The vast majority of companies have a website
According to Clutch, 71% of small businesses have a website. 46% manage it themselves – this is done by employees. 24% of such enterprises use the website to present products and services. The website has many uses – it is not only used to present the offer, but can also support employee recruitment, provide various contact options, and provide knowledge about the company’s products or services. When building a website, it is worth taking into account all areas of use that are appropriate to your business profile. It is not enough that the website exists. It is supposed to perform specific functions and achieve business goals.
Be prepared that building an effective website takes time. For a small company website, it takes about 4-8 weeks. CEOs already realize that it is not worth creating such a website as quickly as possible. It is more important to create a website that will be effective in terms of sales, useful and meets users’ expectations.
According to Nielsen Norman Group, every dollar invested in user experience brings a $100 return. The website consists of many elements that require refinement – decisions need to be made that have a major impact on subsequent business effectiveness. Thanks to this, the website becomes a valuable asset of the company.
Designing an effective website
Each stage of creating a company website requires refinement. Several factors have a huge impact on how a website is perceived. One of the particularly important ones is speed – on average you have only 50 milliseconds to make a positive impression on the user. If it is negative, they will probably leave the site quickly. You have important decisions ahead of you that will determine how valuable an asset your website will become and what you will gain from it.
Choosing a CMS system
The most beneficial solution for your business could be to create a dedicated website completely from scratch, but this solution has significant drawbacks. It is expensive, requires a long waiting period, and if you need modifications, you may have trouble finding a contractor other than the company that created the website.
Smartbees, an agency with several years of experience in the implementation of company websites, carries out projects on popular open source CMS systems – WordPress, Magento and Drupal. The advantage of this choice is the ability to rely on proven solutions. The company has ready-made implementations, thanks to which it can optimize individual elements of the company website.
These CMSs already provide many solid solutions in their basic version, but they still require extensions. Which one to choose? This requires individual analysis. Smartbees implements projects for companies that want to develop online sales based on WordPress. In turn, on Drupal he creates, among others: advanced corporate services. To determine which solution will be better in your case, contact the agency.
Choosing an open source CMS makes later modifications easier. Some of them you will be able to do on your own without any programming knowledge. All you need to do is use plugins. The advantage of such platforms is a huge community of experts whose help you can use at any time.
Taking into account the sales role of the website
Don’t build a company website like a news website or blog. To take into account the sales role, it is worth sticking to a few rules.
The page should load as quickly as possible. According to a study conducted by Portent, websites that load in a second achieve the highest conversions. At 4 seconds, the value of this indicator is even 5 times lower. Speed also affects organic visibility on Google. Moreover, after a few seconds on the website, the user should know what you do and what problems your product or service solves.
In addition:
- place a headline with the offer and CTA at the top of the page;
- add modules that will make it easier for you to place social evidence – in the case of a renovation company, it may be a presentation of the metamorphosis of the renovated premises. You can also show a customer’s review on your company’s Google profile;
- include a description of any packages you offer;
- create an FAQ with answers to frequently asked questions;
- add a lead generation form – it works great in many industries. You can place a quote form there or give the option to sign up for a consultation.
It is also worth integrating your website with a CRM system, newsletter and analytics. To optimize your website, be sure to analyze the number of visits, time spent on the website, and the number of inquiries and orders. It is also a good idea to verify what elements of the website users focus on – are they really focused on what is most important to you? Are they distracted by anything?
Don’t forget about appropriate hosting, which should provide:
- NVMe SSD drives and the latest version of PHP (to make the website fast),
- two-factor authentication,
- DDoS protection,
- anti-exploit system (site security),
- email security (SPF, DKIM, DMARC),
- regular backups (preferably daily and maintained for several weeks).
Long-term website development
Designing the perfect website right away is very difficult. A company website requires systematic monitoring of effectiveness and introduction of changes. More and more entrepreneurs cooperate with specialized technology teams, such as the previously mentioned Smartbees agency. The key to success is choosing a partner who has development, SEO and analytical competences. Thanks to such cooperation, the company website is regularly monitored. The agency will quickly detect possible errors and will take action if it finds potential for better results.
Online trends change dynamically. Users develop different expectations and preferences over time. Some elements cease to be important, and others appear and become crucial. Thanks to cooperation with experienced experts, your website will remain effective at all times.
Designing company websites – the most common mistakes
When creating a website, you can make many mistakes that prevent the website from achieving its intended goals. The most common causes of problems are:
- overload with content and graphics – if something constantly distracts the user, it is difficult to achieve the expected effect. Remove unnecessary elements and leave the most important information;
- complicated navigation – too extensive a menu and inappropriate naming of subpages make it difficult to find products, services and other content;
- no clear call to action – the user doesn’t know what to do. Call? Write? Go to another subpage? He doesn’t understand what the next step should be;
- illegible offer – if after a while the recipient still does not know what you are offering him, he will most likely not take advantage of the offer;
- charging too slow – users rarely want to wait a few seconds for the page to load. It is necessary to ensure that the website works quickly;
- lack of optimization for SEO and LLMs – organic traffic from search engines and language models is very important. An unoptimized website has little chance of achieving satisfactory results;
- too long contact forms – they should be as simplified as possible and contain suggestions regarding the content that should be added in individual fields;
- no analytics – the effectiveness of the website should be constantly monitored and changes implemented based on the data obtained;
- malfunction on mobile – you should constantly ensure that your website is adapted to mobile devices.
To avoid these mistakes, it is worth working with an experienced agency not only at the website development stage, but also after its implementation. The company will monitor the status of the website and suggest necessary modifications.
Find out how much a website currently costs on the Smartbees blog.
