Whether you’ve been an internet entrepreneur for quite some time or are just getting into the world of online business there are a few things that every business website must have to both attract and keep customers.
Powerful Customer Experiences
A fantastic customer experience is paramount to a great and profitable website. How do you create that fantastic experience? First and foremost, in order to make a decision to buy anything, your customers need to be able to find what theyre looking for quickly and easily. Make sure all your information is right up front and easy to find.
For example, FAQ pages, easy to calculate shipping charges, and product descriptions.
For many customers, it also means feeling a sense of connection to the store. Frequent buyer programs help create that sense of community, however free content, superior customer service, a fun and friendly about us page as well as unified branding images like your logo, all help to tell customers who you are and what youre about.
Regular and Valuable Content
Any profitable website uses content to both draw traffic to the site and to keep them there. The trick for busy entrepreneurs is to manage all their content effectively and efficiently. A content management system or CMS is a great tool for busy business owners because it provides an organized system.
A CMS enables the user to manage the creation, modification, and removal of content from a Web site without needing the expertise of a Webmaster. This means you dont need to know any programming language to create your website. You can create, schedule, edit and remove pages without spending hours modifying HTML.
Top Notch Shopping Cart
While a shopping cart may seem like a mere technicality to you, its an integral part of your customers experience. Customers need to know that their information and transaction is secure. They want to know all shipping and sales tax information right up front, and they want a system which lets them manage their cart with relative ease.
For business owners a good shopping cart system will manage your data, produce real time reports and not cost an arm and a leg.
Search Functions
One great feature for customers is the ability to search a site for a specific item or keyword. For example, imagine you’re visiting a pet store and you need to buy a coat to keep your pooch warm during the cold winter months. Rather than having to search through pages and pages of items, having the ability to search for dog coats enhances your shopping experience
Providing this functional search feature enhances your customers experience as well it provides you with valuable keyword data to incorporate into your marketing strategy and product line decisions.
Easy SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Theres no doubt that SEO plays a critical role in driving website traffic and sales. Finding a website builder with integrated SEO systems is like finding a wining lottery ticket. Imagine being able to link and tag your content and website code without having to jump through hoops or learn a programming language.
If your website builder also comes with a sitemap feature each time you update your website content, the search engines are automatically notified, saving you tons of time and ensuring your website is getting noticed by the search engines and potential visitors.
Branding
As internet marketing becomes more and more competitive. If youre a solopreneur that means your personality is in large part your brand. While logos are important, its often more effective to demonstrate who you are and what youre about in the content and design of your website.
Not all website builders are the same. In fact some are downright difficult to use much less profit from. Make sure the website builder you choose not only provides all the features you need to create a powerful customer experience but also tools and features which make owning and operating a profitable website as quick and simple as possible.
