It won’t be wrong to say that we are living in the online age, where having your professional website is becoming more of an absolute necessity for almost all business ventures and career choices. A well-thought website can simultaneously be used as a marketing tool, an online store, a platform for personal branding by showcasing individual’s works and skills, a medium for effective communication and a virtual center of branding.
Having a website can be a fun and productive way to share your thoughts and opinions, promote your business or for possibly getting attention of millions for example for publishing photos online. Here you can learn how to create a website of your own. Whether you want to build a personal blog, a photo gallery, a forum or an online store, creating a website has never been easier before.
Whenever you decide to create your website, the first question to ask your self is what kind of website you want to have. You need to be very clear with the needs of your website, as it will dictate the kind of hosting service you will be needing. If you want to sell any products or services through your website then you will be needing a host that supports online stores. Similarly, if you want a blog, blogging sites can be created and are easy to setup.
Other things that come up to one’s mind when deciding to create their own website is what kind of content they will put up on the website. Some of the most common kind of content that is often part of websites is the mission statement, vision of the business, brand or individual and other content that is created by keeping sale goals in mind.
However, even though all this content bring merit and value to the company but it doesn’t particularly make sense to your visitors. That’s a big mistake which you shouldn’t do. Your website won’t be very effective if you don’t put your customers or visitors first. At every step of creating your website it is important to keep in mind that it’s not about you.
The best and most effective websites are customer-centric and hence they are designed to be of value for customers by providing information that visitors are seeking and to portray that in the most interesting way. The website needs to let the visitors see the real you that will help build the trust.
Today, with online free website builders, creating your website is not at all difficult but it definitely can be difficult to build an effective and successful website. Therefore, follow through these killer tips on how to create a website of your own and benefit from new and greater business opportunities.
Provide visitors a clear website navigation
Make sure your website pages are organized with logically named categories and use more standard terms on your website menu so that a new visitor can also understand. It can be very frustrating for a website visitor who has to guess where to go and analyze what your content really mean. They may not have the patience to make an extra effort to stay on your website any longer.
Avoid using your industry jargons
When adding content to your website, you can assume that your visitors will be aware of your industry jargons no matter how basic they may be for you. There is no other way to make your visitors feel unwelcome than that. Hence, avoid using any words or phrases that you think your visitors may not know and try to use more familiar terminology, which is understandable by strong majority.
Make the tone of your words more conversational
Write your website content as if you are directly talking to your readers, this will make your website more engaging. A friendly, conversational and informal tone is much better than a stiff and corporate one.
Give all the relevant information
People normally search the web when they are looking for some answers and if your website doesn’t provide those answers with correct facts, the visitor may go to the next website and never come back and so this post will tell you how to create a website in a perfect manner.
Many studies show that information-rich websites are most successful at converting their visitors into strong prospects. For some websites, such as online stores, information such as prices and basic description of products and services is more of a necessary.
Don’t always run after creating the hype
Visitors don’t always want spin, but what they want and are expecting from you is honesty and transparency. They are looking for facts so they can make some well-informed decisions. Hence, the wise choice is to put all your cards out in the open and allow your visitors to make their own decisions, as spoon feeding won’t work anyways.
Provide unique landing pages for specific topics
When you want everyone to come and visit your website, making the home page of your website the main way to enter the site may not be a great idea. A more targeted and effective approach is to make different landing pages that all are specific to different possible subject of interest for your audience.
This way if a specific visitor is looking for some very specific information then he would land on the landing page dedicated to that subject. Such landing pages can help you convert prospects at a higher rate than through a general home page.
Create a to-the-point summary with your home page
There is no doubt your home page will be the most commonly used way in to your website. Hence, it should incorporate a little of everything important including how customers will benefit from your website, content, products and services.
It is important for customer to see some value for themselves on your home page to make them stay long term.
Let your pictures tell your story
Stock pictures are pretty but are they really telling visitors your story and do they make you stand out. Not really. Stock pictures are too generic almost always. They sure can be used at some places on your website but when showing your products and team of people, only real pictures can bring the necessary authenticity.
Today, your visitors want to see what are they really purchasing and who they are purchasing from.
Include some trust-building content in your website
You can include content in your website that make you different from others in the industry, talk about why you are uniquely qualified to provide visitors your products and services. You should also include some content for your business history and achievements and customer reviews and testimonials. All this helps create customers’ trust and further authenticates you.
Keep your website up-to-date
Having content on your website that is not updated, can easily make your website lose its credibility. Hence, it is important to continuously update your website, you can add new information or remove obsolete content. Removing obsolete information is as important as putting up new information, as you may be burying good content and your visitor may never actually get to read it.
Make your website layout as straightforward as possible
Nobody likes a mess and you shouldn’t want your visitors to be confused when using your website. Clean, simple and organized websites are the most effective and work the best. Make your website as intuitive as possible, as this way visitors can easily find what they are looking for and navigating through your website will not feel like too much work.
Make your contact information easily visible on the website
Make sure your contact information is easily visible and it appears multiple times on your website, so that it is hard for your visitors to miss it. Don’t make your visitors work too hard to contact you, they might not make the effort and you lose potential customers.
Keep forms simple (If applicable)
If your website includes any form, such as a form on your Contact or Customer Review page, try to keep the form as direct as possible with fewest questions possible. Most of the visitors don’t like filling long forms with too many fields. Moreover, often visitors don’t trust the brand enough to provide you all the information and asking sensitive information may make a visitor doubt your intentions.
Add a call to action on nearly every web page
Tell your visitors what is the next step and what you would like them to do next. Take them through each step to make the sale or to contact you. It is definitely important to be a source of relevant and quality information but at the same time you need to make sure your visitors know how they can make the purchase.
Make your web content as close to perfect as possible
In today’s competitive markets, there is no space for spelling and grammar mistakes, it makes you look unprofessional, amateur and unable to do a good job at what you do. It’s same with poor wording. Make sure every piece of content going to your website is closely reviewed. You can even hire a professional to better craft your content that makes your visitors make decisions in your favor.
Author Bio: I am Carle Smith and I am a blogger. I feel the technological advancement the world has been subject to has totally changed the meaning of and ways to success. With my blogs I keep my readers updated with new technologies and how they change our lives for positive. How to create a website of your own, free and effective.
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