How to Build a Successful Company Website

Your company website is important for both customer communication and building trust in your brand. Here's a quick look at how to build a successful website for your small business

By Kris Jeary

For any SME, your company website is one of the most important ways to reach customers, and is a crucial part of your overall brand image. When developed correctly, it can be a hugely powerful business tool that has the potential to accelerate business growth. To do this, it needs to be tailored to your customers' specific needs and optimized for search. Below, Kris Jeary from Kayo Digital explores five considerations to bear in mind when developing your business' website.

1. Think long-term

Although an off-the-shelf approach may seem like the most efficient and cost effective way of developing a website, it's possibly the most common pitfall organisations make when developing their website.

It's important to know that your website shouldn't only reflect the individuality of your brand, but should be flexible and functional enough to meet your audience needs and preferences both now and in the future. This is often what becomes limited with standard web design, so a bespoke approach to website development and design ensures you are in control and can quickly adapt to changes.

Many organisations underestimate the time needed to plan, develop and optimize an effective website. All too often businesses treat their website as a project tick box and have the mentality that once it’s live, the job is done. This is far from true; a website is an ongoing development that needs to be continually optimized, evaluated and developed.

2. Mobile mentality

Web development is an ongoing progression, with far more channels to explore than ever before. With this in mind, a user-friendly interface and a mobile-friendly, responsive design is a must.

That said, many organisations build websites based on desktop display and disregard the fact that over half of worldwide web traffic is via mobile phones. From this perspective, ensure that you have tested your website across all screen sizes before launch. Taking the time to trial your site in the early stages will avoid time consuming and potentially costly amendments further down the line.

3. Consider content

It's important for any business website to include relevant content. Your brand's tone of voice is important for giving customers an overall sense of your brand image, and this should be reflected in all of your core landing pages. Including relevant keywords is also important, as it will help ensure that your website is found by potential customers.

Ensuring you have the right content is essential for driving traffic as it is the content on your website that really reflects your brand and message. If you're unsure how to get started with content, take some time to review your main competitors' websites and consider what works well and what they're missing.

4. Develop a smart site

Of course you will want your website to look good, but lack of functionality, little information and poor messaging will seriously compromise the website's ability to work effectively for both you and your potential customers.

Whilst it’s hard not to get carried away with the design, you must remember that it is a business tool, not a piece of art and you must consider the purpose of the website, not just the image or branding. Working with the right partner will enable you to deliver an aesthetically appealing website as well as a site that offers a smooth, straightforward user experience that speaks directly to your customers.

5. User experience

The above points all lead into this one. No matter if you're creating an e-commerce site, a knowledge base for customers, or simply a basic website to give your high-street business an online presence, user experience should be at the very core of all of your decisions. One way to find elements of your website that you can improve in terms of user experience, is to write down all of the main conversions you want your customers to go through on your website. Whether it's getting to a certain information page, or completing a purchase, or downloading a document, see if you can follow the journey the customer will go on to make these conversions, and identify ways that you can make the journey quicker for them.

The results

The future is unknown and many businesses are facing digital advancements head-on to stay ahead of the game. Having a website strategy set in stone that stays adaptable, will help you keep up with the competition and even put you one step ahead.

Any business embarking on a website project has the ability to build an online presence to be proud of. With the right strategic advice and support, a bespoke solution can help assist the development of a smart site and can drive business growth in a cost-effective way.

About the Author

Kris Jeary is Head of Design at leading Kent tech agency Kayo Digital. As a winner of multi web design awards, Kris has been working in the design sector for nearly 20 years and has a passion for carefully considered and researched design that solves problems and creates opportunities.