5 Top Factors To Consider When Building A Business Website

Notice that this article refers to building efficient and effective "Business" websites.  Not personal pages, hobby sites, fansites, or informational webpages.  I am referring to business sites, whose purpose is to create business and in turn revenue for the owner.  A business may be a labor of love, but a business website.  Other sites may have the goal of promoting a hobby, sharing and interest, socializing and sharing ideas, but a good business website should have the sole purpose of supporting your business.  With this philosophy in mind, and  over 8 years experience in the Atlanta Web Design business these are the top factors in building a business website.

1.      Keyword Research - Hands down the single most important factor.  Your site must be built around well researched keywords and keyword phrases.  You must know the keywords in your market that people are actively searching.  How many times are they searched, how many competitors you have and how strong are they?  Once you have the 5 - 10 keywords that will offer you the best opportunity to rank well in the major search engines you can begin building your site.  Targeting the right keywords will provide you with targeted traffic.  For business websites targeted traffic is money.

2.      Simplicity - Visitors should not be overwhelmed with any unnecessary distractions.  The most successful business sites are very simple.  There are only one or two actions a visitor is encouraged to follow on each page.  The information they are most likely to need or want should be made accessible right on the front page or otherwise easily accessible.  Do not succumb to the desire to add a multitude of features, colors, and whiz-bang widgets moving all over the place and making noise.  Always keep it simple

3.      Customer oriented philosophy - A common mistake of a small business owner is to make the site about themselves or their business.  For the most part your visitors do not care about your business.  They have a need or problem and want an answer or solution.  It does not matter what year you were founded and all the wonderful places you have travelled.  Having an "About Us" page is fine, but keep it simple and don't  let it distract from the purpose of your site.  Service industry sites are more prone to using an about us page than a retail business, but even then it should be short, simple and to the point.  Any information about you or your business should be there solely as an answer to customer questions.

4.      Security - If you are in the retail business, make sure you have an SSL certificate if you ask the customer for any information.  Even if you shopping cart is handled by a third party business, if you ask you customer for an email address or name, make sure it's on a secure https page with an SSL certificate.  Get listed with the better business bureau or local chamber of commerce and put your credentials on your page.  Anything that will assure your customer that your site can be trusted.

5.      Focus - Do not try to do everything with your site.  Decide what single thing you want a visitor to do.  It could be to place a phone call, leave an email address, buy a product or download additional information.  Then build your site around that goal, after you are finished, go back, review your site and remove anything that does support that goal.