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Your website should be about more than creating an attractive introduction to your business. It is also more than being a simple tool to explain what you do and who you are. Instead, your website should actively help generate sales for your business.

This applies whatever industry you are in. It also applies whatever type of website you have, including if your website is a straightforward brochure-type site.

There are essential elements you need to have on your website, however, to ensure you get as many customers from it as possible. Here are five of the most important.

1. Contact Number on Every Page

Visitors to your website should be able to find your contact telephone number within a few seconds, whatever page they are on. Therefore, it’s important you don’t just put your contact details on your contact page. You should still have a contact page, of course, with full contact details. Your contact number, however, should appear on every page.

Good places to add this are in the footer or, ideally, the header. If it’s in the header, visitors will see it without having to scroll.

2. Calls to Action

It is also essential you tell visitors to your website what you want them to do. If you don’t, they will probably leave to continue their search elsewhere. Do you know what happens then? In many cases, visitors will arrive at another website that does have a call to action and they will become a customer of that business.

Calls to action explain to the customer what they should do next, plus they encourage the user to take immediate action.

3. Responsive Design

If your website does not have a responsive design, it will not be shown on Google searches where the searcher uses a mobile device. So, to ensure your website appears in as many Google search results as possible, you need a responsive design.

Responsive design ensures your website displays properly on any size screen and on any device. In other words, making your website responsive also improves the user experience. This will help you get more customers to take a positive action when they visit, i.e. phone your business or send you an enquiry.

4. Testimonials

One of the main jobs your website should perform is to build trust with the visitor. You can do this by demonstrating you understand what they are looking for and that you have a viable solution. This is normally achieved through the content on your website. It is also important you show you are credible.

Social proof is essential too, as nobody wants to be the first to buy or try something. Instead, they want to learn about the experience of others to give them confidence in your brand. You can do this by including testimonials on your website.

5. Contact Form

The main purpose of adding a contact form to your website is to make it as easy as possible for visitors to contact you. You should include other contact options as well, but make sure you also have a contact form.

Your objective should be to maximise the potential of each person who visits your website, i.e. taking steps to encourage them to become a customer or make an enquiry. The five tips above will help substantially in achieving this objective.

You have a nice, shiny new website – now what? In many respects, building a new website is only the start of your digital marketing journey. It is an essential part of the journey as it presents your brand and explains to potential customers what you do and why they should choose you. Now you must get your website in front of those potential customers, and that means promoting it.

This won’t happen on its own, so you will need to take action. Here are nine places you should be promoting your website.

1. Marketing and Business MaterialStart with things like your business letterheads, business cards, brochures, print advertising, and other marketing and business materials. You should include your website in all these locations.
2. Business CommunicationsYour email signature is also incredibly important. You should edit or set up a signature so everyone who receives an email from you sees your website address.
3. Google SearchGetting traffic from Google search is known as SEO and it’s a huge topic – too big for this article. The starting point is to ensure your website has a good SEO structure. You then need to set it up on Google Webmaster Tools. You might need help with this, but Webmaster Tools is essentially a tool from Google that lets you see how the search giant views your website in relation to its search pages.It lets you upload a sitemap to give Google a better understanding of what is on your website and how it links together. You can also monitor Webmaster Tools to see if Google finds any errors when it crawls your website. Doing these things will get you started with SEO.
4. Social MediaYou can promote your website both on your personal social media accounts and your business accounts. If you don’t have business accounts yet, you should consider setting them up on the social media platforms that are most relevant to your business. This could be Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or any other social media platform your customers use. Once you have the accounts, you need to build your audience before you can effectively promote your website.
5. Google My BusinessGoogle My Business is another tool from Google that gives you some control over how Google displays details about your business. It is particularly beneficial for local businesses, but all businesses can benefit. With Google My Business, you can add photos, opening hours, telephone numbers, and more. Google can then display this information on search results pages, Google Maps, and more.
6. Google AdWordsThis is Google’s PPC (pay per click) advertising platform. It gives you the opportunity to pay for inclusion in Google’s search results pages for your selected keywords. Anyone can set up a Google AdWords campaign, although you will probably need help from an expert to ensure it is optimised.
7. Facebook AdsFacebook is the largest social media platform in New Zealand and in most other countries around the world. It is, therefore, another platform you can use to promote your website. The targeting options that Facebook offers are very effective, plus it can be cost-effective compared to other forms of advertising.
8. Email Marketing If you have a list of email addresses that you use to send marketing messages too, you can also use this to promote your website. If you don’t have a list yet, you should start the process of creating one as email marketing is an effective digital marketing strategy. You can collect email addresses of subscribers through Facebook and your website.All the above options are effective, although you may need professional assistance with many of them. They will all get visitors to your website, though.

