As a business owner, it can be stressful to create a unique, functional website that stands out amongst your competitors - while also helping you grow your business. Graphic designers may tend to focus on design and aesthetics to stand out; however, this is only one of many factors that create a good functional website. Your website's point is to showcase to prospects that you are the best company for them and how you either solve their problems or enhance their life with your product or service. When creating your business website, you need an open-source content management system (CMS), clear and concise messaging, and an easy-to-navigate website.

Open-Source Content Management System

Using an open-source content management system (CMS) is an essential basis to creating a successful website as open websites built on an open-source CMS are search engine friendly.

First off, what is an open-source CMS? It’s not as techy and scary as it sounds - Optimizley describes it merely as a management system that multiple people can maintain. An open-source CMS allows your website pages to be updated and customized to your liking; closed source CMS platforms such as Wix or SquareSpace are limited in their capabilities and customization with your business website. Overall, a website built on an open-source CMS gives you freedom and flexibility with your website while also being easily crawlable by the SERPs (search engine results pages).

Search engine optimization (SEO) is another crucial aspect to keep in mind when creating and structuring your website. Oxford Dictionary defines SEO as ‘the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine - boosting views by increasing your website’s visibility. WordPress is the most well-known open-source content management system.

WordPress boosts your SEO by:

• Focusing on user experience
• Allowing you to create short, sweet permalinks
• Making metadata easy to manage
• Optimizing Images for SEO
• Quick load times
• Enabling pages to be mobile-friendly

Clear & Concise Messaging: The Benefits of Simplicity

“Less is more” is a timeless quote that can relate to many aspects of life, but it refers primarily to website messaging. You may want to use your website to share every part of your business, but this is not nearly the most effective approach. Customers aren’t viewing your website in the same proud way that you are. Customers are glancing at it to determine why you are the best choice and how your product or service enhances their lives.

According to Neil Patel, the author of “How to Optimize Your Website Messaging to Increase Conversions”, customers only stay on your website for 15 seconds, which is not even enough time for them to read through a whole paragraph of your company. You need to tell customers your purpose and how you will serve them better than your competitors in a few words. If you’re able to pique their interest, you’ll have the opportunity to share even more with them about your services and why you’re business is the best choice.

Navigability

While a website needs to be aesthetically pleasing, it is only useful when it’s easy to navigate and easy for customers to find the information they want. Putting too much focus on aesthetics and standing out can create a distraction from your site's purpose. Your website must be concise, so your customers understand what you do in less than 15-seconds—your website’s pages need to be easily accessible and have a legible font size. You can reference 10 Guidelines For Navigation Usability” to aid with your website’s navigability.

Evolving Your Website

Customers will research your business to learn more about your products and services and why they need you vs. one of your business competitors. Testimonials from customers are a great way to showcase your credentials – no one wants to be a guinea pig. Before and after images of your work are also great portfolio pieces that give a visual representation of your business.

Here at Let’s B Media, we design your business website to be effective and generate qualified leads – if your website isn’t generating you leads, we need to talk. Don’t leave money on the table. Looking to hire someone right the first time and only one time, then you’ve come to the right place. To learn more about our website design and development services, please contact us here or email us via hello@letsbmedia.com.