​Our guide outlines everything you should have in a website for it to perform well in Google, convert viewers to customers and professionally represent your business 24/7

Your website has to convey your business succinctly and genuinely to attract new customers. The most important pages are your home, about us, services, and contact details. These four pages are essential to creating trust with the reader. 

Our guide to what's important in a website outlines how excellent content is critical to the success of a website. 

Our solution: Every website we develop includes professional content writing that explains what's important, your business expertise and specialities, areas of competitive advantage and the team behind the organisation. We craft content that makes an instant impression on the reader and encourages a call to action (phone call, email enquiry, contact form submission etc.).  ​

Many web designers don't focus on creating expertly-written and Google-friendly content. Because of this, there is a limitation to how successful the website will attract Google traffic when it goes live. 

The best approach is for a web designer to research the industry their client operates in and develop content that is Google friendly. Sadly, many don't understand how Google works or fail to use best practices published by Google.

Our solution: Every website we develop includes on-page SEO, focused on the location of the business and its relevant keywords based on the industry it operates in. We write our content and program SEO fields on each page to maximise Google trust and relevance. Our process follows the latest Google guidance. We then encourage clients to expand their online profile using proven tips to help gain exposure. ​

A photo gallery is a popular feature if you're a business that manufacturers products or completes projects. For example, engineering firms, construction companies and general manufacturers often publish galleries. Other organisations using galleries include hairdressers, gyms, medical clinics (who want to show their facilities), vets and other animal industry businesses. 

Some web designers charge separately for creating a gallery, which can get confusing with the number of photos to be supplied. We believe that a gallery is a great asset and should be included in a standard website design package or quoted as a separate item at an affordable fixed-price rate. 

Our solution: Every website we develop includes the option of a gallery. We include it as a page in every 3, 5 and 8+ website page packages. If a client uses up all the pages in their package, we offer a gallery as an optional fixed-price add-on. ​

Tip 7 - Check the most popular products and courses online relating to your industry on Amazon

If you have a product or e-commerce site, go straight to Amazon and find the most popular products being searched for relating to yours.  Look at the exact keywords being used in the titles of the products and also the reviews from the people who bought them.  Extract these for use.  ​

Tip 8 - Find online study courses and check what students are enrolling in and paying for

Some online courses are FutureLearn, Udemy, edX and Alison - go into these and search for your keywords.
Check the number of enrolled students who have paid to learn this information!  Go to the course information and check the curriculum outline for a good structure to use in your own writing - it will logically flow from introductory concepts to sub-section detail.

Tip 9 - Carefully choose and use closely related words to your topic - Latent Semantic Indexing

Lets say you want to write an article on the topic of business networking.  How does Google know whether you are writing about business or networking?  By looking at the words you use around "business networking".  All of the associated keywords need to be logically relevant to your main keyword so Google can build a story or some context for your page and rank it when appropriate.  This probably does not need to be overly analysed because if you are writing a natural topic, the surrounding words will naturally incorporate as they need to. ​

Tip 11 - Start off with a statement or known issue that your reader will agree with

Summarise the challenge they are likely to be facing immediately which is the likely reason they have found their way to your article.  This establishes what you will be addressing, without letting it drag too much to the point of losing interest.  ​

Tip 15 - Go for Long Form style

Google prefers long form writing as it indicates quality and time investment into the content, rather than thin, low quality sites.  Write a lot (which should not be hard if it’s a natural topic to you), keeping it genuine and consciously incorporating the keywords you’ve identified already from your initial research where appropriate.  It’s important however to make sure that you use appropriate formatting tips (coming up below) to keep your readers engaged, otherwise your valuable information will be lost on them because it just looks too much. ​

Tip 18 - Use regular calls to action

What’s a call to action?  It’s an order to act on what they are reading.  You need to sprinkle these frequently so that at any point your reader wants to call, email or contact you, there is an easy opportunity to do so.

​Like what you are reading?  Get in touch with us!.  

More importantly…. do not overdo it.  If you are too high pressure and frequent, readers get turned off by the desperation.  Use calls to action with moderation and relevance.  ​

Tip 21 - Use excellent high impact images to break up your text

Visual examples are the best thing you can provide to keep interest - use them regularly, when you think a reader may trail off, insert image or any of the tips above to keep them going.  ​

​Element 1 - Create a page outline for your navigation bar

Here’s the deal:  This is the first step to helping you organise your information intuitively for readers to learn about your business.  You may have a bunch of ideas and need help laying them out - or you may have none!  No matter which of these you are, the good news is that we can TELL YOU what an ideal page outline is based on years of experience and modelling the best websites on the internet.  We will split these out into the Core pages and the Optional pages, so I can show you a logical and intuitive progression for how to build your pages.

