7 Essential Tips to Make Your Business Stand Out Online
Running a business online can be a profitable venture. However, it's safe to say that the odds can be stacked up against you. The competition is fierce and you need every edge to stand out from the crowd to net customers and keep profits up. For that, you'll need to make a top-of-the-line business website.
How do you make your website pop out to prospective customers? Well, there's a few things you can do. Let's check out some of the essentials and showcase seven essential tips.
Go For Sleek and Professional
Making a website is all about being able to strike the balance between professionalism and making sure you look like a unique business. However, the unfortunate and often uncomfortable truth is that 9 times out of 10, a customer wants a website they can easily understand and navigate over a flash website that's full of confusing information.
Your best bet will always be to keep it simple, and focus on the essentials.
Colours Matter
The way that you use colour on your website will have an impact on Howard is perceived by your customers. Every colour has a different meaning, so the type of colours that you use will influence how effective your website is. There are differing opinions about this, but generally you want to stick to neutral colours and calming ones at the same time. Your colours need to fit the type of product or service you are trying to sell.
Video Power
Video has risen to become the dominant form of advertising and information display for any website. If you have a message that you want to give to prospective customers, you make a short video.
The great thing about video, is that with a bit of technical know-how, it can be built into your website in a very natural and non-intrusive way. The last thing you want is video which dominates the screen or automatically takes over the website once it starts playing. Good video usage is much more subtle than that.
Fresh Content
The content on your website isn't just for search engine optimisation purposes. It is also the way in which you capture and hold the attention of your audience. Therefore, any search engine content that you do create needs to be both effective and fresh.
From the content that talks about the services you offer through to a regular blog section that gets updated each week or month, having new and fresh content helps you to stay connected with your target audience. It will be your job to design and create this content in such a way that you think is best.
Successful Use of Images
A successful website is one which uses images to their fullest effect. Images convey information in a unique way and they will give you the freedom to experiment with the types of images you use on the site. Some people choose to provide photos of their products whereas others opt for infographics.
The way you use images will be down to your ideas about a design philosophy for your website. There is no right or wrong way to do things, but the images you choose will make a significant difference to the overall look and feel of your website. Of course, you can experiment and change things as you go, but it's up to you to make those decisions.
Focus on the User Experience
When it comes to making a website that will stand out from the crowd, the user experience is everything. Think about some of the websites you have visited in the past. What did they have that you enjoyed? What about them was fun and interesting? In order to capture the perfect user experience, you have to put yourself in the shoes of your users.
Any website that you create should focus on the user experience above all else, because this is the most important benchmark for creating good quality service. If your website isn't fun to navigate and doesn't provide services in an accessible way, you can't hope to succeed.
Support
One of the hallmarks of a great website, and the one of best ways to make it stand out from the crowd is to offer 24/7 support. No matter what time of day it is, customers want to be able to get information and support regarding products and services.
Now, there are a few different ways that you can choose to accomplish this. Some people go for an FAQ on the website, which provides answers to some of the most frequently asked questions and makes it easy for users to get specific information whenever they want. Other people go for an AI-driven chatbot. This helps them to connect with users and provide tailored feedback to individual issues as they arise. Naturally, the type of support you offer depends on the overall complexity and style of website you have.
Closing Thoughts
There's plenty of unique ways to run your website. They're all right too - it's never a "one size fits all" type of problem. You'll have a different idea on how you want to make your site stand out than your competition, and that helps to give you a unique edge.
With that being said, it's important to look at different tools and options for what you want to do with your website. 9 times out of 10, building it yourself is a bad idea. You won't have the technical know-how or skills necessary to do it right, so hire a pro to sort it out for you.
Ultimately, that's the best bit of advice we can give you for making a website. If you want it to stand out, get it done professionally, especially as a small business. Nothing puts off a prospective customer faster than a lazy-looking site or something with broken features.
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This article is written by Jack Millard founder of Zixel. I am actually a real person and this was not written by AI or a robot. When I’m not writing blogs, I love great food, the occasional beer and motorbikes.
