They say every business needs a website. And in today’s digital world, this statement couldn’t be any truer.
The way people seek out the companies they want to do business with has changed drastically over the years. And want it or not, consumers look online for businesses first before ever making a decision.
And yet, less than two-thirds of small businesses looking to scale have an online presence and a website. Adding to that, 35% of businesses believe their operation is too small to need a website.
If your company doesn’t have a website, you give off the impression to people that you are no longer in business, whether it’s true or not. This amounts to lost leads and sales opportunities. It also hurts your chances of scaling anytime in the near future.
That’s why today we’re going to share with you how to master corporate website building. After all, you everything to gain, and even more to lose by not establishing an online presence and giving your customers what they want.
How to Master Corporate Website Development
1. Use a Professional Site Design
Corporate website development is very different than launching a personal blog filled with your thoughts and opinions. Not only is your company’s website a way to showcase what you have to offer, it represents your business. That’s why implementing a clean and modern design is so important.
You want to give off a professional, yet inviting vibe to site visitors interested in your products or services. If at any time your business lacks legitimacy as a “real business,” you can bet people will abandon your site before converting.
For those using WordPress, there are plenty of free and premium themes to pick from that have a professional look to them. For example, if you run a quick search for business themes in the WordPress Repository, you’ll come up with plenty of options, such as Primer.
Downloaded over 40,000 times, Primer is a great example of how affordable it can be to start a corporate website on a limited budget, while maintaining a professional appearance.
2. Make it Accessible
Website accessibility has been a hot topic for some time now and rightfully so. According to the Australian Network on Disability, over 4 million people have some form of disability.
As a corporate website owner, it’s your responsibility to cater to all site visitors, regardless of their disabilities. But this takes some work; you can’t just launch and website and assume everyone can access it in the same ways.
Here are some quick corporate website development tips to help make your site more accessible:
- Use an accessible-ready theme (all themes in the WordPress Repository are screened for accessibility)
- Take advantage of plugins to help with things like font sizing, color contrasts, hyperlink underlining, and sitemap access (e.g., WP Accessibility, WP Accessibility Helper, and One Click Accessibility)
- Make your site keyboard friendly, so those that cannot use a mouse can still navigate your site
- Add alt attributes to every single image for screen readers
- Choose color combinations with care for those with color blindness or other vision impairments
Lastly, after you’ve developed your website, test your site’s accessibility using a free online tool such as Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE).
The more people that can engage with your site’s content, the better. By making your site accessible, the user experience will always be seamless for everyone that visits your website.
3. Make it Easy to Navigate
It’s tempting to rely on the simple navigation menus your website’s themes use and call it a day. After all, you have tons of other things to do, like run a business.
But the truth is, if people can’t easily navigate your corporate website, they’ll leave without signing up or buying. And the more this happens, the more your business suffers.
When it comes to website navigation menus and corporate website development, you need to go beyond simple navigation strategies since it’s likely you have a ton of information for people to engage with. If it’s unorganized or hard to locate, people are not going to be convinced to do business with you.
Here are some ways to make sure your potential customers can see everything you have to offer them:
- Create a dedicated sitemap page on your site people can refer to when they want to access a specific piece of content (this helps your SEO too!)
- Enable breadcrumbs so people can easily backtrack to earlier pages
- Create organized mega menus that people can click on
- Add a search bar, compete with autosuggest, to guide people through your content
- Always include a related posts, products, or services section to encourage further engagement, cross sells, or upsells
Lastly, make subscribing easy to do, so people can always come back later.
The email campaigns you send out can highlight exclusive promotions, newly published content, and breaking news in your industry. And all it will take is a simple click of a link in an email to get there.
Remember, it costs 5x more to attract a new customer than it does to retain existing ones. Don’t generate one sale and lose a customer for life. Instead, keep them engaged long after they’ve left your site.
4. Make Security a Priority
Though you can argue that all websites need top-notch security, it’s safe to say that businesses have an even greater responsibility when it comes to securing site data and customer information.
When you’re developing a corporate website, it’s important you keep these things in mind:
- With faster site development comes increased security risks
- Your site must be compatible with a variety of platforms, devices, and applications
- Knowing which data to store protect with help guide your security efforts
- Encrypting data is a must, especially if you store sensitive customer information
- All software you use should be updated (or disabled)
- Limiting user access and defining user roles will protect your website and content
- Client-side and server-side validation protects against user error
- Any connections that collect cookie data must be secure at all times
Of course, if you’re using an experienced website development team like Keen to Design to help you with corporate website development, all of this and more will be handled for you. With experience building corporate websites, we can help you establish, grow, and maintain a solid online presence that even the stiffest competition will recognize and begin to worry about.
From the foundation of your website to web design, from engaging content to your marketing and social media aspirations, our team can help you share your business with the online world and convince people to convert in no time. But more than that, we can give you a big budget website at a small business price.