Today, we’re talking about how to make a business website. 

Hi, it’s Michael from BiziMedia.com.au. What we’re going to talk about is how to make a business website.

So the things that you’re going to discover is not just how to make one technically, but all the pieces and things that you need to think about when you’re putting together your business website. That’s going to help you to convert those clicks that you get into customers.

Now, there’s a few different ways that you can go about creating your website. You can get a free website from Google. You can go to one of the website creators online, that charge you monthly, Wix, etc, but the way that I like to do it and the way that I do it for my clients is through WordPress.

Now, when you want to create a website – and if you don’t know how to use WordPress, there are a couple of things that you can do to make it really easy. You can learn how to use WordPress, which is not a bad idea if you’d prefer to get someone to do it for you, then that’s cool as well.

So now here’s the meat and potatoes of this video. These are the things that I want you to really think about when creating a website for your business they’re in no particular order, but they are all very important. Now the first thing that you need to make sure when you create a website for your business, is that it loads fast. People don’t want to spend time waiting for your website to load when they click through to it. So what that means for you is, however, you’ve got them to your website: that’s lost traffic, potentially a lost lead or a lost customer which is lost money for your business.

The other thing you want to make sure your website does is look good on both mobile, tablet and computer. So literally, when you create a website for your business you’re, creating three different versions of that website that looks good for everybody across the board.

One of the really important things these days is to have a secure website now to have a secure website is going to mean that you want to have an SSL certificate on your website. To get an SSL certificate, you might be able to get a free one through your hosting company. Just check that out. Do a Google search and find out, or otherwise you can purchase an SSL certificate through your hosting company.

So one of the first things that you want is that your website is going to be easy to navigate. By easy to navigate, I mean that all the functionality on your website is clear. You’re going to want to have your menu at the top, and you don’t want to have your pages cluttered with a lot of information or too much information in one section. If there’s a lot of text you’re going to want to spread it out and use photos and use images where you can as well. This will really help to make a better user experience for people as they’re, navigating through your website.

Now the most important part of your website is above the fold. That’s the first thing that people land on before they scroll up and down on your website. So you want to keep in mind that you only have a few seconds to capture somebody’s attention when they land on your website, so that they know that they’re in the right place.

The other important thing to think about when you’re, creating the copy or the text on your website, is that you want it to be easy to understand. Big words and clever jargon doesn’t really impress anybody other than yourself. You want your website to relay a good, clear message without people having to go the dictionary to find out what you’re talking about.

When people come to your website they want to know that they’re in the right place, and one thing you can do to help people realise that they’re at the right spot is to put images of your clients on your website. Pull out your phone. Take some photos of your customers when they come to visit you or when you’re hanging out with your customers and ask their permission as well, post them on your website. If they’re a good image, you can use those same images to post on social media and to your Google Business Profile as well.

Now social proof is really important. It’s one of the main things that are going to influence your clients to buy from you when they come to your website. So what do we mean by social proof? Well, basically, it’s just other people, clients, customers, talking about your website and giving testimonials and proof that you are the real deal and that you do what’s expected. Reviews are social proof. Testimonials are social proof. Pictures of people at your place of business are all social proof that you can use on your website. If you’ve got any certificates or anything like that in the past that acts to your social proof, then put them on there as well.

Now your website needs to look good. Gone are the days when you could get by with an ordinary-looking website. I mean it’ll still work if it’s got all the right foundations, but first impressions really count. If your website looks ordinary when people come to your website, it’s not going to make a very good impression of your business compared to your competitor’s. So make sure your website looks the part, is well laid out and has all your branding, including your logo there as well, so people can recognise that it’s you.

You may think this next one is a simple one, but so many people don’t explain properly on their website, what they do, the service that they have and the problem that they overcome for their clients. This is really important. Usually, your client will come to your website with a problem, and you want to let them know that you have the right solution for them. Then and there, within a few seconds. Talk about what you do. Talk about the problems that you overcome for your clients and talk about the benefits of what you do for your clients as well. So the easy way to talk about benefits to your client is just to relay the message of what it means to them to be doing business with you, okay? Everything that you talked about needs to mean something to your client. You don’t want them saying “so what” all right? You want them to say “Oh wow, that’s cool!” when you talk about the business.

