Before you start setting up your own website it is a good idea to sit down and think about what it is you want to get out of your web presence. Think about which message you want to communicate to website visitors and also consider how you can achieve a clean look that makes it easy for visitors to navigate and find information. Many Internet users can be rather impatient and will not go back to a website they found hard to navigate and where they were unable to locate the information they were after within a few clicks.
First impressions
It is important to make a good first impression if you want visitors to spend time - and possibly money - on your website. Make sure that the text content you publish is free from spelling mistakes as these can give off a bad impression and visitors may perceive this as a sign of unreliability.
Your website should have a welcoming and user-friendly design, making it easy for one to find their way around the site. Therefore, it is a good idea to spend some time looking at other websites to see how they are structured and made accessible for visitors.
Structured content
Before you start entering and editing the content for your website you should give some thought to which information you want to provide and communicate to visitors. Why not draw up a plan in advance where you specify which pages you will need in order to present all information in an easily accessible manner. It is also a good idea to allocate the different content/information to the relevant pages.
Company information
To create a level of reliability and to give website visitors information as to who is behind the website, you should introduce your company and possibly say a few words about your company vision, employees, history and so on. If you would like to sell products on your website you should also inform visitors about the terms and conditions of your webshop.
Contact information
In order to be perceived as a credible business, it is important that you provide information regarding various ways of getting in touch with your company. It is a good idea to provide your trading and/or visiting address, telephone number, fax number and e-mail address. Most people also appreciate information about employees and opening hours. You may want to create a separate contact page that website visitors can use for getting in touch with you easily.
Customise the website for your company
If you plan on selling products via a webshop you need to give some thought to which product groups and sub-groups could be useful in simplifying the search for the correct product. If you are using the Product register in Mamut from earlier, you may have already created the product groups you require. If not, you can customise the product groups and sub-groups within the Properties Register.
Customer satisfaction and routines
Once you have created and published your website on the Internet you should make it a habit to download data from your website on a regular basis, preferably daily. Follow up any enquiries you receive and provide feedback within a reasonable time frame. It is also important to process orders quickly and send ordered products to your customers as soon as possible.
Quality checks for content and links
Following publication of your website, it is important that get into the habit of quality checking all content you have put out on the web. At regular intervals, check that links are working, pictures are being displayed properly and that text and other content is up-to-date with the latest information. A website that is not managed properly and updated regularly is easily perceived as unreliable and possesses little credibility.
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