When you are building your business’ website, you might focus on design, the site URL or a photo gallery to show your work. Building an entire site for your company is a lot of work, and there are thousands of tiny details that can help make your site the best. In today’s global digital marketplace, people are looking for all of their information online before picking up the phone or making a purchase.
When I redesigned my website this past year, I had to keep several things in mind: How my customers were primarily going to reach out to me, the format of my contact form, and the brand personality that I was going to display on my website. Paying attention to detail helps when you are building a new website, and there is always room for improvement in the evolving digital marketplace.
According to Google’s Mobile Movement Study, 88% of consumers who research a local business online will call or visit the store within the next 24 hours. That’s a short turnaround! In order to capture interested customers, make sure you’ve paid attention to these five important aspects of your business’ website, and before you know it, the leads will be flying in.
1. Your business’ phone number
If you have a business line, don’t forget to post it clearly and visibly on your website! Don’t hide your phone number somewhere deep in the contacts page – if phone is how your customers primarily reach you, then place it in the header of your site. According to BIA Kelsey, over 60% of small local businesses completely neglect to put their phone numbers anywhere on their site. Don’t miss easy leads!
2. Company credentials
For the customer who’s just on the fence between you and another local business, displaying your business’ credentials and awards can be just what you need to gain the upper hand over your competitors. Showcasing the industry awards your business has achieved also helps to retain your existing customers, and helps associate your company with the elite.
3. FAQs section
One of the top things that customers look for on your business website is organized information. A case study by VWO showed that a well-organized website increased sales by 35.6%. Through conversations with your customers, you can figure out what info people primarily want to find on your site, and provide a clean, simple FAQ section for those users. Make your content easier to read, and visitors will stay on your site for longer durations.
4. Contact form
How are you encouraging your customers to reach out to you? If your site has a contact form, make sure it’s optimized to get the highest number of conversions possible. Keep it simple – you should have 3 to 5 fields in your contact form so you don’t overwhelm your customers. By cutting just one field from his contact form, analytics expert Neil Patel increased his conversions by 26%!
Pay attention to the terminology on your contact form. Is your contact form titled something bland, like ‘Contact Us’? Aim for some personality and title it ‘Tell us about your project’ or something tailored to your company’s services. Just because communication is happening over the web doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your brand personality.
When I redesigned my website, I placed my contact form on a prominent position on my site, where users would see it immediately after landing on the homepage. By making my contact form easy to find, simple to fill out and giving it the right touch of brand personality, I was able to increase my organic conversions and leads by a huge margin.
5. Who’s behind the brand?
It is well known that putting a human face to put to your business’ name means increased trust in potential customers. Hundreds of research studies show that photos of real (not stock image models!) people on your website increases your brand’s trustworthiness among site visitors, and have a greater impact with your audience.
Take the time to arrange a professional photoshoot of your offices, and show your customers whom they will be working with. Especially if you are an ecommerce business, showing the human side of your business will give your company that extra touch of personality!