In today's fast-paced digital world, an online presence is essential for businesses of all sizes to thrive.
Having an effective website is no longer an option, but a necessity to reach potential customers and grow your business. But not all website subpages are equal in value. Certain essential website pages can empower your business to reach new heights by increasing your online visibility, brand reputation, and customer engagement, while others are more educational, or dedicated to convert sales.
In this blog, we will explore the essential website pages that are need to take your business to the next level and provide valuable insight into how to create a website that is both functional and impactful.
Homepage
A business’ website must clearly communicate what the organization does and why visitors should care. Your homepage should give an immediate glimpse into what your business offers without overwhelming readers, but at the same time, assuring them they’ve arrived at the right place. It must succinctly explain essential website subpages that customers can explore further if interested, while providing a clear Call-to-Action (C2A) within the first “fold.”
Take advantage of creativity - use imagery, patterns, and even animation, when possible, to draw attention to key pieces of information like your C2A or memorable content that you want visitors to remember. Making sure you have appropriately highlighted essential website subpages will help guide visitors along their journey on your site, all building toward your brand’s goal, albeit signups, visiting a brick-and-mortar location, or engaging in some type of sale or service.
About Us
An About Us page is an opportunity that should never be overlooked. It allows you to introduce potential customers to you and your company in a non-obtrusive platform that they may experience at your business location. It's a place where you can tell your story, give a glimpse into the creative process, and demonstrate why you do what you do.
Crafting interesting content on the About Us page allows potential customers to get to know the people behind the product, building trust in the brand and inspiring others through its creativity. This is also a great chance for you to share your mission and value statements—introducing new ideas, projects, and collaborations to those who land on your site. Don't miss out on this chance to tell your story!
Services and Products
For a company to stay competitive in today's market, presenting your products or services is paramount to completing the user experience. A products or services page shows potential customers an overview of what is offered and in most cases, includes pricing information. This page gives valuable insight into brand offerings and helps site visitors understand how the product or service solves their problem.
Your services and products subpages also serve as an educational resource for potential buyers, enabling them to better understand the value proposition that your company offers. Not only is this type of page helpful for highlighting offerings, but the creative use of graphics and language can help draw customers in and show off the business’s unique personality.
Contact
For any business that values customer service, a contact page is essential. Having an easily accessible subpage, dedicated to contact information creates an incredible opportunity for customers to get in touch with you quickly and easily. From email addresses for inquiries to direct contact numbers for urgent issues, a contact page should every option a visitor can reach out. Don't forget those helpful social media links too!
Social media is a powerful tool that empower customers to share feedback or ask questions with just one click. Moreover, social media pages add trust and credibility. They are invaluable sources of market research - uncovering great insights into how people use and perceive your products or services along with how they perceive you or your brand. Making sure you include all the ways visitors can reach out and your contact page is another step in completing the full user-experience.
Blog
If you are looking for a great way to maximize your business presence on the web and reach new customers, creating a blog is your answer. Not only can it help you build relationships and establish a stronger networking platform, but it also provides Search Engine Optimization (SEO) value in helping to boost your ranking when someone is searching for products or services within your industry when done correctly.
By providing helpful advice and well written, informative articles that keeps readers coming back for more, it gives the reader a feeling of learning something new every time they visit. Get creative with your posts - create fun visuals, customize topics depending on recent news stories, or feature interviews with experts in the field. With these tips and tricks, keeping a fresh flow of new content to your site is possible, while adding value to your site along the way!
FAQ
FAQs, or Frequently Asked Questions are an essential component to the customer experience for any business and has proven to be a great customer service tool. When it comes to providing an elevated user experience, 66% of adults feel that valuing their time is the single most important thing your brand can do to help deliver on the user experience. It is important to ensure that your audience finds the answers they need with useful and accurate information presented concisely.
Your FAQ page should include topics related to your products or services, customer satisfaction, returns and refunds, shipping information, customer service contact details as well as other details from which customers can benefit such as store hours and location. If you are unsure of what to put in this section, ask your team that fields calls and talks to customers on a regular basis. The questions they’re answering the most should be included in your FAQ. At the same time, including interesting facts about your business is also helpful for creating an engaging customer experience. With a well-thought-out FAQ page, you can save precious time by reducing customer queries while educating your audience and providing valuable insight into the inner workings of your company without delay.
Testimonials
Customers want to feel confident that the product or service they are investing in will truly deliver value. According to Big Commerce, 92% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase decision. Testimonials from existing customers provide the reassurance of a positive user experience and serve as an endorsement of a company’s good practices. A part of these good company practices should include a program or plan that is built into your SOP to ask your customer base for a review right at the moment of purchase or delivery. Having a larger review basis than your competitors is often times the decision factor needed to convert a customer.
Reviewers benefit too as they give potential customers insights into their experience and potentially help build their own reputation as a trusted expert. An effective testimonial page showcasing customer feedback should be a key part of every brand’s online marketing strategy; it builds credibility quickly and helps create trust in the brand. In addition, providing interactive content on this page, such as visuals or audio clips of these reviews can help keep potential customers engaged while they look through your offers and take away the feeling that the reviews aren’t real.
Privacy Policy
It's important that any business takes the necessary steps to safeguard their customers' data. That's why having a Privacy Policy is so essential. It provides customers with greater transparency about what data the business collects, how it's used, and stored securely. Worldwide, privacy laws require you to post your Privacy Policy on your website and make it accessible through your mobile app (if you have one) if you collect personal information from visitors. A Privacy Policy is also required for many third-party services that enhance the performance of your site (such as payment processing tools, analytics suites, and advertising plug-ins).
Customers can also receive updates whenever policy changes are made. Taking the time to craft an effective privacy policy demonstrates a commitment to ensure that customer trust and security has been taken seriously. Having a strong privacy policy not only helps protect customer privacy but offers peace of mind as well.
Terms of Service
Terms of Service are an incredibly important piece of the digital puzzle when it comes to using an online service. They can be filled with technical language, giving you the legal jargon necessary to protect both parties - but don’t be fooled; that doesn't mean they should be glossed over. Providing a boilerplate set of terms makes sure that everyone is on the same page in understanding their rights and obligations. Reading them through and understanding what a website you're signing up for provides is critical for making sure that you have the best experience possible. Even though most websites do not require a TOS, including one is a wise management practice.
In accordance with the Children's On-line Privacy Protection Act, websites collecting personal information about children under 13 must make explicit disclosures. A greater amount of information must be disclosed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). For online service providers to be protected from copyright infringement suits for content posted on websites that they host, they must disclose contact information to receive notices from copyright claimants to take advantage of the "safe harbor" provisions of the DMCA.
To sum it up, your online presence should make it clear what your business does and why visitors should care, details about you, your team and your company with an engaging story to build trust with potential customers, services or products subpages to give viewers overviews of what you offer and possibly pricing information, an easy to use contact page to provide all the methods of communication, and a blog that provides helpful advice related to your industry to keep updated content flowing.
The message here is to include any and all information that may be pertinent to a new customer or client, giving them a hub where information can be quickly collected to help your customer base make an informed decision. By providing quality content that your readers want, your brand builds trust, and secures this customer trust further by including things like the TOS, reviews, FAQ and any other information your customer base is asking for.
For many business owners, this can be a bit overwhelming; however, Ideatech Creatives can be here to assist you every step of the way. From developing your digital strategy to build trust, to full website design and development, Ideatech Creatives can assist with creating content that is informative and engaging. If you have questions on what could be added or updated to your site, or you need one built from scratch, contact us today for a free discovery call and see how Ideatech can help bring your online presence to life.
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