The 8 Factors For A Successful Small Business Website
What does it take to make your business website successful?
In reality, nearly all companies desire a website that is successful. However, for many companies, this goal is not easy or quick to attain.
Entrepreneurs often put in a lot of work, money, sweat, and tears to gain attention online and win new customers.
Good news is that you can get more done online with a simple strategy and steps that are easy to implement than large budgets. This article will explain how to control the success of your website while it is being built and how to increase its effectiveness after it goes live.
These aspects are logically and chronologically related. Therefore, the order does not reflect success potential.
And here are the 8 most important success factors for a successful business website.
1. Define clearly the goals of your website
Clear goals are essential to determine if a website is a success or failure. These goals are a result of the corporate and marketing strategies. It is actually quite easy. This is however where many problems begin in practice.
To put it simply, companies that cannot deliver a product/service and satisfy the needs for the target audience will face economic problems sooner or later. This is independent of the website.
Clear and unambiguous websites have many advantages. It is easy to identify your company’s goals and compare them to the needs and wishes of the target audience.
Companies that make the most of their website are those who do everything right. It’s more than just about gaining new customers.
The data can be used correctly, and the company can better align itself to the needs of the target audience if it is properly used. Pure added value.
2. Increase user trust
We have established the essential prerequisites through step 1. How do you gain the trust of users?
Transparency, honesty, competence, and transparency are the hallmarks of this website.
Website visitors should not be confused about the offerings of your business. It is important to clearly understand the information, products and services offered by your website.
Websites must be able to trust their target audience. You can only demonstrate relevant competence by knowing the problems and topics of your target audience.
Even if your visitors are familiar with the company, trust can still build up. They want to know the intentions of the company. It is important that they know the company’s intentions not only abstractly but also personally. This is why “About us”, page is so important.
This is especially true for online shops. The likelihood of you disclosing your credit card information drops exponentially if there are any doubts about whether the business is legitimate.
3. Analyze keywords – from user relevance to search intent
Relevance of content is crucial for the success of your company’s website. Relevant content is available at every stage of the customer journey.
Trust is built when you provide relevant information to your visitors in the very early stages of product search. This is why business blogs are so effective.
This raises an important question. Which content is most relevant? A good keyword analysis will often provide the answer. This simply means that you need to find out what your target audience is searching for on Google. It is also important to clarify the target group’s search intent for each keyword.
My personal view is that there is no other approach to data-based marketing. It is becoming harder to understand the intent of users in niches that are not understood by “common sense”, but there is still enough search volume to create successful websites.
But you still need common sense. You will need to interpret the data correctly from the keyword tools. The luna-park keyword analysis tutorial provides a detailed and more in-depth introduction to the topic.
4. Outstanding Content
Now we have a solid understanding of our target audience, potential users, relevant keywords, and search intentions. These are the best preconditions for creating high-quality, relevant content.
Excellent content will be a key factor by 2019, at the latest. It all comes down to creating value.
Other requirements include a high-quality presentation and perfect formulation. If the content is useful for visitors, it can only positively impact the success of a website.
Content that adds value is a magnet for website visitors and readers.
Google is increasing this attraction at an astonishing and growing rate. This is not because of self-interest. Google is a big company that provides useful content.
There are many ways to provide excellent content online with added value. This sounds complicated. This is not the case. It is actually quite easy after the preparatory work (steps 1, 2)
Hosting providers can offer added value to users by writing about server problems.
It makes sense when organic food manufacturers publish online tutorials on healthy eating.
It is a smart idea to think outside of the box in your company. It is not easy to convert visitors into customers if you exceed a certain threshold.
5. Usability and user experience
Usability and user experience are key success factors. Visitors can find interesting content quickly on a company website that is well-designed.
You need good information architecture and well-thought-out navigation to achieve this. You can also have a good understanding of your identity and the things you wish to offer others.
Users should be able access videos tutorials relevant to their needs as soon as possible if the company’s goal is to generate revenue via video tutorials.
You should ensure that users have access to your products and services with as few clicks as possible.
Navigation must be responsively designed and work on both the desktop and mobile phones.
Your website’s usability and user experience will impact many other aspects. There are many connections between web design, web programming and search engine optimization.
6. Appealing web design & responsive design
What makes a web design attractive? This is the conclusion of many studies and surveys that have been done in the field e-commerce.
The following three aspects are what I find most remarkable about the beautifully prepared infographic by Justuno/BargainFox.
93% of consumers consider appearance to be a major factor in their buying decision
Online shoppers abandon 52% of their sites and never return to them because they don’t like the overall design.
42% of users base their overall opinion on a website solely on its design
This evaluation is not a complete one. You can’t convert users into customers if they leave a website with a bad design. Learn more about Designdriven – Why design matters.
Another one. Google tracks user signals extremely precisely. Websites with a high bounce rate will rank lower. This is the exact opposite of a business website that has been successful.
Web design is more than aesthetics. It’s almost all about functionality.
7. The right content management system
Google is the best place to find successful websites. Google loves fresh content, and it is important that the content be updated regularly.
It is important that you are able to publish relevant content on the internet with minimal effort. Content management systems are here to help. They also allow non-programmers create and maintain content.
This requirement can be fulfilled in principle with web construction kits (Wix and Jimdo), etc. ).
There are some things you need to keep in mind before choosing a content management software.
- Are lightning-fast loading times possible?
- Do you have the ability to design title tags, meta descriptions, URLs and other elements? ?
- Are multilingual SEO and the correct setting of HREF long text possible?
- Is the client site javascript not required to display links and content?
- Are you able to control the design and functionality of your product?
- Are you in complete control of your data?
- Do you have tools that allow you to modify the layout?
Ahrefs has done a comparative analysis of Wix and WordPress to show the importance of the right CMS in order for a website’s success starting June 2019.
We compared the success rates of WIX and WordPress domains.
The result can be seen above. WordPress has 46.1% domains that receive organic traffic. 1.4% of domains that were created using the WIX modular system receive organic traffic via Google.
This survey could not resolve the issue in detail. I can’t either. I recommend that you use a content management system. You can easily set up your CMS in just minutes. This is possible without programming knowledge.
8. Search Engine Optimization – Being found online
We now move on to a more exciting topic. It’s about long-term sustainability and success for your company page.
We have therefore focused from the beginning of this article on your ability to attract organic traffic from Google & Co.
Google should show the website in the top ranks for relevant keywords starting at step 3.
At the beginning, you need to put in the effort to create and, if needed, advertise high-quality content that has added value. The content can then be discovered and used for marketing purposes.
Everything would be perfect right now. Unfortunately, Google isn’t as smart as your visitors. It is therefore important to optimize your website for real users (UX, usability) and Google.
You should use as little on-page SEO as possible on your homepage to ensure that it tastes good to Google technology. How this works will depend on how your content management system is set up. Other homework like setting up HTTPS or converting to it, is also important.
Summary
It doesn’t have to cost a lot to create a successful website for your company. It is more important to make the right initial considerations. It is important to keep your goals and the target audience in mind. No matter if you are starting a new website or moving forward with a website redesign or relaunch, it doesn’t matter.
Provide added value and avoid technical and creative pitfalls when designing web pages and using content management systems. Google and your visitors will both be happy.
These success factors will be your key point of reference throughout all phases of your project.
