It can be hard to build a new website for your company from scratch, especially if you’ve never done it before. There are many things to consider, such as whether the pages are suitably interactive and whether the site design will appeal to the right audience.

Want a leg up? You’ll need to know which tasks are essential for crafting a professional website and what’s not important for SEO.

Here is a list of 5 essentials that every good company website simply can’t go without.

1: Strong SEO Performance

If you’ve spent time and money putting together a fantastic website, you’ll want to show it off and make sure that potential customers of people get to see it. Therefore, having a powerful SEO (search engine optimization) is essential to boost your website’s traffic.

To do this, you must pay close attention to the content on your website. Is it clean, concise, and optimized with relevant keywords?

You should also hire a solid SEO consultant in your country, whether in Norway or Canada. They will analyze your web traffic and offer solutions for improving your search engine results ranking.

2: Customer Approval Ratings

Strong customer satisfaction can be one of the biggest drivers of sales to your website. Customers are much less likely to trust your business if they see notable signs of customer dissatisfaction or no signs of customer satisfaction at all.

Therefore, consider setting up an effective customer feedback function on your website. When a customer is happy with their purchase, invite them to give feedback.

3: Live Chats for Customers

If you have the resources to do this, consider setting up a live chat function. Live chats on a company website are likely to increase sales as they build consumer confidence in the website with fast answers to their questions.

Live chats are an efficient customer service option for your business. A live chat operator can speak to multiple customers simultaneously, which means the services will cost less than if you used a call centre alternative.

4: A Modern, Stylish Finish

If your website looks dull and disorganized, customers may be put off purchasing from your business. However, if you’ve got a website with a stellar complementary colour scheme, modern fonts, and a clear layout, customers will be reassured by the contemporary feel and find it easier to navigate through the pages.

With each new page, you create on your website, make sure it passes these tests:

1. Does it look impressive?
2. Is it clear what the purpose of the page is?
3. Is it straightforward to move around the page and to navigate to other related pages?

If your site passes these three tests, it will meet the approval of your customers, too.

5. Multiple Payment Methods

Your customers like to pay in different ways. Therefore, it’s important to have as many payment options available as possible, or you risk accidentally turning some customers away.

Some customers can’t pay all the costs upfront for larger purchases and prefer to spread payments over time. Websites with a ‘buy now, pay later option can increase conversions and boost sales more than businesses that only have one payment option.

Make Your Website Flourish

In today’s competitive digital climate, businesses don’t succeed unless they have a strong online offering. Therefore, you must have an impactful website that attracts a high volume of traffic to your business and shows that you’re worth checking out!

Make sure your company’s website is easy to understand with a clear message, and you’ll set yourself on the right track for a great site.

Suggested:

One Of The Most Essential Ways To Boost Your Online Sales.

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All in all, there are no doubts that you should invest in building a good company professional website, yet it costs. A lot. If you are a small business owner or an entrepreneur every dollar counts and you can’t afford to spend all your budget on a website, right?

Luckily, there are many tools, tips&tricks that can help you to craft a professional website by yourself and save a bunch of money.

Let’s dive into more details. 

Available options to choose from

If you type on Google the phrase “create a website” you’ll get a bunch of different results. Website builder ads, web development agencies promoting their work, freelance developers and designers, etc. 

Let’s get familiar with the cost or each option you have so you can narrow your choices.

To hire a (freelance) developer

The rates of hiring a freelance developer vary depending on his expertise. However, the average hourly rate is something between $61 – $80. If you take into consideration that the developer needs approximately 70 hours (a bit more or less) to get things done, you’ll get charged a couple of thousand dollars.

Of course, the benefits of a dedicated developer working on your site are numerous. You can customize everything that you wish, get professional advice, etc.

To hire a web development agency

Costs of hiring an agency to build your don’t vary much from the freelancer’s. They also depend on the agency’s overall rating, but here’re some estimates:

Web design costs for a website of 8-16 web pages range from $9000 to $12000. Then there are annual site maintenance costs that vary from $400 to $1200. If you want some custom designs, graphics, or image/video editing, add a thousand dollars more.

DIY website using a website builder

Creating a (good) website by yourself doesn’t necessarily require coding skills. Today, you have a wide range of drag&drop website builders to choose from (just google them and you’ll get a bunch of options).

Find a suitable template to start customizing it, or, if you are creative enough to craft a website from scratch.

Website builders have different pricing plans (from $0 to $30 per month). No matter what option you chose, keep in mind that there are some additional costs like:

Domain: $12 – $60

Hosting: $35 – $600

SSL certificate: $0 – $200

Apps and integrations $0 – $100

Compare all alternatives and choose the one that fits your budget.

Content that you’ll need 

Good copywriting equal good sales.

Your content needs to be aligned with your mission, business niche, target customers, etc. For example, if you are providing medical services you should go for a sharp tone, but if you are selling hipster clothes it is allowed to use slang and show some sense of humor.

There are a couple of pages that your site should have, no matter the business you are providing:

• About us: where you will try to gain your (potential) customer’s trust. Share your story and let them know why your business is the right choice for them.

• Contact us: use a contact form since it seems more professional but leave your email address written as well, just in case there’s a bug with the form or similar.
• Legal: pages like Privacy policy, Terms of Service, Refund Policy, Shipping policy, etc. are very important to have since that way you show that your business is legit.
• FAQ: try to anticipate the questions your site visitors would have and provide them with thorough answers upfront.

As for the languages your content should be translated to, it all depends on your (desired) audience, yet perfect grammar goes without saying.

Let the site design speak for itself

Your website needs to look professional and by that, we mean that you need to have top-notch design and overall business branding. Choose the color palette, font style, characters, and graphics that will be recognizable for your brand. Add some dynamic graphics, videos, or catchy effects that will make your website stand out.

When a potential client or customer visits your website he needs immediately to realize that your business is all about quality!

You can always hire a designer to help you out, or leverage tools like Canva, Designbold, Crello, etc. When it comes to images, it is strongly recommended to use just ones that are royalty-free. Check out Unsplash or Pixabay, they have a wide range of great photos you can use.

Conclusion

Creating a website on your own requires you to invest a certain amount of money and time. There are many options to choose from. Yours is to explore them and find the right combination of development, design, and copy that aligns well with your core business values (but budget as well). 

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