Business owners are always looking for ways of grabbing the attention of regular and potential clients.
One of the many ways of doing so is by creating an engaging website.
A business website should provide a platform for e-commerce or information about a company. Developing a website for a business can seem challenging, but once you get the hang of it, it can be a lot of fun.
Here are some tips on how to create an engaging business website.
It Needs to Have Great Architecture
When you build the website, it’s almost like you’re building a house. There has to be a detailed plan and design based on your intended audience.
Just as an architect will know all about the building, you’ll need to know all about the layout of the website.
For recommended reading, you can check out some sites on the Internet.
Make Your Site Adaptive to Mobile Phones
A survey has shown that most people use their phones in making online purchases and other business transactions.
Making your business website adaptable to mobile phones can help increase the possibility of a good traffic flow to the site.
Make It Easy to Find
To engage with prospective customers, your business website has to be easily identifiable.
Choosing a domain name with a direct link to the business is one way of making the site easy to search and find.
Place Your Contact Information
The business contact information needs to be strategically placed where your audience will view it easily.
The top of the homepage is usually ideal so that visitors don’t have to search too hard to contact you.
Social media links can be either on the header or the footer of the homepage.
Make It Easy to Navigate
To make sure no one gets lost on your website, limit the number of navigation menus to about five.
Also, clearly label all the tabs, ensuring that related ones are next to each other. It should be easy to navigate back to the homepage, regardless of where you are on the site.
The search button needs to be visible, especially on the home page.
Avoid Monotony
They say variety is the spice of life. When you layout your pages, try to mix different designs. The layout for the homepage can be different from that on the contact page.
The services page can be different from the blog, and so on.
Keep Your Pages Neat
They say too much information can overload the mind. If you want to engage your audience, try to create a balance between text images.
Too much text might put off some prospective clients, whereas too many images may lead some into thinking the site isn’t serious.
Don’t Be Afraid to Use White Space
Whitespace has the magical effect of drawing attention from one place to another. It also gives a clean, classy look which can be quite engaging.
Too much color on the site might seem like clutter.
Use Clean Fonts
Collect fonts that are readable such as sans-serif fonts, for the basic content. San-serif fonts are typically easy to read on a screen, while serif fonts are usually easier for prints. Serif fonts seem to work when used as headings or ascents on websites.
Choose Your Colors Wisely
Clashing colors or too many haphazard color schemes can be distracting. It’s advisable to stick to a two-color scheme on your site. A great place to start is your logo when deciding on the color scheme.
Make Sure It’s Correct
A business can quickly lose clients if it presents inaccurate information. If a business website is riddled with typos and mistakes, it risks turning off potential customers.
Thoroughly proofread all the pages on the website before going live to avoid the embarrassment of sloppy errors.
Make It Fast
To engage potential customers, make sure the site is optimized for quick browsing.
To do this, ensure all the updates are up to date. Also, engage a website host that can handle the size of your site.
If your site is slow, visitors get frustrated and then move on to another site.
Solicit for Response
Try to get the visitors to respond to a call-to-action on every page. Examples of calls-to-action include asking potential clients to either call, buy a product, sign up for something, or download something.
Keep It Simple
Keeping the website simple and straight to the point might lead to more engagement and attention to the important things.
Too many fonts, graphics, icons, and videos can be distracting at times. Use short paragraphs and bullet points which are easily scannable.
Make It Personal
A personal touch to the design can give character to the website. Depending on the business, think about things that could signify what you do. If you are running a franchise of a Pajama Man, then you can make something creative and engaging that’s a play on the word pajamas.
You could look for fonts, colors, symbols, or icons that represent your area of specialty. People always seem to want to know that there is a human touch to the website’s activities.
Telling your story can also create a personal connection with the visitors on your site. It might be a great idea to have a photo gallery of staff and business activities. This has helped to create a personal connection with visitors to websites.
Conclusion
Being online is essential to any business these days. There’re numerous tools for creating websites, which have made life easier.
Whatever platform you use, the principles of creating an engaging website remain the same.
These are a well-thought-out design, a simple presentation, response solicitation, a personal touch, among others.