Your website needs images – there is no getting away from that fact. Images make your website look better and they enhance the user experience. The latter point is incredibly important to the success of your website. Finding the right images is not always easy, though.

You basically have two options:

1. Use images you have taken
2. Use stock images

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each, and which should you use?

Images You Have Taken

In an ideal world, this is the best option as it adds personality and authenticity to your website. The main disadvantage is quality. Unless the images are high-quality, you may lose the benefits that come from using images you have taken.

It is important, therefore, to spend some time researching tips on how to take good photos. You don’t need to become a photography expert, and you don’t need any special equipment. The camera on your phone will be sufficient and you will probably have filters on your phone you can use to sharpen and enhance the images. Best of all, you can do this without any technical expertise.

The things you need to think about include lighting and how to frame the image. Make sure any people in your images are smiling, and think about things like backgrounds. For example, do the desks in the background of your photo look untidy?

Using your own images will enhance your website if you can get these quality issues right. You can add branding, for example, by including a sign with your company name and logo in the background or by getting staff to wear branded clothing. Using your own staff in images also makes the website more personal and engaging.

Stock Images

Stock images offer three benefits:

1. They are easy to find – whatever your industry, your developer will be able to find suitable stock images for your website.
2. They are quick to find – taking photos yourself can be time-consuming, particularly if you do it right. You can find stock images, on the other hand, in minutes.
3. They are high-quality – almost all stock images are taken by professional and/or experienced photographers. As a result, you can expect them to be high-quality.

What You Should Do

So, should you spend the time and effort getting your own images or should you use stock images? For most businesses and websites, the solution is a hybrid one, i.e. you use some of your own images with the rest being stock images. This gives you the best of both worlds and minimises their disadvantages.

Importantly, you should try to include at least some of your own images on the website, even if you are primarily using stock images. Without your own images, your website risks looking just like all the other websites out there, even if you have a fantastic designer.

In summary, images do not have to be something that holds up the production or launch of your new website as stock images are so readily available. It is important to include your own images on the site too, though, to make it unique and more authentic.

There used to be a time when marketing and business experts would have considered a website as being optional for some businesses. Not anymore. In today’s always connected world, every business needs a website, including small businesses and local businesses.

Here are 9 reasons why your business needs a website.

