6 Essential Elements to Create a Credible Website for Your Business

Building a website is one of the most crucial strategies for establishing a successful business. A good website can help various businesses like restaurants, barber shops, and design agencies boost credibility.

With a website, your business can target a global audience, attract prospective customers, and stand out from the competition. It also helps you build a strong brand reputation and enhance your online presence, so people will see your business as a trustworthy entity.

There are many types of business websites, including eCommerce, landing pages, and portfolio sites. Although each has different characteristics, they share a few essential factors in common that make them good business websites. This article will cover six key elements for creating a credible website for your business. You could also check out this guide on how to create a website from scratch.

1. Domain Name and Web Hosting

Every successful website owner should start their journey by choosing a memorable domain name and a reliable web hosting company. The process can be challenging, so here are some best practices for setting up the foundations of your business site.

Choosing a Great Domain Name

A domain name is the website address that enables internet users to find and access a site online. For business owners, a strong domain name can add credibility and help build brand recognition.

When creating a domain name, ensure that it is memorable by keeping it at a maximum of two words. A concise domain will make it easier for visitors to spell and type.

We also recommend businesses use the .com domain extension since it is the most popular top-level domain (TLD), with more than 50% of websites worldwide using it. Therefore, building your business credibility with a .com domain will be much easier.

Selecting a Credible Web Host

Web hosting is a service that enables websites to become accessible to visitors online. It provides the allocated server space and resources needed for creating and managing a website.

Many hosting companies offer various services, so finding a good web host should not be a problem. However, picking the right one for your business site is crucial.

Start the selection process by listing the resources your website needs and the content management system you want to use. After that, compare hosting service prices and align them with your budget. Also, read customer testimonials to determine whether your preferred hosting service is worth buying.

2. Great Web Design

A well-designed website can positively affect your customers’ impressions and make your site look more credible. Web design is also a factor that can boost your site’s ranking. Several elements of effective website design include clear navigation, mobile-friendliness, and visual hierarchy.

Site Navigation

Having intuitive site navigation helps visitors quickly find relevant information. Visitors can also easily discover web pages related to their search queries, such as the contact details of your business or a price list of your services.

Mobile-Friendliness

Users access the internet not only from their computers or laptops but also from mobile devices. Therefore, applying a mobile-friendly web design is crucial to make site elements like text, images, and buttons automatically adapt to users’ mobile devices.

Visual Hierarchy

Website visuals, like imagery, typography, color, and whitespace, are important factors in establishing a site’s look and feel. Implement different colors and font styles to display a clear visual hierarchy and make certain elements stand out, like a newsletter sign-up form.

3. Search Engine Optimization

Business websites need high-quality content to attract the target audience and maintain their interest. Creating valuable content also helps promote your business and build customer loyalty.

To generate optimal results, a business website should also apply search engine optimization (SEO). This technique can significantly improve your site’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

There are various SEO practices to implement in your web content. For example, include only high-quality images on your product pages and ensure photos are optimized to maintain a fast loading speed.

Another example is to use internal and external links on your blog posts to help customers and search engines understand the content better. You can also add relevant keywords to your content, including in the title and subheadings.

4. Fast Page Loading Speed

Page load speed is an essential element of a good website. Ensuring your website pages load quickly can significantly improve various aspects of your business website, such as the user experience, site ranking, and conversion rates.

User Experience

Fast-loading pages make browsing seamless, increasing the chances of website visitors staying longer on your site.

Ideally, a business website should load within two to three seconds to keep visitors on the page, which is particularly crucial for eCommerce sites. Any longer than that and the website’s bounce rate soars, as 40% of users click off after three seconds of loading time.

Website Ranking

Page speed is a Google ranking factor that greatly impacts your site’s positioning on SERPs. When optimizing your page loading speed, consider aspects such as the website’s image sizes, CSS and JavaScript files, and page redirects.

Conversion Rates

Fast page speed plays a crucial role in improving your website’s conversion rate. According to research, approximately 70% of consumers confirm that page speed greatly influences their eagerness to purchase products on an eCommerce site.

For instance, an experiment found that web pages loading within 2.4 seconds received a 1.9% conversion rate, while pages loading more than 5 seconds had a 0.6% conversion rate.

5. Robust Website Security

Implementing web security is another key factor in creating a great website. With robust security done by professionals from IT services Virginia Beach, your website will be less vulnerable to cyber attacks. A secure website environment is also important to establish trust with potential customers.

There are many web security practices to help make your website more secure. This section will share a list of the best security tips.

Install SSL Certificate

Secure sockets layer (SSL) is the standard security protocol for keeping your site environment safe. It encrypts communication between your website and visitors’ browsers, making it difficult for third parties to steal the data. You can install SSL via your web hosting provider – once activated, the site URL will display HTTPS instead of HTTP.

Use Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a security method for verifying users’ identities. It works by adding another layer to security verification. You can implement 2FA on the sign-in page to protect your site’s administrator account.

Schedule Regular Backups

Performing regular site backups is another important security practice. You can duplicate and restore website data in case of incidents such as site crashes, data loss, and malicious attacks.

6. Clear and Engaging Call-to-Action

Having a catchy call-to-action (CTA) is essential for every business site. A CTA is designed to engage potential customers to take the desired action, such as subscribing to newsletters, signing up for product updates, and purchasing a product or a service.

Consider adding a social sharing CTA to your business’ blog page to encourage visitors to post your content on their social media accounts. For the landing page, utilize an engaging CTA on a Shop now or Contact now button to drive conversions.

Here are some tips for creating enticing CTAs for your business site:

1. CTA buttons should have a sense of urgency to entice visitors to click. For instance, use phrases like Get started now or Try it yourself.
2. Ensure that the CTA design uses different elements to make it stand out. For instance, add visual content and use different colors or font styles.
3. Optimize your CTA for mobile viewing so it appears as intended on any device. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check how it performs on mobile devices.
4. Position your CTA accordingly so that visitors can easily spot it. You can A/B test your CTA to determine the best placement that generates more conversions.

Conclusion

Creating a small business website can be challenging at first, but it is possible to build a successful one once you learn the basics and secure the essentials.

To recap, we have covered the six essential elements that all the leading websites have implemented to ensure a credible business site:

1. Good domain name and reliable web hosting.
2. Great website design.
3. Search engine optimization.
4. Fast page loading speed.
5. Robust website security.
6. Clear and engaging call-to-action.

Hopefully, this article has given you valuable insights into the best strategies to establish a credible website for your business. Good luck on your online journey!