important converting factor. You can add a cherry on top by creating an image the user can grab a hold of.

2. A Homepage That Is More About Your Customer than You

How much does your website talk about your business? Does it say how many years you have been in service? Does it tell your history? If yes let's think about changing that. If your website is more about you than your potential customer you have a resume more than a sales tool.

What do Star Wars and Bluey have in common? They tell compelling stories! They follow a path called a story arch. The story arch simplified goes like this. Someone, think Luke Skywalker or Bluey, has a problem that needs solving. On their journey to solve this problem they find a guide, think Obi-Wan or Chilli, that helps them along the way. They help them solve the problem and the person, or dog, is better off at the end. Look at all the Marvel movies they follow this pattern.

You should follow this pattern on your website homepage and all pages for that matter. You are also not who the story is about. On your website you are the guide helping your potential customers. You are the one that helps solve the problem or makes them better.

3. Calls To Action, Everywhere

What would happen to your business if you never gave a potential customer the way to take the next steps with you? It would fade away. You have to point your potential customers to take the next step with you. The way to do that is to add calls to action on your site, like everywhere.

When we build websites we don't hold back on the calls to action for our clients. Each section of a page on their site will 9 time out of 10 have a call to action. That might be asking them to take the next step in working with us. It could also be as simple as asking theme to learn more about a product offering.

Most of the time we will ask our clients user to take the next step with them and we have seen the results. Ask your potential customer to take the next step with your business and see what can happen by asking them.

4. Proof You Can Do What You Claim You Can Do

The internet is a wild place. You can put almost anything you want online regardless of the validity. You want to take steps to ease the fears that you are not legit to your potential customers. The best way that you can do that is to provide proof of what you do. This alone alleviates anxiety in your sites users.

To provide this proof there are many ways. You could write case studies about your projects, with your customers consent. These case studies could tell the story of the project, following the story arch from earlier. You could have videos walking through a project. You could do something as easy as creating a photos page.

Show your potential customer that you can do what you say you can do.

5. Simple Navigation

The navigation is on all if not most of your sites pages. If it is confusing or not organized you will lose users. Keeping your navigation simple helps users get to where they want quicker. That means they stay on your site longer and proves that you are educating. Educating your users brings them one step closer to taking the next step in working with you.

If your website has confusing navigation here are a few guidelines that we like to follow.

1. No more than 6 top level links
   With the limited number of pages or folders it is easy for your user to navigate at a glance.
   
   
2. Use folders when needed but limit yourself to 1 level deep
   If you need more than the first level pause and make sure you need that second or even third level.
   
   
3. Order the navigation in order of priority
   Don't put your about page first. Your site is about your customer and not you.

Where to Go Next?

These five things are essential to having a converting website. If your website is not meeting these standards contact us. We would love to help your website earn you more business. Click here to start a conversation about your website.