Tips for start-up companies establishing a website

/ Posted By - Bradleys Accountants / Categories - Business start-ups

In this day and age, a start-up company cannot expect to get anywhere without a website. Having an internet presence gives consumers an easy portal to discover more information about what a business has to offer, which in turn helps to drive sales and boost revenue.

Technophobes may opt to invest a bit of cash into their website by paying a professional to design it for them. However, those who know their HTML from their C++ may want to save the cash and create their own site. Yet, if they are new to marketing businesses on the web, they might want to follow some of these simple tips.

Aesthetics

First and foremost, entrepreneurs must think about how their site is going to look. An attractive site will naturally appeal to those visiting it much more than an ugly, bland one. Pick a pleasant colour scheme, do not overload it with content and choose logos and fonts that are consistent and aesthetically pleasing, yet professional and fitting the target audience.

"I would always advise that the size and number of images be considered as part of branding discussions. How imagery is used signals a message to the target market," Rebecca Swift, creative planning manager at iStockphoto told the Guardian.

Remember never to source from Google Images unless the photos have a creative commons licence. It’s best to opt for websites with databases of free stock images or ones that are available at low prices.

Opting for a template may seem very easy, but these overdone models will leave it looking run-of-the-mill and ordinary. Those that do choose to use a template should try to use ones that are fully customisable, allowing for them to truly make it their own.

Content

Before writing any of the content for the website, business owners should always have a marketing message in mind that expresses the outlook of the organisation, attracts consumers and differentiates from other firms offering similar services.

Copy should always be clear and concise. This means not writing reams of text explaining every tenet of the company’s activities and not entirely covering the words with graphics that make the website unreadable. Make it to the point and address all the potential customers’ needs and concerns.

Read over everything numerous times before it goes live as typos and nonsensical copy will immediately leave a bad impression on customers and quickly turn them away.

Remember also to include all contact information, such as an address, email and telephone number. Not only will this make it easy for customers to find and get in touch with a business, Google will likely put this information in their database, which will make it much more easily accessible.

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    SEO

    Search engine optimisation (SEO) should also be considered when producing the website, as it can be created and updated in such a way that helps to boost a website’s position on Google and other search engines when relevant queries are made. This makes it much easier for customer to discover the website and helps to drive business.

    Sites that are regularly updated with high quality, relevant content, such as news or blogs, featuring optimised keywords and key-phrases will perform well. Copy should link to other areas of the site, as well as to appropriate external websites and all pages must have suitable titles that accurately describes what lies on it.

    Integrating website content with social networks like Facebook and Twitter will help to boost the company’s reach through sharing and consumer engagement, while this also has benefits for SEO.

    Following these tips should ensure that start-up businesses quickly start to reach out to potential customers through their website, helping to drive sales and boost revenue.

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