Do you run a local business? Check what requirements your website should meet.
Having your website is a very important element that affects the functioning of the company. It is not only a showcase of the brand and the primary source of information about the business. The website allows potential customers to get acquainted with the offer and decide on possible cooperation. And although a website allows you to reach customers from virtually all over the world, it does not always have to be a priority. If you run a business operating locally, you should adapt your website design. primarily to the expectations of the local recipients.
Target group
A natural target group for companies operating locally is residents of a given city, region, or voivodeship. It is with them in mind that a website should be created. Of course, it is good if thanks to our website we can also reach the community outside the region, but remember that this is not our most important goal. The priority when it comes to the website of a local business is to be visible to customers who are looking for specific services or products in a given area. It turns out that almost 90% of users search for local businesses on Google, and almost 30% of them pay attention to the distance between the company and home. This is why marketing activities should be primarily focused on customers from the immediate vicinity.
What to put on the site?
A clear, professional, and easy-to-navigate website is the key to success. Also, there are a few important elements to keep in mind when you have a business website that operates locally. The main page should contain data such as the company name, opening hours, information about the business profile. It is the home page that potential customers first reach, which is why it should be attractive and encourage you to visit the next subpages. It is good if the following pages of the website contain information about the offer and the company itself. Let our clients know more details about the services or products we offer, as well as about the company. For people who are looking for services in a specific place, contact and travel details are especially important. Let’s put the full name of the company, office address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address on the website. A driving map with the exact location of the company’s headquarters will surely help customers to reach us without any problems.
Customers Opinion
Many people, before using the offer of a given company, especially a local one, look for opinions of other customers on the Internet. Companies with a lot of positive feedback are chosen much more often than those with negative or no negative opinions. Positive reviews make us more credible. It is also worth remembering that opinions affect customer decision-making, but also whether and how often our website appears in the results on Google maps.
Building a website is quite a complex process. Different specialists work on building a website, and depending on various factors – from how complex the website is to be, to how the cooperation with the client is going – the process may last from several days (the simplest versions, business cards) to several weeks ( in the case of extensive websites). So let’s consider what our priorities are. Is the website to be primarily simple and functional, or extensive and original, whether we care about time, can we wait a bit, and finally – what our budget is. The more complicated the page, the more time it needs to be spent on it, which increases costs.
Not everyone who decides to have their website needs an extensive website. Sometimes a simple, transparent website is enough – a business card, serving mainly an informative role. If we want a cheaper solution and a standard graphic design, this is the perfect solution for us. It will not be fancy and particularly original, but it will certainly fulfill its function well and its price will not be excessive. Creating a website-business card, presenting the company and its offer, containing basic information, usually takes several or several days.
In the case of more complex websites, the development process may take several weeks, but about 30 days is usually the optimal time to complete the project. It must be remembered that additional elements (e.g. graphics, animations) will increase the price and may extend the delivery time. Work on the website can run much more efficiently if the client has already prepared materials – graphics such as company logos, content, photos, or downloads from the website.
Website creation process
Before starting the implementation, it is necessary to do good research and plan the next stages. Only after defining the goals and needs of the client, designers, and web designers can start working. The next step is coding, which creates the actual page from the designs. The last points are testing and finally website implementation.
A good website must be functional, intuitive, thoughtful, user-friendly, and fully responsive. Responsiveness is very important because, as statistics show, we use mobile devices more and more. It is worth remembering that users do not like pages that take a long time to load, but they like all amenities, so it is worth connecting the page with plugs to social media channels. When creating a website, good cooperation between the client and the contractor is key. With clearly defined customer goals and efficient communication, work goes faster. However, it is worth being patient – if every detail is refined at the implementation stage, the page will be properly optimized and simply better.
