What should I include in my business website?

Today, consumers tend to rely on the internet for answers to their problems.

If your business isn’t visible online, you will not be able to tap into this consumer behaviour and could end up losing market share.

Since you’re reading this article, you’ve probably recognised this threat.

With exception of certain unique industries, the first step to creating an online presence usually involves creating a website.

The next most common question is: “What should I put on my website?”

Before we jump right in, let’s align our expectations:

The purpose of your website

Think of your website as a virtual sales person or a sales brochure, except that it lives online.

It should help you to:

• reach out to new customers
• inform existing customers about your latest products or service
• close sales
• represent your brand

Your website is not just an accessory nor a vanity asset. Instead, it should drive you traffic and bring in new business over time.

With that said, here are:

3 key elements that every business website should have

1. What you do – aka ‘About us’ page

This isn’t the most visited page on most websites, but it is the page that will definitely help to sell your business (or encourage your website visitor to reach out to you).

A website is merely a cold, inanimate digital asset. Potential customers want to know that they can trust the people on the other side, i.e. you.

It’s common for someone who has never heard of your company, to look through the about page before deciding if they should contact you for more information.

There are a few key elements that we think should be on your about page:

i. A short tagline about your business

By the time your web visitor lands on your About page, they have a rough idea about what you do. So, don’t make them read through your entire company history.

Instead, summarise how you help them solve their problems, in a single punchy sentence.

If there is an absolute necessity to include your company’s history, do this on a separate page. You can insert a link from the ‘About’ page to the history page.

Your ‘About’ page should be dedicated to strengthening the trust between you and your potential clients.

ii. Short section about your team

Putting a face (or faces) to your business helps to increase familiarity and trust for your potential customers.

People like to know who they may be working with.

Invest in a photoshoot by a professional photographer to best present your team. Pair your photos with an introduction to your team members in a personable, friendly voice that ties in with your brand image.

iii. Contact details

When done right, the elements above would have put your potential client at ease. It’s time to insert the call to action.

You can do this via a couple of methods;

• link to your contact form,
• link to your Facebook messenger or,
• link to a phone number to initiate a call or a WhatsApp chat on mobile

It’s crucial for the service standard to be in line with what’s portrayed on your website.

For example, if your sales rep doesn’t know about the services sold on your website, it leaves a horrible impression.

2. Focus on their problem

With exception to your family and friends, most of your website visitors are here to look for a solution to their problem.

However, most corporate websites tend to talk too much about themselves.

Imagine being forced to listen about someone’s accomplishments or family history, on your very first meeting. Even on a blind date, this usually leaves a bad impression. Going on and on about your product and company feels like that.

Your web visitors will be gone forever, even before you can get to the benefits of your products. And you’ll probably never hear from them again.

So, instead of focusing on your product or company, start with the problem that you solve.

This can be done through your content strategy, or briefly on your home page.

3. Your solution – aka how you can help

Once you’ve hooked them with the promise of solving their problems, you can talk briefly about your solution (psst, this is where you place your plug).

You don’t want to overwhelm your web visitors with too much information.

It would be more effective provide a brief summary of how you can solve their problem and what they can expect after working with you.

Pictures speak a thousand words, use well-crafted photos that sell.

Depending on your existing sales process, you may want to include appropriate call to actions when describing your solution.

Examples of call to actions include:

• Completing a contact form,
• Scheduling a call with your sales team
• Initiate a chat on Facebook or Whatsapp

Wrapping up

There are many elements to a website, in this article, we merely focused on the key elements that help sell your business.

Here’s a quick recap:

The 3 elements that any business website must have are:

• About: that tells your customer what you do
• Problem that you solve
• Solution that you provide

With exception to the ‘About’ element, the rest can be scattered throughout your website where they best fit.

Your final implementation will depend highly on the structure of your website and how your visitors can navigate within it.

Wait, there’s more

A common misconception about having a website is that you can just set up it once, forget about it and have sales rolling in.

Unfortunately, setting up your website is just the first step to ‘going online’. Unless you’re Apple, you’ll find that your website won’t have as much traffic as you’d imagine.

Most small and medium sized companies would require a basic SEO campaign to optimise your website for major keywords related to your business.

If you’d like to grow your organic traffic over time, you might want to consider an ongoing content strategy on top of that too. These are beyond the scope of this article, so stay tuned for future articles!