Website Content for Small Businesses: What Should Be on Your Website
What is your site's purpose?
If you don't know what you want your website's visitors to do
once they're there, your site, more than likely, does not have a
clear purpose. By answering the following questions, you should
be able to narrow down your reasons for having a site:
Does or do you want your site to encourage potential customers
to contact you (via e-mail, phone or contact us form)?
Does or do you want your site to offer tools or resources for
visitors (calculators, forums, downloadable information,
etc...)? And if so, why?
Does or do you want your site to provide information about your
company? About your industry?
Does or do you want your site to sell products?
Does or do you want your site to collect information from
visitors (e-mail addresses, mailing addresses)?
Once you answered each question, you can evaluate content needs.
Encouraging Contact
If you want potential customers to contact you, you must
encourage them to do so. How, you ask?
-Tell them to and have your phone number on every page.
-Ask them to send you their address and phone number for more
information via a sign up form. Have a link to this form on
every page.
-List an e-mail address that they can send questions to. Have
this information on every page.
You'll notice the "on every page" aspect of each of these
options. If you want visitors to contact you, the way to do so
needs to be easy to find. Your text on each page should also
refer visitors to the contact option as well so they know
exactly what you want them to do.
Tools and Resources
If you have information or a forum or some other tools or
resources you want your visitors to use, make sure they are
aware of their existence and that people know how to use them.
Different tools require different kind of promotion (for
example, a forum needs to be monitored and questions and
comments need to be responded to; where a tool for calculating
the cost of building a deck just needs instructions and a "what
to do with this information" description).
Make sure visitors know not only where these tools are, but also
why they are there and how their use will benefit them. Don't
just add functionality for functionality's sake...if it doesn't
support your site's purpose, it shouldn't be there.
Providing Information
If you will be providing information to your visitors, make sure
you have it indexed and easy to find. Adding a search form to
your site is useful as well. It is also essential to not only
keep adding articles to your "library" but to make sure visitors
and customers are aware of the added content (perhaps via an RSS
feed or an e-mail newsletter).
Selling Products
If you sell products on your site, obviously your purpose is to
get people to buy the products. If a visitor goes to your site
and doesn't see any products, well, obviously they won't know to
buy them. Once someone arrives at your site, they should be
presented with your products and be provided ample reason to buy
(for example, a testimonial about the product on it's page, a
quality guarantee, etc...). Your home page should also showcase
different products on a regular basis and include the same
incentives to buy.
Collecting Information
If the main goal of your site is to grow your mailing list
(regular mail and/or e-mail) you have to provide visitors a very
good reason to give you their information. Collecting
information can be combined with other things, for instance,
getting customers to contact you can require getting their
information. Also, when you provide information, something like
a special report, you may require they provide their e-mail
address or other contact information. You can be a bit creative
here, but remember, if what your giving isn't worth it, they
won't give you their contact information.
Other Items to Include
There are a few items that I believe every small business web
site should have no matter what its purpose. These are an "about
us" area, a "contact us" page or information, a sitemap, a
privacy policy and disclaimer page.
The "about us" page can share your small businesses story with
visitors and provide a history. People generally feel more
comfortable doing business with people they know, sharing your
story is a way to let your visitors get to know you and your
small business.
The "contact us" page should contain your company name, physical
and mailing address, phone and fax numbers and at least a
general e-mail address. Why, because people may want to contact
you and it is frustrating if there is no way to do so. You can
limit what items you provide, but I encourage you to share as
much as possible.
A sitemap allows visitors an overall look at your site and its
content. It is also helpful to search engines when they index
your site. If your site is small, you may not need one, but they
are useful.
Privacy policies and disclaimers are important for sites that
collect personal information and provide informational
resources. You want your visitors to know how their information
is used once in your possession and you also want to make sure
you are not legally liable for how people use the information
you provide.
Go Forth and Fill Your Website
After all this, you may still feel like you're not sure what
should be on your site--As I said, this is not a simple process.
However, if you answer the questions provided and plan your site
from there, you will be led to your desired outcome, an
effective site for your small business. Take your time, evaluate
your purpose and format your website accordingly, your small
business is worth it.
About the author:
Kelly Biedny is the owner of Kleobell Creative Business
(www.kleobell.com). Her areas of expertise include
branding/image development, marketing communication, web
development and project management.
For more valuable information on helping your small business
become THE source of products or services for your customers,
check out Kleobell's Resource
Library.