What your website tells your customers about your business

How? Well quite frankly it’s straightforward – you need a really good website. 

 

Your website needs three very simple components: Who you are - What you do - Why people should do business with you 

These days everything happens online, right down to the everyday grocery shop. So if the internet is the high street, your website is effectively your shop window – and just like any good window display, you want it to make people linger, enjoy the experience, think favourably of you – and ultimately to remember all of that, and therefore your business. 

 

Importantly, your website should encourage your customers to trust you. If they don’t, they won’t be back. 

Words – these are so important. But that doesn’t mean you should use too many. Once you’ve lost your customer’s interest you’re unlikely to get it back, so don’t write too much. Customers are there to think about your business, not what your cat had for breakfast or how well your offspring did at school. Keep it focussed. 

 

To that end, make sure everything – yes, everything – is spelt correctly. One misspelt word or grammatical error makes you look uneducated and unprofessional. This is probably very far from true, but unfortunately you will be judged on it, and poor spelling or grammar does not encourage a customer to trust you. 

 

All the information on your website needs to be current – if it looks like it’s not up-to-date, it makes your business look that way too. 

Update your website regularly so there’s something new to look at. This will also have a big impact on your Google rankings, and the higher you climb up those, the more customers you will have. 

 

If you can’t achieve any of this yourself, get a professional copywriter to do it for you. Don’t know one? Ask your web designer, because they will. There’s a reason people make a living out of writing for other people – it’s difficult. It’s difficult to get everything right and it’s difficult to strike the right tone – and that is all amplified hugely when you’re talking about something you’re very close to or really care about, such as your business. 

This may sound obvious but nothing good. At worst, your customers will forget it and forget that you exist. If they can’t understand it, if the colours aren’t easy to digest, if there’s too much information, if they can’t find what they want in a hurry, if anything’s misspelt... you don’t look professional or trustworthy. They won’t be back, and you will not have their custom. 

That you know what you’re doing, that you care, that you have strong values, that other people would recommend your services, that you’re contactable, and that you can be trusted. In short, that you are someone to do business with. There is quite simply no downside to having a brilliant website.