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3 To-Dos for an Effective Business Site Design

Posted: 10 Nov 2012 11:15 AM PST

For many business owners, a website is a very vital element of their overall marketing strategy. A website can help you promote your brand and position your business in the way you desire. In many cases, a website is the first impression customers have of your business. This is why businesses need to get the design of their sites right from the onset.

The following are some of the things you need to consider when building a site for your business.

1. Have a clear objective

'What is the objective of my site?' This is the first thing you need to consider before designing your site. Whether you are a consultant, service provider or retailer, you need to think about what you would want visitors to do when they get to your site. Once the objective of your site is established, you will be able to design it in a way that elicits the desired action from visitors.

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2. Design effectively

An effective design will make it easy for people to find your business online, as well as take the necessary action when they land on your pages. The following are some tips for an effective design:

• Balance aesthetics and SEO – Your site needs to be visually attractive, as well as properly optimized for search engines. Make sure the site contains quality keywords which are relevant to your industry.

To make it easy for search engines to index your pages, make sure they contain at least 300 words. You can keep your pages attractive by using images, as well as plenty of white space.

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• Make navigation easy – You need to make it as easy as possible for visitors to navigate around your site. Preferably, visitors should be able to reach any part of your site with not more than three clicks. Make sure your links are accompanied by relevant anchor texts. This will give visitors a good idea of where they will land when they click on the links.

• Allow your site to speak for itself – The purpose of your site is to convince visitors of the quality of your services or products. Display links awards you have won, accreditation received and associations you belong to.

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You could also include a 'testimonials' page on your site featuring comments from satisfied customers, and link to other positive reviews about your business.

3. Make an offer

You need to use the homepage of your site to make your visitors a specific offer. Make sure the pages of your site are filled with information which would be valuable to your readers, including video, text and images.

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This information will increase the likelihood of visitors taking up your offer, whether it is a special discount or a free report. You could also invite visitors to sign up for your newsletter mailing list. In case you are selling products, you could display images of a particular product with a 'Buy Now' button.

However, this strategy does not work for every business. For instance, people in the legal or medical fields cannot make such offers due to professional reasons. For such businesses, it would still be helpful to invite visitors to sign up for a mailing list to get newsletters or regular updates. This will ensure that you retain a strong connection with potential customers.

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