Congratulations for embarking on your entrepreneurial journey! 

A lot of thought process must have gone behind choosing the product or service and the brand name for your business. Now is the time to devise business strategies, make operational plans and start acting upon them to realise the goals you have set. 

Amongst numerous efforts you will be undertaking to build on your business and your brand, one of the most imperative steps is to have an online presence of your business. 

Irrespective of the category of product or service, not having an online presence today is equivalent to being invisible. And you obviously cannot afford that. 

So here are some tips to create a powerful website which will help substantially in branding your business.

Relevance, Consistence and Differentiation

A website is not just your virtual address in the World Wide Web, but it is a representation of what your business really stands for. It should clearly communicate your brand’s personality and how relevant it is to your target group of customers. 

Staying relevant can be a challenge especially if your product belongs to a category in which there are ample choices available in the market. 

For instance, if your business is selling apparels online, staying relevant could be a challenge with so many competing options and offerings. But if your brand is meaningful, it will generate interest.   

One of the ways to elicit interest in your brand is by way of storytelling. 

The website of a San Francisco based sustainable fashion brand Amour Vert maintains relevance with its environment conscious yet fashionable target customers by highlighting its sustainable practices. 

Among other practices, their website highlights that for every Tee purchased by a customer, a Tree is planted by them. 

Source: Sustainability – Amour Vert

Consistency is another factor which every touchpoint of your website should coherently communicate. 

Your brand logo, website templates, colour scheme, brand imagery, layout and other aspects should be in consistency with your brand personality. 

According to a statistical research by WorldWideWebSize, as of May 2020, the web contains over 1.7 billion websites and every day on an average 576,000 websites are added. 

How well you differentiate your website amongst this exponentially growing numbers will pave the way to a better branding of your business. 

Take cues from websites such as TED, JayShetty, GoPro, BoredPanda to understand their differentiation strategy and then work out that is best for your brand. 

Not Just Information but A Delightful User Experience 

In this era of abundance, users look for a delightful experience in whatever they do. Browsing your website should provide them with just that so that they keep coming back for more. 

User experience can be enhanced by factors such as usability, design, usefulness, interaction and performance of your website. 

To ensure a delightful experience, you need to ask the following questions

• Is the website easy to use?
• Is it simple enough that when users return, they need not relearn how to navigate?
• Does the design convey your story and evoke a connection?
• Are the visuals captivating and still easy to comprehend?
• Does the website tell the users what they need to know?
• Is the contact information easy to access?
• Are there unnecessary elements that get in the way?
• Are there some design aspects that intrude in the browsing experience?
• Is the website slow?
• Are the images properly optimized?

Content is King 

In these times of information overload, procuring content is easy but procuring quality content; not so much. 

It is a conscious decision for you to make over choosing poor content which is easy or the difficult but rewarding one for your brand. 

Some points you can consider in regards to content is:

• Original content goes a long way in terms of preference by users, better exposure and improvement in site rankings
• Provide important details such as short history about your business, information about your team, some anecdotes to share and include your mission and vision statements to build trust
• Ensure a clear way to get in touch either by way of sharing contact numbers, branded mail ids or by way of AI enabled chatbots. 
• Publish blogs which could be regarding your line of business, industry news and educational content to keep the visitor engaged
• Share quotes and content that establishes thought leadership for your brand
• The content should be grammatically correct
• A longer content has more backlinks and more links lead to better search engine and SEO rankings according to BuzzSumo

Accessibility 

It is important to make browsing experience more inclusive by making sure those with disabilities (visual, mobility or neurological impairment), or a temporary impairment such as a broken arm, broken or lost eyeglasses, and so on, are also able to navigate well through various web pages and content in an effective manner. 

About 1 billion people which accounts for 15 percent of the world’s population are estimated to live with some form of disability. And this population is quite high for businesses to ignore.

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) is the law that primarily governs accessibility in the US. It stipulates that if things and facilities are not accessible to all, then those with disabilities are being discriminated against. 

Just like anyone in the physical world can use an automatic door or ramp that makes a building accessible, in the digital world an ADA website compliance is equally important. 

Using proper contrast ratio, heading, spacing and colour combinations would make it simpler for people with low vision and those with colour blindness to have better experience. 

Audio transcript of the text content and audio explanation of videos can be very handy for people with disabilities.

It is advisable to use a web accessibility tool like accessiBe to make your website ADA compliant and create an all-inclusive user experience for the visitors.

Refresh and Redesign 

Once you go online, your website is your identity and visitors who may be your potential customers, suppliers, stakeholders, investors will expect you to have your website up to date with all the latest and relevant information. 

Following are the key actions you may want to monitor in order to keep your website fresh and motivate your visitors to return back to your website:

• Keep adding and updating requisite content
• Validating navigation and site flow
• Making sure that all your links are working and taking you to the desired destination
• Updating privacy policy, copyright and company information on a timely basis
• Keep reviewing your keywords strategy in line with best SEO practices

According to industry experts, there are various factors that decide how frequently a website should be redesigned, but on an average that timespan is between 1.5 to 2.5 years. 

To conclude, a powerful website is one of your best bets to brand and boost your business. Hope these tips help you get the ball rolling. Welcome to the World Wide Web!

About The Author –

Hazel Raoult is a freelance marketing writer and works with PRmention. She has 6+ years of experience in writing about business, entrepreneurship, marketing and all things SaaS. Hazel loves to split her time between writing, editing, and hanging out with her family.