Most businesses seem to be stuck in the technical dark ages when it comes to their company website. They are stuck in the bubble that has them thinking that their site should come off as a online business card of sorts. Only bothering to include information such as business name, location, phone number, etc.
Company websites should be so much more than just a basic business card. It’s all about marketing, getting your business and services out there for others to find you. You know … customers? Conversions? Sales!
What you should keep in mind when creating a company site, is that the internet is not like your local town where you might have a chance of standing out in a crowd of only 4 or 5 other competitors in your market. Not only are you competing with your local competition but that of someone potentially thousands of miles away (depending on your product or services that you are marketing, of course).
Let’s say your business is Mobile Dog Grooming, but you have an eBook that you sell to customers who want to groom their pups themselves between appointments. Your potential customer will most likely type in keywords that relate to DIY dog grooming or something similar into Google search. A list of businesses will appear. Your company will be one of the business that appears int he list. The potential customer will then open, read, and compare your site to a handful or more of other competitors in your field.
This is why your forward facing company website should have all the information necessary for that client to pick you, and not your competition. Use your site as both an informative space and one that allows you to be heard.
99MediaLabs has put together a handy infographic spelling out 50 of the most critical features that your small business website must have. .
Source: 99MediaLab.com.
