The following guidelines will assist you in the construction of your pages. The how to’s and things to avoid.
Constructing / Building your website pages
will take about 8 minutes to read…..
Let’s start with Your Home Page and the must haves.
HEADER
The Header is the top part of your page. The information on your header should be visible at all times and not disappear or move when the user navigates around your site. It should be available on all pages.
It is essential to understand that customers who enter your website may not necessarily enter via the home page. They may have clicked a link on a different site or blog and landed on your product page. Therefore, critical information must be available to them the moment they enter your site, irrespective of which area of your site they land on. They should always see the following information:
Phone Number
(on its own & independent from the contact us page)
Customers who enter your website may want more information about a particular product or service. Having a phone number makes it easy for them to pick up the phone and ask the question rather than navigating through your site in search of an answer. Some customers may even make that phone call to see if indeed they are dealing with a legitimate business. A valid phone number that someone (preferably) answers is an excellent asset to any company. Avoid mobile phone numbers. Just opt for a simple landline. It’s always a trusted source. If you know that there will be times you will be unavailable to take that call, invest in a professional answering service that includes some information about your company and add a bit of humour. When a customer leaves a message – try to return the phone call the same day.
About Us Page
Your about us page is probably one of the most important pages your site has. This is your identity, and you are telling the world who you are, and why they should trust you. Put everything into it. This is a place to tell your story, of who you are and how you got here. It’s an opportunity to make that emotional connection I spoke about earlier. Talk about yourself as a person, then your company which includes your staff, then your product or service. Let people know what made you get into your line of business and what it is you do differently to others. A great opportunity to speak about trusted brands or companies you work with, and any recognitions or awards you have, the milestones you have reached and even the charities you have worked with. These are things that copycats can rarely replicate and will make you stand out more.
Contact Us
Other than listing your phone number (again), this page will also list your hours of operation. It could be as simple as Monday to Friday 9-5 or more elaborate on specific days and hours. You could throw in a bit of humour here and let people know that you are either at the beach or playing golf on Sundays (if you are not open)! Don’t stick to the script. Be creative and fun. It creates the difference, and being different and unique creates the sale.
Let your customer know your location. A physical address is preferable and more trustworthy than a PO Box. It makes you more legitimate. If you are not open to the public, it’s still ok to list your physical address – place fun and a polite note on your business door stating that you are not open to the public, just in case someone shows up!
Let people know ABOUT your location where it is precisely, using a comparable method. For example, “we are located 25 km north of Melbourne’s central business district”. Provide them with information on how to reach you, either via public transport or freeways.
If you have an international audience, mention the time zone and the current difference in time. Let them know you work on your country and local city time, and you will get back to them during those business hours. Its helpful to put country dialling codes on the phone numbers, so they know how to reach you.
It’s advisable to put an email address where people can contact you. Either list the email address or make a clickable button that opens the user’s email program, and they can send you an email.
The ‘form style’ email communication is, in my opinion, the least preferred. Understandably, you need to protect yourself from spammers, but make communication as easy as possible. There’s no need for a customer to enter information in so many fields just to ask you a question. They also have no receipt or copy of the email they sent and no guarantees you received it either.
It’s a Yes, checking off “I’m not a robot” and a ‘maybe’ to a captcha text image, but a big NO to Captchas ‘select all traffic lights!’ Omg, they will be there half the day trying to get in touch with you because they missed the traffic light pole next to the bulldozer on the other side of the bridge! Let’s get a grip!
I have been on the receiving end of these security measures, and some businesses put more than one. So after checking off ” I’m not a robot”, I spend another few minutes trying to figure out where the traffic lights are or the crosswalks on the road!
This is a very quick way to frustrate your customer. One of these measures is enough! My recommendation is if you must have one, choose the simplest.
FAQ’s
Short for frequently asked questions. This area focuses on questions that you predict will be asked by your customer or client. They are common questions that are known to be asked, and you are simply providing as much information as possible so that their query will be responded to and that they will then go on and make their purchase. It will also save you time answering emails and phone calls answering these questions. Be as comprehensive as you can when responding. Always provide clickable links to take them directly to your contact information and phone number if they wish to ask for further details. You could include videos or infographics into your FAQs so that the questions are also responded to visually.
You should generally run a search through search engines on your topics and try and pick up the most asked questions in your area of trade or service. By finding out what people are asking, you will have readily available the question and answer.
