As you start building your online presence, you may be wondering what features or pages you should include on your site. Each industry has different needs, but this list provides a few general features that businesses from any industry should include when designing a website.
Home Page
Start by creating a killer home page. The purpose of this page is to welcome your visitors and introduce yourself. Including headers, blurbs, and photos helps people easily determine exactly what your company is and does at first sight.
Your home page should be interesting enough that people are willing to stick around and look at your other landing pages. Always include a call to action (CTA) that will encourage people to stay longer and start building a relationship with your brand. CTAs such as “schedule an appointment” or “view products” will guide them in what to do next.
Product Pages
This seems rather obvious, but the next important feature to include when designing a website is your product or service pages. Inform your visitors what you have to offer. If you are a plumber, tell them exactly what you specialize in. If you are an insurance company, tell your customers what plans you have to offer to them.
Images are a powerful tool on your product pages. They keep people interested longer and help them process information. Images also create expectations. If you are a catering company, including photos of beautifully plated, delicious food will create customer expectation that you deliver high-quality meals. And if you are a roof repairman and include photos of smiling workers completing an excellent repair job, customers will expect friendly staff and a job well done.
Contact Us
If you don’t have a contact page, then you don’t have customers. Simple as that. People who visit your website may have questions, or may want to set an appointment. Either way, they need to know who to talk to and how to reach them.
Share your phone number, email address, online chat option (if you have one), and physical location. Customers like to have options. And keep in mind that the more responsive you are, the more trust they will have in your company.
FAQs
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) pages are incredibly useful for a variety of reasons.
First, an FAQs page allows you to provide more information without making your site look too wordy or overwhelming. You can describe certain things in more detail, without ruining the appearance of your catchy phrases on the main portion of the page.
Next, your FAQs page can reduce the amount of emails that flood to your inbox or calls that you receive. If you are able to answer the most commonly asked questions on your site, then people won’t have to contact you with all their questions. They will also increase confidence in your company as they learn more information about your services and products.
Last, FAQs can dramatically improve your SEO (search engine optimization) score. As people are searching for answers to frequently asked questions on the internet, they may land on your page because you were able to use the key phrases on your site more often than you would have been able to without an FAQs page.
About Us
The About Us page helps build relationships because customers get to know more about the individuals behind the services.
The style of your About Us page is up to you. Consider including photos of your staff members. You can showcase individual employee interests or share the story of how your business came to be. Tell customers what you value and why your team is passionate about what you do.
Testimonials
Last, but certainly not least, is testimonials. You can add testimonials to one landing page or every landing page if you want! Testimonials build confidence. As customers question whether or not your business is reliable, they will gain confidence as they read positive reviews from people that are similar to themselves.
Think about it. Do you typically ask your friends, family, or neighbors about their experience with a certain car model or law mowing company before you invest your own money into it? Sure you do! Your customers will build trust in you as they see the positive experiences that others have had with your company.
As you begin designing a website, make sure to include these 6 features into your plans. They will showcase your work and help you build relationships with your customers. And if you want to learn more about the basics of web design, check out Big Red Jelly’s blog for more useful tips. If you need help along the way, feel free to reach out to the Big Red Jelly web design team; we would be more than happy to help you design your new or existing website! Schedule a Free Consultation today.
Happy website building!
