There are certain things your website needs to be successful. While some features are super important others are optional or my personal perference. I will explain as I go.
What key features or pages should your business website have?
- About Us
- Contact information
- Telephone number
- Hours of Operation
- Search
Too many business websites are impersonal. This page gives the visitor some information about you and/or your business. You don't need to get too personal. You could share how or why you started your business, your goals for your business, or what your main product line includes.
People like to connect with a real person and I think this page gives them piece of mind that you are indeed a "real" business and they would be dealing with a "real" person.
Contact Information:
Believe it or not, many websites forget to include a way for the visitor to contact them. You should include this information, whether just an email address or physical address and email, on ALL pages. You never know how someone is getting to your website. They could be coming in "through the back door" meaning they don't come to your website through your index page and if they never visit your index page they still need a way of contacting you.
Telephone Number:
If you want visitors to contact you by phone this should be easily visible on all pages as well. I suggest putting it at the top of the page. Take a look at either of our websites and you will see the phone number big and bold at the top right.
http://www.limaugeboutique.com/
wholesale.limaugeboutique.com
For Contact and Telephone information, never make the visitor search for this information. It should be easily visible on all pages.
Hours of Operation:
Whether you have a physical store or work from your home you should set hours of operation. If you don't then people will be calling you at 10 pm on a Sunday (yes it has happened to us). If you work at home and the phone rings after your hours of operation you should discipline yourself not to answer the phone. Also, don't assume that the visitor to your website lives in the same timezone as you do. Include the abbreviated timezone next to your hours of operation as well.
Here is a list of Abbreviations for timezones:
http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/
Search:
If you don't have a way for your visitor to search on your website you just might lose their business. I visited a website just yesterday looking for fabric and while their website was very well organized they had no way of searching for fabric. They probably have over 2,000 pieces of fabric on their website. Without a search I would have to look at every category and at every piece of fabric until I found what I wanted. Unless someone really wants your product that bad they will just move on to the next website if they can't search.
If your web host or shopping cart software does not include a search feature then add this free search feature to your website. You will need knowledge of copying and pasting html code into your website. I have used it on many websites I have designed and it blends in nicely.
http://www.freefind.com/
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