1. Customers Expect You to Have a Website
   Your customers expect to be able to quickly find information they need about your business, products, or services by turning to the internet. This is best delivered on a website, even if you have a good social media presence. Your website doesn’t have to be big or complex, but you should have one.
2. Potential Customers Use the Internet to Search for Your Products or Services
   People use the internet today like they used to use the phone book, i.e. when searching for a product or service they, they use Google. This includes local services such as locksmith or plumbing services. If you don’t have a website, the likelihood of these potential customers finding you is greatly reduced. Instead, they will go to one of your competitors that does have a website.
3. A Website Brings Leads and Customers to Your Business
   Not only will a website let potential customers find information about you, it will also give you an opportunity to turn those visitors into a lead or customer for your business. Remember again that this applies even if you are already strong on social media. This is because your social media profile is unlikely to appear in a search result. If you want leads and customers from search (and who doesn’t) you need a website.
4. Makes You Available 24/7
   A website never closes and it never sleeps so customers can find information about you and can even contact you via forms any day of the week and at any time of the day or night.
5. Presents a More Professional Image
   A website also gives your business legitimacy. This goes back to the first point that customers expect you to have a website. If you don’t, they will have questions about your professionalism so might choose one of your competitors instead.
6. Demonstrates Your Experience and Authority
   A website also gives you an opportunity to showcase what you are capable of. Examples of this include writing blog articles, offering case studies, or publishing testimonials. All these things enhance the image of your brand and build trust with potential customers.
7. Allows You to Target a Wider Audience
   If you choose, you can reach a global audience with your website or simply a wider audience closer to home. In other words, a website lets you expand into new markets.
8. Gives You an Opportunity to Personalise Your Brand
   You are in control of the content on your website so you can present the right image about your brand to visitors. For example, you can provide reassurance if you provide professional services or show off your fun side on a blog if you offer more light-hearted products.
9. Delivers Good Return on Investment
   A website is an inexpensive marketing tool that will deliver long-term results for your business. You will get value in terms of brand recognition and customer services, but it also helps you increase revenue.

Finally, a website is not difficult to get and can be up-and-running quickly with minimal effort from you. If you don’t have one yet, it’s time to get one.

You’ve probably seen ads on the TV or online encouraging you to build your website using a free website builder. Those ads tell you how cheap and easy it is to launch a website and that you don’t need any technical expertise. Why, then, do website designers advise you to use WordPress?

It is technically possible to create and launch a website using a proprietary website builder like Wix or Weebly. Doing so, however, limits your options plus there is little flexibility and the result won’t look professional.

Here are some of the main differences between using WordPress or using a proprietary website builder.

Features

Proprietary website builders have apps, add-ons, and plugins, but nowhere close to as many as WordPress has.

In addition, as WordPress is open source, your designer can code your website to do almost anything you want, even if no suitable plugin exists. In other words, they can create a new plugin, customise an existing plugin, or use other techniques to give you the functionality you require. This is not possible on platforms like Wix or Weebly.

Design

There are 100s of templates to choose from on proprietary website builders including, on some platforms, high-quality premium templates. It is also possible to do some limited customisations on these templates.

However, there are 1,000s of templates available on WordPress, both free and premium. In addition, your website designer will be able to customise your template any way you want.

Ease of Use

It is harder to create a website with WordPress. This is because you must customise templates, add and customise plugins, organise hosting, and more. Of course, the result is a much more powerful website, but some technical expertise is required to get there.

That said, adding content to a WordPress website is just as easy as adding content to a website builder like Wix or Weebly.

What does this mean in practice? When you use a professional website designer, you won’t have to worry about the complexity of setting up a website in WordPress as your designer will already have the necessary skills. Plus, as has been already said, you will get a much better result and you will benefit from how easy it is to add content to WordPress.

Flexibility

One of the reasons proprietary website builders are so easy to use is they severely restrict flexibility. Some are more flexible today than they used to be, but they are nowhere near as flexible as WordPress. Here are some examples of the differences in flexibility:

• It’s easier to change the design of a WordPress website – you just change the theme.
• You have greater flexibility in the features you can add to a WordPress website as well as how those features look and work.
• There is greater control over how to set up and run an eCommerce store built in WordPress. For example, Wix offers limited payment processor options whereas you can choose whatever payment platform you want with WordPress.
• You are locked-in when you use a website builder. This means you usually have to start again if you want to move to a new platform. This is not the case with WordPress.

eCommerce

Most propriety website builders will offer some eCommerce functionality, although sometimes there are additional charges. That functionality is usually only suitable for small operations and, as has already been mentioned, there is not much flexibility.

With WordPress, however, you can create any type of eCommerce website you need adding whatever functionality you want.

Which Should You Choose?

Your website is more than a shop window for your brand. Instead, it is a powerful tool that, when used right, will generate leads, win new customers, and increase the profitability of your business. It is, therefore, important you invest properly in getting a professional website. That means using a website designer and building the website in WordPress. When you do this, your website will deliver long-term results for your business.