Core pages

Home - this is your overview page with links to your other pages for more information.  This page needs to have a compelling introduction and layout on the top of the fold, with optimal image layout and calls to action.  It’s the make-or-break which will determine if a reader will stay on your site long enough to contact you. 

About Us - whatever your business, this page should profile your biography and experience to demonstrate your capability.  Ensure you mention and link to any industry associations you are a part of as Google loves relevant outbound links.  Having a photo of yourself or your team always adds impact to help readers know who they are connecting with - there’s nothing more powerful than genuine smiling eyes to go with your excellent bio.

Services - outline your main offerings under sub-headings.  There’s a good chance that you provide a number of services or specialisations, so this where you want to explain what each of them are for the benefit of your readers.

Contact Us - the most important page which contains your contact details, phone, email, address, Google map and a contact form.  These should be easy to access, with a single click to email you.  

Optional Pages

Once you have the core pages organised, you may need various additional pages depending on your business type and industry.  Here is a list of pages to consider adding:

• Photo Gallery
• Testimonials 
• Price List
• Articles & Resources
• Links
• Upcoming Events
• Newsletter
• Blog

There are numerous more pages to help you build a website, however these are the main ones that will apply for most businesses.  

Element 2 - Set your logo and header with an effective layout

What kind of logo do you need?  A logo can have two forms - you can have a text & symbol combination or a simpler font logo that is just text-based.  Either of these is fine and will depend on your own business needs.  Often, a professional text-based logo with your business name is more than enough to make your website look professional and nothing else is necessary.  If you want to print out business cards, letterheads and other offline marketing, you may like to consider a graphic design logo service to create a distinctive logo for your brand identity and consistency.  This involves engaging a graphic designer to generate several logo concepts with symbol and font combinations to represent your new brand.  It’s best if you can provide your designer with some guidance on your colour preferences and examples of other logos you like otherwise it can be a lot of guessing in the dark and tastes can be subjective.  

Once you have decided which logo you want, this needs to go into your header, either left-aligned or centre-aligned as your template allows.  Other important things to include in your website header include a tag line that explains or summarises your business or service (if your business is not obvious), along with your phone number and/or other contact links including your email and social media.  This needs to be in immediate view on landing (on top of the fold) so that if your reader’s attention span is not high, there are easy calls to action to reach you.  Keep it simple and relevant.  Contact us if you are ready for a graphic logo design today.  We turnaround 3 logo concepts in 3 days. 

Element 3 - Write engaging content on EVERY page - the “Goldilocks” approach

All your content needs to capture your reader!  From a compelling home page to friendly tag lines and footer lines, your content should create a warm and inviting vibe to your reader while also conveying your experience in the field.  Here is where I recommend the Goldilocks approach:  Not too salesy and not too weak….. your content needs to be just right.  So:  what makes it ‘just right’?  Good question.  It’s getting the balance of showcasing your best business advantages such as your experience, knowledge, competitive edges, reliability, business differentiation and doing this confidently….. without the sleaze.  Your writing needs to demonstrate a genuine confidence from your experience without being too pushy or desperate for a sale.  Encourage enquiries regularly through calls to action (email links, phone number in your header and footer) and social media links to connect with you more.  The balance must also come from not being too “weak” in your content writing.  We have many clients who tell us they do not want to appear to “salesy” or push their service to readers which is a fair point!  It’s the easiest way to turn off a reader when your only agenda is to sell something.  However writing that is too neutral or factual just won’t appeal to everyone, so there needs to be some level of “showcasing” your best features because ultimately the enquiries will come from showing that you can benefit your reader by solving their problem.

If I had to give a single best tip for content writing to make it effective, what would it be?  To regularly highlight the value you can bring to your reader - emphasise the benefits of your service or product with an aim to solving their problem.  The more specific your words and the less sensationalist, the more real it reads and is likely to convince your reader to enquire with you.

