Your Website Is The Key To Your Business. Here’s How!
During one of the job interviews I had years back, I was asked to take a look at a company’s official website and point out three things that worked and three things that didn’t.
Needless to say, I had to offer arguments for my observations. I didn’t realize how important said test was at the time but it gradually nurtured a keen eye for detail in the e-commerce area, as far as I was concerned.
You see, whenever I go on a website, I can’t help but notice its good parts and its bad parts.
Mostly its bad parts.
And if those bad parts are overly detrimental to your client’s online experience, rest assured, they won’t be returning to your site anytime soon. For this purpose, I will share with you some of the important factors that render an e-commerce website successful.
SEO Writing
OK, so this isn’t something you can properly see when you access a website but it has to be done right if you want your website to be seen at all. See what I did there?
There’s a reason why good SEO writers are in such high demand; they’re the gods who put your website on the internet map (SEO does stand for “search engine optimization” after all). That might be an exaggeration but the fact still remains — smart SEO writing equals more people going on your website and helping you grow your business.
I strongly advise you to invest in good SEO writers or even doing your own research and applying the newly-acquired info. For that, you need to know your business very well, study the online market and be open to accepting what keywords or phrases work best for you.
The content of your website must be reflected in the keywords you use and vice-versa! For example, you can’t write about tropical flowers and only use ‘flowers’ as your only SEO keyword. By using the full syntagm ‘tropical flowers’, you will attract the specific readers/clients that are looking for that specific topic.
Don’t mislead or omit or else your business will be treated the same.
User compatibility
There’s no such thing as the perfect website but that doesn’t mean we should give up. While it’s wise to accept that perfection does not exist, surrendering to that fact only stuns our evolution.
What I mean by this is that we should think outside the box and put ourselves in the user’s shoes. Take a step back and ask yourself, if you would be a client, would you be pleased with the state of your website?
As a business and website owner, you just want to put everything out there and show your potential but you should always take into account the user-friendliness of your platform. Speaking strictly for e-commerce, there are usually 7 things that interest a buyer:
object — object availability — description (photos, sizes, colors) — price — shipping — return policy –contact
If these 7 things are not easily accessible and presented in a user-friendly manner, your buyer will lose interest quickly. Time will not be wasted on hunting down these basic elements and your credibility as a business will diminish.
Think of the things that frustrate you when you buy something online and make sure you don’t repeat them in your own corner of the internet.
Breathable layout
Your website needs a clean, polished look to it, I can’t stress this enough. It has to be breathable and structured in a manner that allows efficient navigation.
If you overwhelm the user with too much information or too many options then you’re doing it wrong. Keep everything simple whenever possible. Summarize things in very few words. The ‘About’ section has to be short and straightforward — don’t bore readers with your history; instead, show a 30 seconds video of your company goals or describe your business in relevant keywords.
Here’s a great example:
Also, I would avoid using music (especially if it can’t be muted), too many pop-ups and for the love of the internet, please take it easy with the animations! Don’t assault your clients with endless interactivity, it exhausts them from the second they go on your homepage. Here’s a negative example below from a digital branding company:
Their homepage flashes around 10 background photos one after another in an attempt to show off their multitude of clients at the cost of sacrificing marketing basics and high-quality layout. Less is better in most cases.
Details matter
Whatever can be easily-overlooked will become extremely evident when treated with triviality.
I’m talking about text colors, fonts, images, bad content writing and so on. Don’t clutter your website. You don’t need that pink text or that gigantic font size to draw attention. Use high-quality photos, clean banners and distribute sections wisely. Keep your color scheme in check. Better yet, make sure you have one.
And most importantly, when advertising a service or item for purchase, every detail has to be in check. Never and I repeat, never place text over an object if it disappears into it and therefore poses difficulty in reading the actual words. I’ve seen this done plenty of times and it’s not only lazy but also unprofessional.
Coming up with the best version of the website for your business is a continuous learning process. It comes down to trial and error. It takes time and the willingness to learn about your target audience so even if you don’t get it right from the beginning, you have the luxury of improving on anything that might hinder your success.
