How to Build the Best Corporate Website
You have probably come across the phrase “the future is online” several times. Online presence is becoming a necessity to business owners who want to remain relevant as competition intensifies. Although a few businesses choose not to go online, approximately 90% are choosing this route.
Corporate websites were initially used to convey information about the company. Today, it’s different. These websites are used to educate, engage and make conversions from potential customers. To achieve that, building a corporate website that is appealing and highly responsive is critical.
Why Do You Need a Corporate Website?
Some business owners solely use social media to create an online presence for their businesses. The method is effective, especially when yours is a small entity or start-up. The method also has limitations because most people still believe in business websites, especially now that online scammers have also taken advantage of the online boom.
Functions of a Corporate Website
Here are some of the reasons a corporate website is important:
Helps in Boosting Your Credibility
When other people are focusing on creating social media profiles, you can build a corporate website and then connect it with your socials. This way, you will make a great impression on anyone interested in your goods or services.
Most online shoppers have more confidence in a business with a corporate website. They feel safe transacting with you, and it is easy for a person who doesn’t know you to purchase from your company.
It is Your 24/7 Marketing Tool
With a corporate website, you reduce your marketing costs significantly. Why? Because your site works as your marketing tool without rest. So, whether your business is open or is past operating hours, it remains visible to website visitors.
People can make inquiries at any time of the day, and you have flexibility to respond to them during office hours.
Branding
Potential customers have to be reminded about your business. You can clearly establish what you stand for and show who you are by having a corporate website. When potential customers understand what you represent, they will likely buy from you.
Business branding sets you apart from your competitors. With a professionally designed website, customers can always relate to your brand.
Information Gathering
A corporate website can help you gather information about your clients. Where does your traffic mostly come from? What is the age bracket that is most interested in your business? With such data, you can provide better support to your clients.
Other websites, like the sales-oriented ones, focus on driving traffic and promoting goods and services. They feel more “salesy” and have limited information about the business.
How to Build a Good Corporate Website
When considering a corporate website development, you have to consider several factors that will help make the site a valuable tool for your business. Here is how to build a good corporate website that represents your brand:
Consider Your Target Audience Needs
Of course, you will not be building a website for your needs. You already have the goods/ services and want people to know about what you are offering. Understanding your target audience’s needs is the fastest way of identifying them.
But how do you do that? By being specific on whom you want to serve. Sometimes, it seems easy to identify an audience until it is time to create an avatar. That is when you feel as if you want to target everyone.
When deciding how to build company website, your primary focus should be your target audience. Creating a list of as many questions as possible becomes handy. For example, is my audience interested in my business’s news or its growth trajectory? What age bracket I’m I interested in? Once you have answered most of these questions, you will be ready to reach them successfully.
By narrowing down, you do not feel overwhelmed about wanting everyone to visit your site. It means you have a specific group you prioritize, but still welcome others to do business with you.
Targeting can be challenging when done alone, which is why it is recommendable to let your marketing personnel help you. If you are a sole trader, you can consider requesting the corporate website development professionals designing your website to help you narrow down. They do this a lot and have built processes that help their clients identify such groups.
Website as Part of Corporate Culture
A business website helps you remain relevant, especially when competing with other online business owners. However, you should view your website as a multipurpose tool that helps you attract potential customers and convert them into leads.
So, when choosing how to build website, you should cut the obsession with brand promotion. This concept was used in the early days, and using it in today’s robust and informed audience, will make you fail terribly.
Use your corporate website to engage with your audience. They are interested in knowing what you have to offer them and not your brand’s superiority. Otherwise, your business becomes irrelevant to them and resorts to finding alternatives from review sites or even social media!
Also, corporates get websites to build trust with their potential clients even when they do not visit a physical store/office. For this reason, you should consider hiring reputable website builders to help you design and develop a professional-looking website. Make your first impression count.
Modern and Functional Design
Another challenging part of this process is how to design a corporate website. Why is this part challenging? Because you don’t just pick a design and run it. Website designers gradually improve their skills to keep up with the web browsers’ requirements.
To some extent, a web design affects your Search Engine Optimization. Sites that have malfunctioning designs are penalized by the browsers. Usually, malfunctioning designs are slow, which means penalties will prevent them from ranking. This is bad since potential customers will not discover your business.
Besides getting penalized by the browsers, internet users are also not interested in malfunctioning web designs. They leave such pages because they feel it’s a waste of their time. It creates a bad impression that can hurt your business. If you can’t invest in a functional design, how can people trust the quality of goods or services you are offering them?
Also, your website’s design should look modern and appealing. You can achieve it by having beautiful colours, graphics, and fonts. This way, your online visitors will easily remember your site when they decide to come back for business.
Let your website represent your business. Ensure it resonates with modern era clients. People are appreciating beautiful and minimalistic designs. This preference is so because they can get all the business information within a few scrolls, rather than browsing through bulk pages before getting what they want.
Simple and Convenient Functionality
Once you have your website design, a back-end developer has to ensure the technical part is working. You can have a beautiful design, but loading becomes a problem. Your visitors should not feel like they have a problem with their gadgets because they receive broken images or incomplete pages when visiting your site.
So, regardless of the gadget your visitors are using, they should access your site. It creates a great user experience and provides convenience. It also means that people can decide to do business with you from wherever they are. Otherwise, limiting your website’s functionality to specific devices means limiting your business leads.
Unique and Useful Content
Once you are done with dealing with how to build a website for a company, and it has gone live, you need to give it regular maintenance. Simple and basic maintenance is by creating unique and valuable content.
Be careful about the type of content you put for your visitors. You don’t want to bore them to death and have them leave before they know about your business. Provide mind-provoking and fresh content that makes them want to stay and scroll through your site.
The worst mistake you can make is providing your visitors with duplicate content. So, if you are hiring a team or an independent contractor to help you create content, ensure they understand the consequences of plagiarizing. There is also a penalty by web browsers for such.
Content can also help in driving organic traffic to your corporate website. This is where you find your customers. To get this traffic, you can have keywords incorporated in your content for what you want your website ranked. Be careful, though, not to lose the relevance of your content by overstaffing it with the keywords.
Testimonials and customer reviews also count as helpful content. Whenever you deliver to a customer, encourage them to leave a review. Potential customers love this type of information as it helps them in deciding whether to do business with you or not.
Safety
Your website visitors definitely need to feel safe. Online website security is mainly determined by the hosting company you choose. So, it is important to be keen on the hosting provider you are considering. You do not want to expose your clients’ information to online phishers. A strong Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is vital for this protection.
Also, you should consider your company’s security as you take care of your customer information. A Secure File Protocol (SFP) helps you transfer your business files safely without getting stolen. Your host should also provide you with daily backups for your server to ensure your business continues operating in case of data loss.
Besides having these security measures, your hosting company should also have regular security maintenance. It prevents malicious activities from slipping into your corporate website and catches them on time if any has successfully breached the security protocol.
Boost your business today by building a corporate website for it. When ready to expand your reach, we will be prepared to help you grow. At Appkong, we understand different business needs and can advise you on a website design that will help you increase your conversion rates.
