2014-04-29

Having your own website is a dream come true and most of us have definite ideas of how we would want the website to look like.

In fact, we might already have a list of websites that we like.

We would like the web designer to adapt these ideas into our website but wait, right there.

All websites are not the same and you cannot incorporate what looks good on one website into another.

In fact, there are several important do’s and don’ts on how to start a online store, that you have to follow while planning your website.

Do’s

Choose the right hosting service and ecommerce platforms. – Business website, Linkedin, states that most people underestimate the importance of the hosting platform and the ecommerce network. There are free hosts and paid hosts and both are quite good. However, to ensure accountability, it is a far better idea to have a simple paid hosting service with an inbuilt shopping cart system. This ensures that you don’t have to worry about fitting both systems together or tech problems. Paid platforms will also have customer support, 24-7 tech support and minimal downtime.

Use high quality images and video. – High resolution images are a great way to attract customers. In fact, the better the image, the better it is for customers to view the product. Remember, online buying is very different from real-time shopping.  Customers cannot handle the goods but high-quality images and videos can really help the customer make an informed purchase says website Hubspot.

Use as many open source tools as possible. – Open source systems are easy to use and they are free. If you are a small business owner, stick to the free tools as much as possible to help your website save money and turn a profit. Yes, turnkey solutions are great but they are expensive and you do have to pay big licensing fees. Why do all that when free or cheap tools are available?

Be social. – Social media platforms are a great way to build your website’s reputation online. The Big Three consisting of Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are the best places to set up an online platform. You can link your posts, videos, images and content to these platforms and increase your visibility by leaps and bounds.

Set smart goals. – Your website goal should be to increase conversion, increase sales, reduce expenses and generally increase brand awareness.



Photo Credit: MKHMarketing

Don’ts

Avoid Flash and music on your website. – Having Flash and music on your website is attractive but the reality is that Flash slows down the website. If the customer has a slow internet connection or they are located in a public place, they may not appreciate the slow connection and the blaring music and you will lose customers.  If you do want to have music, offer a media player that can be clicked on by the customer if they wish to hear music.

Don’t complicate the navigation. – It’s easy to use expensive and funky tools in your website navigation but it annoys customers. They usually want to complete their shopping quickly once they make their mind to buy. Having to search for BUY NOW buttons is the worst thing to happen to any website and customers frequently click away when this happens. Avoid horizontal navigation as well and use adaptable websites that will adjust to different screen sizes.

Design – Basic black and white is the way to go but splashes of color are great as well. Avoid changes in text color, large graphics and fonts, lots of typefaces on the same page, page counters, blinking cursors or blinking text and animations, wide signs and too much horizontal scrolling. Ask your website designer to also avoid frame scroll bars in the middle of text, too many focal points on one page, too many links or dead links and blanks spaces on pages.

Avoid fake customer reviews and testimonials. – Getting customer reviews is possible for established websites. However, new websites may find it difficult to have unbiased reviews for their products. Do not make the mistake of using fake testimonials as customers will then doubt the authenticity of your website.

Do not try to please everyone. – Websites are meant to be easy to use and they are specifically made to cater to certain needs. If you get customers from a particular location, tailor your website to these users and make it a wonderful experience for them.

Having the right ideas is necessary to make your website pop as it is not easy to design a website from start to finish. Do a little research and find out what is trending but only incorporate those ideas that will benefit your product directly and bring in more customers.

Periodic redesigns or tweaks are also a good idea to ensure that the website remains fresh and trendy. A killer website can really impress customers and visitors and bring in a lot of business.

The post Setting Up Your Website: Do’s and Don’ts appeared first on Living Richly on a Budget.

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