Even though you will have a contact us page and a phone number displayed, it is not unreasonable to have this information again in the form of a question. For example, the question could be: “how can I contact you” and your response could either answer this directly by providing a phone number and email, or you could give a link to where they can find the email and phone number. Just remember the general rule of fewer clicks for the customer and ease of use.
Likewise, you could repeat your shipping information or returns policy in your FAQ section in the form of a question.
Displaying Customer Reviews On Your Website
A verified service that displays legitimate reviews is recommended and is a significant source of trust. By displaying your reviews on your homepage, you tell and show your customer that you’re credible and trusted by many people who have used your service before. What better way to do this than through the voice of others. The best gift a customer can give you is their word of mouth. Showcase this proudly and use it to your advantage. However, you must ensure that your reviews are authentic and legitimate and include good and bad.
Display Social Media Icons
Display your social media accounts with the official and recognisable icons. Let people know you are available through other channels, and they can also engage with you there. Encourage a following and encourage engagement. It can be rewarding, heaps of fun, have an excellent sales conversion, and add goodwill to your business. Goodwill is a significant part of selling your business at a higher price.
Cart Total
A cart with the total number of items and the total amount spent thus far should be visible on your header. When shopping, the customer should always have a sense of where they are. Without this information, you will find they will become increasingly frustrated having to go in and out of their cart to constantly see if what they clicked on a few minutes ago was added and if it’s still there. Minor things like this can very quickly lead to cart abandonment.
FOOTER
The Footer is the bottom part of your page. The information on your Footer should also be visible at all times and not disappear or move when the user navigates around your site. It should be available on all pages. Your footer should include the following:
Privacy Policy & Terms
The terms and conditions or the fine print should be available on your site for customers to read. This is generally found in the footer section of your website. You could write up your policies, engage a lawyer to do so, or get a stock standard and make amendments to suit your needs. You would generally need to check that the license permits you. Some topics to cover in your privacy policy & terms are:
- Security and how you manage people’s data and credit card information including being GDPR compliant.
- Your Pricing and what currency you accept. Include any fees that may be applied to international transactions.
- Terms & Conditions (T&C’s) on promotional items, Vouchers or Gift Cards
- Laws & Governance and where disputes are resolved if they were to arise
- Copyright information, Enforcement of Copyright
- Privacy Policy in complete and comprehensive detail. (This will include how payments are handled, information about cookies, analytics, personal data, if session recording is used, remarketing, and managing contacts, to name a few). A great place to get this sort of stuff done is through Iubenda. I used them and would readily recommend them.
GDPR Compliance
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was introduced in 2018, and I speak more about this here as part of risk management for any business that has an online presence.
Irrespective of where your primary business place in the world is if you are offering services or products, and regardless of whether payment is taken to citizens in Europe, you must be compliant with this regulation. Its main objective is to protect European residents’ privacy and personal data. The consequences of non-compliance are enormous fines and possible sanctions against your company or business.
This can be quite complex to navigate and something that you do not want to get wrong. It is strongly recommended to seek an external organisation to implement this for you and have peace of mind. They will also take care of updates when and if they occur so that you will always be compliant. The one that I used one our online store was Iubenda, and I cannot recommend them enough. This is money well spent for peace of mind.
Shipping & Returns
Let your customers know about your shipping methods, and the time it takes to dispatch an item, followed by the time it takes to be delivered.
Let them know about possible delays and what to expect. Inform them of any high seasons or peaks in the year or any company’s vacation time. Be as honest and as straightforward as you can with updated information.
Your returns and exchange procedures should be seamless. If a customer needs to return or exchange an item, remember they are already frustrated in having gotten it incorrect the first time. You must get this part right and ensure them that they will be looked after as a matter of priority, and the whole procedure will be painless.
Offer a money-back guarantee. Don’t offer penalties, restocking fees, or cancellation fees. These deter the customer from buying. Make the purchase as easy as possible. Having a flexible return and exchange program and having an extended warranty period increase sales. They don’t increase returns. On the contrary they increase buyer confidence and sales.
It is simply a method you are using to build trust and ensure the customer feels at ease and confident shopping with you. They feel protected.
Inform your customer of additional charges.