Check out our Ultimate Blueprint for Writing Killer Copywriting

Element 4 - Source AMAZING high quality images to bring your site to life

How do you choose the right images for your site?  This is one of the most important features you can hone in on.  Anyone can find images to use, the success and effectiveness of getting impact from your images is from discerning crappy quality from good quality.  Here is a 

1. Search Google Images for your keywords and check the images that come up
2. Look for attributions to ensure you don’t infringe on copyright images
3. Identify stock images that are publicly available for use - examples of sites that offer free images include FreeImages
4. Find the highest resolution images available that do not take forever to load - high quality is of utmost importance to give sharp effect of the display
5. Choose subject matter that is relevant to the content displayed next to it - let it demonstrate your point.  
6. Use emotionally engaging images selectively - don’t overdo it but these can be excellent to incite a particular emotion if its effective enough
7. Use the images to break up the text and effectively illustrate what you are writing
8. Incorporate your own photos - particularly for your biography and Photo Gallery to showcase your work and talent

​Element 5 - Choose a banner style for the home page - a slideshow, static banner or no banner

Check out the best websites on the internet… you will find that they largely fall into three main layouts on the page:

1. A slideshow rotating banner of 3-6 images - these are popular and have the advantage of appealing to people who don’t like to read. The right images will immediately tell your reader what they need to know.
2. A single high quality static banner to set the tone of the site - these are very effective (my personal choice), as sometimes people find slideshows rather distracting.  My preference is “less”, so a single high impact image will give the right visual backdrop without too many things happening at once on the site.
3. Video banner - these are excellent for engagement and conversion, if you have one made you can upload it to YouTube and embed it on the site for immediate viewing.  
4. No banner, straight into the content - those who prefer to emphasise the content directly and keep it simple can opt for no big visual banners but instead use photos minimally between the content.

Which one to choose?  It doesn’t matter so much as how you use your layout - whatever feature you incorporate, ensure there is enough text, images and calls to action to balance what the reader sees to give them a full imaginative picture of your business service.  

Element 6 - Incorporate calls to action regularly

What is a call to action?  It’s a prompt for the lead to call, email or socially connect with you.  These needs to be sprinkled regularly between your content, in your header and footer - have your phone number displayed prominently in one of them (doesn’t hurt to have both), have a contact form on your home page and contact page which captures the lead information you need e.g. their phone number and email address.

Make your own email address clickable to open an email window that they can contact you from directly. Have your social media buttons prominent so they can like your Facebook, add you on LinkedIn, pin you on Pinterest and review you on Google.

Repetition is a good thing to the extent that they may lose the information as they keep scrolling. However too many CTAs can be overkill and annoying so ensure the balance is right for your audience.

Element 7 - On-page Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - Consciously choosing keywords that people are searching on Google

What is on-page SEO you ask?  Good question.  It’s an essential component to helping your website get found for searches relating to your business and region.  This is where you need to do a Google keyword analysis to identify related keywords to your industry.  Go to the Google Keyword Planner and use the tools section to find related keywords with high search volumes that you want to target.  Now that you have these keywords, how do you use them? Here are 4 important ways to use them:

1. Incorporate them in headings and sub-headings on your pages
2. Incorporate them naturally into your content
3. Ensure you include keywords with your suburbs, country and business name so that your site will come up for these even if they are not highly searched terms
4. Use them in the meta data section of your pages (it can be an SEO plug in or SEO form) where you can input the title and descriptions that Google will use when presenting your site in search results. 

Important - as always, do not keyword stuff, use them unnaturally or overuse them.  These will bring penalties to your site.  Use them once as appropriate and don’t overthink it beyond that.

​Element 8 - Footer layout

Finally, you want to have a clever footer as this will be seen on every page, along with your header.  It’s crucial to have quicklinks to every page on your site, to make navigation easy and allow your audience to jump to what they need without delay.  Re-iterating your contact details is always helpful as well as a Google map if relevant.  Create links to external reviews and have a single catchy line that summarises your business advantage as the final enticement to get them to enquire.

Attracting Leads 
The first impression is the most important impression if you are trying to attract leads. There are certain expectations that consumers have when they are looking for a product or service online if those expectations are not met than you have just lost a potential client. Make sure your site makes it easy to contact you as well as presenting your products or services in an appropriate manner. 

Expectations
The first thing a potential client sees when they get to your site is the landing page. If your landing page is not professional looking there is a very strong possibility that they will leave. Consumers are very internet savvy and they can tell immediately if you have a professional page or it is something that was thrown together. Spending the time to sell yourself, engage readers and stand out is critical; look is important in making that first impression but functionality is also very important. 

When Your Site Fails 
Technical difficulties are a fact of life but frankly if your site is down often the first impression that you are leaving is that your business is not too concerned with what people think of it. Some people may even form a first impression that your business is broken because your site is. 

If your site goes down get it back up as soon as possible. Make sure all the buttons and links are working. No one will stick around and find out more about your business if your site is a hassle to navigate. 

Keep It Simple 
If you want to make a good first impression and want people to find out more about your company keep your site simple. People do not like to weed through information,they just want to know what your business is and how it is ran. You want your first impression to be one of perceived honesty and reliability burying information under page after page is frustrating and can lead the consumer to form a negative first impression believing that you are trying to hide something with all the fluff! 