Now this is really important. Your website needs to have a call to action. You need to be able to tell your client or potential client what you want them to do on your website. So it may be different for your business. Most of the time, what you want them to do is pick up the phone and give you a call. If it’s something different make sure you let them know whether it’s fill out a form or do something else to take that action, you want to be clear and concise on that one call to action on your website.

Now talking about call-to-action, you want to make sure that, at the top of your website, is your phone number and in a lot of cases these days, it’s really easy to make your number click to call, which means, if someone’s on a mobile phone they just have to tap that phone number on your website, and they’ll automatically start dialling your number.

Now you want to think about your customer journey. When they’re come to your website, they’re interested in you for a particular reason. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think about all the information that they are going to be needing when they come to your website. So, for example, if you’re a restaurant, if you want to make sure that you have a menu there, you want to make sure that if you offer anything any additional services such as gluten, free or vegetarian, that you’ve outlined these as well and anything else that you think is going to be important, that the customer is looking for, make sure it’s there on your website, easy to find in plain, clear and simple language.

Now, a lot of the time you may be a service based business, so if you are, make sure you’ve got a page for your services or on your landing page that you outline briefly those specific services that you do facilitate for your clients. If it’s there on the landing page and that they don’t have to go looking for it, it’s going to be a better user experience and you’re probably going to get more clients follow through to that call-to-action and get in contact with you.

If you’ve got an explainer video on your website, you’re going to see more conversions. People, love watching videos and an explainer video is like a 24-hour seven days a week sales person that works for you without your having to keep paying them right. They’re always there on your website explaining what you do and the benefits, what makes you unique and that call to action. If you can create an explainer video, it’s going to benefit you a lot.

People love getting a bargain. So if you’ve got any offers or special deals that you can share with your clients on your website, do it and make sure you’re clear about what you offer. If there’s any scarcity or urgency put that on there as well. So just make sure that if you use scarcity, that it’s not false scarcity. False scarcity is telling people that they only have a certain amount of time, when you know, they’ve got forever so be honest because it’s all about trust ability and likeability and if you start lying to your clients on your website and then not going to want to do business with you, right?

Another great thing to do is to somehow get your prospect’s information so that you can remarket to them later on. One way that you can do this is by giving them something of value, whether it be a PDF or a document or a video or something that is really helpful to your client. You can give it to them in exchange for their name and phone number.

Now, if you’ve got an area of your website where you can put articles or updates, like if you’ve got a news site or a blog on your website, this is perfect. It’ll help the search engines realise that you are posting more often, and it can eventually help with your search engine optimisation as well. Having a blog or a news section on your site also gives you the opportunity to post valuable content regularly. Giving your clients good information helps them to realise that you’re an authority in what you do and they’ll want to do business with you more often.

So people often ask “What other pages do we need on our website?”. So a few of the pages that you’d want to put on your website are the “about us” page “terms and services”, “privacy policy” and a “contact us” page too. When you put these pages on your website it not only shows your clients that you’re a real reputable business, but it also tells Google that you’re reputable and that you’re a real business.

So what do you talk about in your “about Us” page? Well, it’s different for everybody, and that’s the one page on your website where you can really be yourself. Let your clients in, tell them your story and give them a bit of a peek behind the curtains at what you and your business are all about. People like to see what’s going on behind the curtains in the business, and so you can do that in the “about us” page. You can also share some interesting anecdotes about the rest of your staff. You can share some pictures or videos of your staff as well and by sharing information about yourself and your business and your staff. It really helps your potential clients to get to know you and like you, and want to do business with you. Guys That’s it for this blog post. I hope you found that helpful. If you did feel free to share it with others that you feel can get value from it.