Websites

Showcase your product in a wider market

What is a website? Really?

Today there are over 1,320,764,000 websites on the world wide web. A company website is as important (or more important) than the brick and mortar location. The internet is “an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.”

Ok. Ok. That’s Obi-Wan Kenobi’s description of The Force from Star Wars but, the internet is an equally pervasive phenomenon. Remember encyclopedias? Me neither because just about everything we need to know is google-able and served-up for instruction online.

Since 2010, 97% of consumers research product purchases online. And by 2017, 97% of consumers say they are influenced by other customer reviews.

Websites are digital information, social, purchasing, entertainment, instructional venues that have changed civilization. If you don’t believe that- just google it.

There may have been a time when certain businesses in certain industries didn’t need a website, but that time has passed. Whether a website delivers e-commerce, a portfolio, social proof, or product education with a funnel strategy, every single business is getting researched on the web.

The home page is the storefront, enticing potential customers to come in and take a look inside. A well-developed collection of webpages grants 24/7 access to company’s goods online, product information and showcases services. It provides an opportunity to catch the attention of potential customers, employees and industry partners.

Originally developed for desktop application, websites are now more often used in mobile application, which changes the design parameters and responsive requirements of the platform design.

Research shows that more than 85% of businesses are unhappy with their website functionality and user experience.

How does a website work?

A website is a collection of webpages that are indexed and linked together under one domain name (or digital address) and organized by referencing a uniform resource locator (url). Webpages are documents with instructions for formatting which are published on web servers and shared through public or private networks. Pages are distributed through hypertext transfer protocol (http). The collection of all public websites is called the World Wide Web, commonly referred to as the “internet”.

People find web pages either through links, which are a storage system for web addresses, or through search engine results that organize webpages by keywords and other algorithms.

The World Wide Web was “invented” in 1990. The first website went live in August of 1991 and housed information explaining the World Wide Web service, including how to build a web server:

Types of websites:

There are many types of websites: showcase, educational, non-profit, and auction, to name a few. In business the main types are:

Catalog

Contains information on products

Content Management

Includes industry education possibly in the form of a blog and creates expertise platform for the company

Lead Generation

A variety of landing pages tempt visitors (from an ad) to opt-in for usually free tools and information. The main purpose of the site is to collect contact information for further marketing and/or relationship building

E-commerce

Storefront sites with shopping carts that complete clerk-free transactions

Credibility

A resume website for browsers who may already have a word-of-mouth referral about you or a business card in hand. Creates social proof that your business is real and may showcase a company biography, case studies, and/or photos that legitimize the business

Importance of a Website

Here are four crucial reasons why a business of any size needs a website.

24/7 Accessibility

An online web presence expands the company’s reach beyond its local region within the constricted 9 to 5, Monday to Friday time frame. Online accessibility opens avenues to reach potential markets. Let’s face it, local searchers are “googling” all the time.

Improved Customer Service

A website can serve as a digital business card or give customer access to important product specs, FAQs, and service information at any time. Your customer base gains online entry to all your departments, including sales, accounts payable, customer service and technical support.

Keep Customers Informed

Adding articles and uploading newsletters onto webpages answers customer questions and keeps them up to date. Sharing information on a website is one way to provide a value-added service. Web presence also provides an opportunity to link to important industry leaders, which in turn boosts the company’s credibility in the eye of the customer.

Showcase Your Work

Whether you provide software solutions or distribute household goods, a website is a great place to display your work. A portfolio or image gallery, testimonials and how to videos demonstrate what makes your business unique.

What does Website Development require?

Whether you just need a static website, which is economical to operate and fast to load or a dynamic and interactive website (Web 2.0), which requires a high-performance server and database, both can be developed to serve the needs and budgets of an individual business.

But it takes and experienced web development team to plan for the ultimate functionality. Building a website (even with a template on a platform like WordPress) requires:

• Graphic Design skill
• Programming and Development skills
• Funnel Marketing strategy
• Search Engine Optimization experience
• A Web Copywriter
• . . . . and more!

Most businesses are surprised at the effort required to orchestrate a great website. Getting found on the internet is a game that you have to play—there’s no opting-out on this one.

Do you know these Website buzzwords?

• Index page
• Subpage
• Navigation
• Dynamic vs Static pages
• Hyperlink
• Responsive
• Mobile-friendly
• Blog
• Content
• FTP (file transfer protocol)
• WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get)
• Web 2.0
• E-commerce
• Above the fold
• Opt-in
• Call to action
• Anchor link
• Sitemap
• Lorem ipsum
• UX- User experience
• Widget/Plug-in

Metrics used in Website analysis:

• Direct Visitors
• Search visitors
• Bounce rate
• Conversion
• Alexa rank
• Domain authority

What should I do if I want help with my Website?

Your online encounter with an existing customer or a prospect should be seamless and simple. Your visitor should navigate your site without confusion and find information that compels them to buy. Your website should guide the user to act. Connect with a Titan Web Specialist to critically assess your current web presence and learn cutting-edge ideas to improve your user experience, action rates, and real revenues through your web strategy.

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