Depending on which countries you ship to, if you ship internationally, there may be import taxes that your customer will be subjected to. If you intend to pass this cost on to your customer, ensure you inform them of these fees and state this clearly in this section. Let your international customers know which shipping method you use when sending overseas. In general, courier companies are the best when dealing with overseas parcels. I have had an exceptional experience with DHL and UPS when sending packages internationally. Postal systems lags a little in this area, as they rely on proxy postal companies in respective countries to pull their weight, and, unfortunately, they often don’t. Whilst postal companies do a perfectly great job in dispatching the product out of their own country, if its heading into another country, it is handed over to that country’s postal service for processing and delivery and quite frankly it can end up stuck in a foreign postal system for weeks.
Contact Us & About Us
Repeat both the contact us page and the about us page at the footer. They are equally essential to be placed here in addition to the header.
Other information to display on your website
There could be other valuable information that you may wish to place at the footer of your page, such as what payment methods you accept, any awards or recognitions that a customer may be aware of and give you credibility, a way for media to contact you, a quick reference to a size guide if you sell clothing/footwear, a gift card link, any affiliate programs that you may have, and last but not least a mailing list subscription.
What is a Mailing List?
An absolute must-have on your website. It is also known as email marketing. You are simply collecting data from individuals and using this information to send them material regarding your product or service.
This is your platform to communicate directly to your customer about anything you want! It increases sales through email campaigns which can run special offers, or create urgency on specific yearly events, such as Christmas, Mothers Day, and Valentine’s Day, to name a few. Of great significance in recent times are the Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sales. You want to let your customers know that you will be participating in these.
You must ensure you have three things in place, though.
1. Customers’ consent
2. An unsubscribe or opt-out button
3. Do not spam your customers.
4. Don’t ever sell their information to third parties without consent. It is illegal.
You do not want your website name/domain name to be blacklisted. If this occurs, the daily emails you send your customers regarding their order information and shipping details will end up in their junk folder in a best-case scenario. It won’t even make it past the spam filters in a worst-case scenario. This is important as it is almost impossible and very time consuming to white list your domain name once you have reached that point.
Be mindful of the GDPR I spoke about earlier. Knowing how to collect data from citizens of Europe is extremely important. There are enormous financial penalties if not done in accordance with their laws.
Email marketing is not only about sending promotions or offers; it’s about engaging with your customer and rewarding them for their loyalty. You will let them in on deals early or deals that the general public will not be able to participate in.
Communicating to your customers about events or happenings is also essential. Simple things as greetings for holiday seasons, or birthday wishes, or even an update on your business is also great.
A great email marketing platform that I used for years was Mailchimp. It never failed us. We had full integration with our platform, and it provided analytics, reports and insights on our performance. It has campaign templates that are easy to use, branded emails, landing pages, and even sign up forms.
Displaying your product or Service Pages
Your product or service page should not be complicated. Remember, less is more.
Showcase your product with great photography and as many angles as you can. Videos are proven to be very effective in selling online. Platforms such as the iconic have set a different benchmark for the online experience. They have videos of products on models, extensive photos from different angles, one of the best return & exchange policies I have encountered, and their product arrives at lightning speed. A mere 3 hours for some locations. They are a trusted online store and have gained the confidence of their customers – including myself!
It would be great if your product page could have full 360-degree photos, but good quality photos will also do the trick.
Let the customer know their payment options (how they can pay at checkout – what methods) and let them know if the item is in stock to get a rough idea of when to expect it. You can also go as far as letting them know the date it will arrive.
Other than that, all you need is a call for action which in simple terms is a button that says “Add to cart”, “buy now”, “finalise your purchase” etc.
Your checkout area should be as simple as possible, with as few steps and a ‘one-page’ checkout. Don’t add additional information here that will distract the buyer from completing their purchase. They should not feel confused about what to do next or what to click next. It takes a second to distract someone that may end in cart abandonment.
Managing your customers and their expectations although sometimes challenging, is not impossible. It is however very important to the success of any business and this is why I list it as the number 3 step (out of 5) in how to run a successful business.
Getting this part right did not happen overnight. It was through trial and error and getting the right team for the job that I managed to construct my website pages in a way that gave me the result that I was trying to achieve – an excellent customer experience which led to more customers and more sales. You can achieve great things when hiring web developers rather than using website builders or good SEO experts rather than attempting to do this part on your own. You don’t make money when you save money. That’s not to say you should blow your budget, but good business planning and strategic management will help you achieve great things in business.
Knowing my competition and mapping out what they were doing was also important. This helped me be different to them and a step ahead of the game.