Whatever your business, Small Business Web Designs has put more businesses online in Australia than anyone else, from Perth to Brisbane and everywhere in between. Contact us today to create a site that won't let your business down. 

The Statistics 
It is roughly estimated that only a fraction of the consumers that visit a site for goods and fill their carts actually complete their orders. As a matter of fact the statistic is 30%. A mere thirty percent of all the people that shop online ever finish their transaction to the ordering point. 

What Is Going On With the Other 70%?
There is a host of reasons why someone may not complete a sale on your site that range from what is perceived over the top shipping charges to simply finding a better deal elsewhere to forgetting to complete the transaction because something else distracted them. 

What Can You Do?
The one thing you can absolutely NOT do is ignore this 70% that is getting away. There is something you can do. You can use Abandoned Cart Module to gently remind visitors that they did not complete their transactions. While the Abandoned Cart Module may not induce all 70% to come on back it may induce some of those customers to come back! 

What Will Help Abandoned Cart Module Do Its Job?
Offer sales incentives or discount rates to customers who register AND provide an email on your sales site. This gives you the necessary components to have contact information and permission to contact if they in fact have left the site without a cart in limbo.

Offer Options - Win Your Customers Back!
One of the most proactive steps you can take is to offer options to your customers. If they are viewing one item than suggest other items that are like items or that compliment the item they are viewing. Offer free shipping on sales over a certain amount, recouping the cost of shipping is easy if your merchandise is priced correctly. Offer discounts and sale events. Don't miss out on that 70% use Abandoned Cart Module and work on your presentation to get customers and keep them coming back! Offer coupon codes, raffles or drawings for little trinkets, offer buy one get one, people love a good deal! Amp up your site! 

Tip 1 - The Importance of the Search Box
If your site has a lot of content, give your visitors a helping hand to find what they want quickly and easily by including a search box. This will allow users to type in the name of a specific item without the need to search through seemingly endless pages of information.

Tip 2 - Keep Content Readable
Great design is important, however, it is the content that your visitors will be interested in, and in order to make sure that your content is displayed in a way that is easy on the eye there are a number of things you need to do. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that you limit your use of fonts to no more than 3 to a page. Secondly, the size of the font needs to be limited also, and finally, paragraphs need to be kept short.

Tip 3 - Keep your Content Updated Regularly
In order to keep your customers well informed, as well as interested, you should endeavour to update the content on your site updated on a regular basis.

Tip 4 - Poor site navigation 
Poor site navigation is one thing that is going to irk a lot of visitors to your site, and people are highly unlikely to return if their overall user experience is poor. In order to optimize the navigation of your site, you need to incorporate certain features, such as easy to use links, highlighted text hyperlinks, and the removal of obsolete links.

Tip 5 - Be Consistent
Although being creative is something that is going to make for a good looking site, however, you need to make sure that you are consistent with your design and layout. Don't have different layouts on each page, alternating image themes, colours etc - our team produces consistent sites first time, every time.  

Tip 6 - Make your Contact Details Prominent

In order to allow your customers and visitors to your site to contact you should they need you, you should make your contact details – email, phone, company address etc – easy to find, as well as making them prominently displayed.

Small Business Web Designs has the experience in building your site to grab the attention needed to attract more customers. Our site designs are clean, clear and effective - offering sites Australian-wide, we welcome you to contact our friendly team to find out how we've helped hundreds of Australian business to achieve a site that exceeds all expectations. 

Tip 1 - Retina Optimized Webpages and Icons
There really is no excuse for your site to not be optimized according to new retina displays. However, if yours isn’t as of yet make it a point to change this.  Make sure that all of your images and on page graphics are optimized for high resolution displays. 

Tip 2 - Maintain responsiveness with Scaled Styles
If you want to make sure your site looks the same on a tablet that it does on a laptop or desktop, then implement scaled styles within your designs. You can do this with CSS styles, SVGs, and typography. These are, at this point anyways, the best way to achieve optimized designs. 

Tip 3 - Maximizes Your Fonts Correctly
Icon fonts are the easiest way to transform CSS styles in a real text format. These nifty little styling tools allow you to customize your web design anyway you like, all without working very hard to do so. While there is a bit of a learning curve when you begin working with icon fonts, once you get past the initial challenges it is quite painless to maneuver them. 

Utilize these tips to create a better design for your site and ultimately a better user-experience for your visitors!  SBWD serves clients Australia wide - Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide - contact us today!