You want to differentiate your business, right?

A website is one of the most effective weapons in a small business owner’s marketing arsenal. A professionally designed website has the power to bring about a critical difference in your business. It can make a visitor stick around, browse and make a purchase instead of moving on to a competitor’s website.

The primary purpose of your website is about creating the right first impression. A close second is to get people to come back for more. The Internet has led to significant changes in the fields of advertising, promotions, and marketing. Setting up a powerful and effective site is the initial step towards utilizing the Internet to your advantage.

Brick and mortar stores can also profit by having a website that showcases their inventories and helps potential customers find their locations. Just like fashion, web design and optimization is always advancing with patterns and trends coming and going. You need to set up a website that builds credibility. One that positions you as the authority within your market. Very few websites can position a business as the clear authority within a field. But, if you build your business website, you will differentiate your business. This is what you need to know.

Focus On Value

One of the primary components of your website that visitors should see is your unique value proposition. Why is your business superior compared to its rivals? Lower prices? Better quality? You don’t have to be told that a successful business is based on a solid value proposition. You should be able to answer why potential customers should think about your product or service. You should also be able to explain how it can give customers a good return on their investment. Be forthright and clear about precisely what you do and incorporate this information on your website. What is your pricing framework? Who do you sell to? Who has bought from you in the past and what are they saying about your business? Attempt to envision people’s inquiries before they even get an opportunity to ask them.

What makes a strong value proposition?

  • Clarity.
  • It can be communicated in seconds.
  • A well thought out headline.
  • A promise. Of course, it has to be a promise you can keep.
  • A list of benefits.
  • An image.
  • A case to show that you are the better choice between you and your competition.

Minimize Distractions

Keep in mind that you have only a few seconds to explain your value proposition to visitors when they come to your website. The back button is the most utilized command on the web. It’s inconceivably simple nowadays to be visually over-burdened with pictures. It reaches a point where our brain stops processing information when it is overwhelmed with options. If there are several invitations to take action, or the navigation has access links to browse from, a visitor’s attention is redirected to many directions. This complicates everything where you overwhelm your visitors. Reduce distractions to help people focus on your product and the advantages of your product or service.

Here is how to minimize website distractions:

  • Reduce website components.
  • Only include menu navigation components if they are necessary.
  • Optimize the number of images.
  • Reduce the number of icons.
  • Use a few fonts (types and colors).
  • Minimize backgrounds and secondary messages.

Simplify Navigation

Primary navigation options are normally placed in a horizontal menu bar at the top of every page. You should provide secondary navigation alternatives below the primary navigation options. The secondary navigation alternatives can also be placed at the right-hand margin of your website. Setting it elsewhere would be similar to putting the contents page of a book randomly in the middle. Web designers can provide professional website advice on where to best place your navigators.

Web users are used to being able to search for what they are looking for and get fast results at the click of a button. Adding a search bar to your site is also helpful. It is also important that search is visible above the fold, preferably in the header area. It prevents potential customers from looking somewhere else if they don’t immediately see what they are searching for on your homepage.

Keep It Fresh

Content is king. Your task is to ensure that whatever information you’re putting up on your site, is logical, and easily readable. Neglecting the contents of your site is a clear sign that you don’t care about other aspects of your business. You don’t want your visitors to see outdated information and think your business isn’t active. This could negatively affect your business.

One of an ideal approach to avoid this is by posting interesting and useful content regularly. Remember that if any of this content is time-sensitive, you will need to watch out for it to ensure it does not become outdated. If you have posted blog post more than a year ago, it is time to go back to update it. If let your website content outdated its value will drop significantly. Instead of helping your website old content will decrease your traffic and lower your credibility.

Invest In Good, Professional Photography

Website visitors can easily detect generic imagery, and they’ll be left with a generic impression of your business. Your business isn’t generic. The best website advice, in this case, is to invest in professional photography. You can also use videos. Today’s internet is available to clients at extremely high speeds compared to 25 years ago. One of the ideal approaches to exploit this new speed is to put up multimedia and videos to favor your business.

Here is what makes good website images:

  • Unique and relevant to your business. The opposite of stock photos used and reused by thousands of others.
  • Your images should help you tell a story instead of damaging your story.
  • An image should only be part of your website if it adds to the overall purpose of your website. Never add an image just to fill open space.