Getting started with a new website for your small business can feel like a big task. If you’re building a website as a beginner or even have a website already, knowing what information should be on there can make the process more straightforward and help you make full use of it.
Here are 5 things to include to make sure you’re getting the most from your website:
The ‘About’ page is often one of the most visited pages on a website. This is your opportunity to introduce the business and share your story. It can be an effective way to humanise your brand and build the trust and credibility that will help turn browsers into paying customers.
It’s also a great place to highlight your values and other bits of information that make you stand out - like something you do differently to your competitors, or a particular cause you stand for.
Tip: Start this page with a sentence or two about your audience’s challenges or goals. This makes readers feel understood and shows you care about their needs.
If you sell products, each product should have its own page, and include a description, price and specifications such as materials and dimensions. Adding customer reviews is a powerful way to increase the confidence of potential buyers, and the reviews themselves can answer questions people might have about the items.
Including clear information about delivery times and costs helps people understand what to expect. If you offer free delivery or next day options, make a point of highlighting these helpful features.
Tip: Write unique descriptions for each product, rather than copy-and-paste. This not only gives users a better experience on your site, it’s beneficial for SEO too.
For service-based businesses, use this page to describe your services in a way that’s clear and easy for your readers to understand. Start by summarising them, then explain each one concisely. If you offer lots of services, it’s often worthwhile having a main page with links to each individual service where people can read about them in more detail.
Tip: Sometimes readers won’t know what service might be best for them. To help remove this barrier, let them know they can get in touch with you so you can work out the best option.
Website visitors like to know about who they’re buying from just as much as what they’re buying. A team page gives you the chance to let the people in your business shine. It can be used to capture the personalities as well as the professional expertise behind the scenes.
Tip: You can use headshots of each team member or even use an avatar or icon that reflects each person’s character or role.
Here’s where people can get in touch with you. Add your business phone number, email address, location address, social media links and live chat (if you have one). You can also include a map to illustrate where people can find your business.
A built-in contact form makes it easy to capture website visitors’ details such as their name, email address and a short message about their reason for reaching out. It’s a good idea to think about the type of information that would help you respond to enquiries most efficiently, but don’t ask for details that aren’t necessary - keep your form simple.
Listing your working hours helps set expectations. If you have a physical store, people will be more likely to visit if they’re sure you’re open. Remember to include holiday opening times and update them when needed - your customers will appreciate being able to find this information easily.
Tip: Consider using a contact form with CAPTCHA, which prevents spam bots from contacting you.
An FAQ (frequently asked questions) page is a space to answer the queries you receive most often. Readers can visit this page to find the information they’re looking for, and it will save you the time of responding to the same questions individually. This could be to do with things like shipping and returns, payments or how you source your materials.
Tip: Write out the questions from your customer’s point of view. This makes things clearer for the reader and is better for SEO purposes as it’s more likely to match what is typed into search engines. For example: “Can I buy a gift card?” rather than “Can you buy a gift card?”
Your website is a chance to engage with your audience, so being thoughtful in the way you provide information can have a positive impact on the experience you give them.
Don’t forget, you can chat with our friendly V-Hub Digital Advisers for more free digital business advice, too.
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