The Art of Useful Pages and Engaging Content: Part One

Building a website isn’t a quick two-step process. It takes a lot of research, time, and effort to create a good one – and it takes ongoing work if you’re planning to keep driving organic traffic to your website through high-quality blog posts.

Learn how to create an effective website for your small to medium-sized business!

1. Create a Homepage to Showcase Your Products/Services

Your homepage should make it crystal clear what you do and who your target audience is. Everything on it – from your messaging to your visuals – should appeal to them.

Here are some elements to considerincluding in your homepage:

• Header
• Sub-header
• CTAs
• Images
• Social proof/testimonials
• Value proposition/benefits
• Navigation (headers/footers)
• Offer (whitepapers, ebooks, etc.)
• Features
• Resources
• KPIs (success indicators)

Of course, some of these elements will be in other places on your website, so if you can’t include them all (or don’t want to), that’s OK.

The most important elements are:

• Header that describes what you do
• Sub-header to explain more
• Primary CTA
• Navigation
• Image
• Social proof (your best quote or two)

2. Build an “About Us” Page to Tell Your Story and Attract Potential Clients

Telling your story might sound like a piece of cake, but there are more aspects to an “About Us” page than you may think.

Here are some ideas to think about:

• Tell your company’s story/history: How did you get started? Where were you – and what was life like for you? Did you experience a huge change or was it a gradual one?
• Create a mission statement: What are your goals as a company? What do you live to do, and how are you taking steps to get there? Are you embracing social responsibility?
• Outline your company values: Staying true to your company values – or having integrity – will impact your organization both internally and externally.
• Talk about the journey: How have you changed since you got started? Have you tweaked your focus at all from what you originally set out to do?
• Talk about your target audience: Why should they trust and work with you? Talk about the value you can bring to them to reinforce their trust.
• Get specific – provide examples: Who have you already served? Are they names that your prospective clients will recognize?

3. Make Pages for Your Shop or for Consultations

Admittedly, a shop page and a consultation page are very different. Companies that sell products will be more likely to have a shop page, whereas service companies will have a consultation page. For that reason, we’ll discuss them separately.

Great consultation pages come in many forms, but one thing they have in common is a laser-focus on getting only the most vital information. Keeping forms simple keeps prospects engaged throughout the process and minimizes roadblocks and pain points.

Here are some other things to try on your consultation page:

• Offer a more engaging user experience: If you can make filling out the form seem like a game, prospects won’t mind. You can also add a fun question to the form if you wish!
• Provide a rough estimate: Transparency is always a good thing. By giving prospects an idea of your starting price, you keep them from wasting time. Win-win!
• Personalize it: Have multiple sales reps? Consider adding a dynamic element to your consultation page that will tell prospects who to expect a call from.

Successful shop pages are easy to navigate, provide a top-notch user experience, and have visual appeal. When done well, the shopper may also be presented with cross-selling and upselling opportunities (features like “If you like this, try…” or “Shoppers who purchased this also bought…”) to keep them engaged.

Here are more elements of successful ecommerce stores:

• Value-added content for shoppers: Try showing customer reviews for products, how-to videos, and product guides to shoppers so they can feel equipped to use the product.
• Optimized for mobile: People are increasingly accessing the internet using their mobile devices, so it’s critical to optimize your ecommerce shop for mobile.
• Personalization: Get the website to provide personalized recommendations based on shopper browsing or purchase history. This can come in the form of suggestions while they’re on the page, or via email recommendations that direct users to the page.

Want a Great Website? Look No Further!

In Part Two of this series, we’ll talk about four other elements you should include in your website. In other words, there’s a lot to think about! At Matcha Design, we’re highly experienced at creating fast websites that are user-friendly and intuitive. Best of all, they provide value to your clients and increase your visibility online.

Would you like our help building out a phenomenal website? Contact us today – we’d love to hear from you!