When you’ve invested time and money in a new website, you want to make sure it’s working hard for your business. When it does, it brings in leads which ultimately turn into sales. In this article, Jude Wharton, co-founder of Ready Steady Websites, shares her top five tips about the must-haves for your site to make sure it’s working hard for your business.

Your small business website should be bringing in leads that you can turn into new clients or customers. If it isn’t doing this, then it isn’t working well enough for you. It probably isn’t doing some key things that will make your website visitors want to get in touch with you and explore the idea of working with you.

So, you’re probably thinking it would be lovely to have lots of enquiries through your website, and how can you make this happen? Well, here are five things your small business website must include:

1. It must be very clear instantly what it is that you do

As soon as your website visitor sees your website, they should know what you do and whether you’re worth finding out more about. This is especially important on your home page. Before your website visitor has to scroll, it’s really good for them to have seen some kind of engaging statement or strap line that stands out and gives a very clear idea of the service or products you offer and the problems, wants or needs that they solve.

This isn’t just important on the homepage, though. Your website visitor could be hitting your website on any page. They could have searched for something on Google, and your about page came up as a result. Someone may have sent them a direct link to a services page or sent them to a free resource that you offer. So, at the top of every page, you need to give a clear message about what you do.

2. Your copy on every page of your small business website should talk to your website visitor

I’ve already touched on this above, but all your copy should be written with the needs of your potential new client or customer in mind. You need to show you understand what they want and need straight away, so your website visitor is thinking, “Wow, they really get it”. This will fill them with confidence to enquire about working with you.

Even on your about page, make sure you are using the copy to engage them more, tell them things that are relevant to them and not just because you like talking about yourself. Convey your personality on this page, especially if you will be working with clients directly; they need to like you, but don’t lose sight of the purpose of your website. Leave some stories for your memoir.

3. Include clear calls to action on every page of your small business website

A call to action is when you are very clearly asking someone to do something on your website. It might be a button or a clear link within the text, but whatever it is, it gets the website visitor to take an action that takes them a step closer to working with you.

These need to be consistent throughout your website and very clear. It’s also a good idea to have your main call to action, that key action that you want people to take, whether it’s to buy through your website or to book a call with you, whatever it is, constantly at the top of your website. This is so that whenever your website visitor gets to the point where they’re ready to hit that button, it’s easy for them to find and do.

4. Lovely, clear services pages

If someone is thinking about working with you, they want to get as much information as possible first, and they want that information to be easy to find and nice to read.

So, make sure it’s very easy to get to this information from your homepage, both from the main menu and also from an area on the homepage that highlights your key services.

Once people have clicked through to look at a specific services page, make sure this page isn’t cluttered, isn’t overwhelming, and it’s a nice experience to read through. Don’t use huge paragraphs of text; break the information down into bite-sized chunks and include some appropriate images to break it up.

5. Let people contact you on their terms

Once someone has decided you’re probably the business for them, they will probably want to get in contact with you to ask some questions or clarify some things.

So, first of all, you need to make it clear how people can get in contact with you. Having a contact page or clear contact details at the bottom of each page is important. It’s also important that you give people a choice of contact methods.

Some people prefer to send an email or a message in the first instance; actually talking to someone feels like too much of a commitment at this point for them. But there are others for whom the to and fro of written communication feels tedious, and they just want to have a conversation, so make sure you give people the choice. Include an email address and a phone number, or a contact form and a chance to book a Zoom call or similar.

Treat everyone as an individual through your small business website

In short, if through your website you can speak directly to someone’s needs or wants; show them you have the right service or product for them; show them you respect them enough to make it easy for them to find what they want, take action and contact you in way they want to, then they will feel like they are being valued as an individual and will want to work with you.

So, get these five things addressed on your website and you’re on to a winner!

How Ready Steady Websites can help

If, after reading this, you feel like your website isn’t doing what it should be or you have realised that not having a website is probably letting you down, then check out our resources to help you plan or improve your website.

Guest Author Bio

Jude Wharton is one of the co-founders of Ready Steady Websites®, an off-the-shelf website and membership site template service. Jude and her business partner and husband, Chris, launched Ready Steady Websites® in 2019, and they have been running a successful digital design company, 2nd Floor Designs Ltd, since 2010. She is also the co-author of The Website Handbook.

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