What Do Customers Want to See on Your Website?

As all reporters know, information gathering is the first and most critical step to take when developing a story. They use the 5W formula, standing for Who, What, Where, When and Why. Just like the news, your website must tell a great story with all the details to get and keep the attention of your existing and potential customers.

Look at your current website design and ask yourself if you've provided answers to the basics. If you haven't answered the 5W's, you may be missing out on website conversions when your visitors click away from your site in frustration.

Let's take a look at the basic questions your company website should answer.

A company website should answer the question, "WHO?"

Website development is far more than slapping a name, logo and services tab on a page. Business is all about people! Does your company website include pictures of you and your key staff? Have you included a bit of history about their background and professional accomplishments?

People want to work with people, not institutions. So get personal and have some fun. Include a few personal details, like each staff member's favorite place, food, movie or another item relevant to your business. Use a professional photographer for the headshots and keep the format consistent to project a sense of team cohesion.

Your company website should use keywords to answer "WHAT?"

It may seem like a simple task to describe what your business offers. However, optimizing your website is dependent on the words you use. Every day, there are 3.5 billion Google searches done for information, entertainment, businesses, products and services. Will your website be found by the search engines? Using appropriate keywords to describe what you offer is the key to optimizing your website so that it can be found and appear higher on the search results page.

A professional web design company does keyword research during website development. Your target audience will be defined and demographics will help to determine the way they think and search online. The keywords and phrases they'd use will be included in the products or services section. If you created your own website, you may have skipped the keyword research stage, missing out on optimizing your website. Find out more about what's missing from your website design.

More than anything else, visitors to your company website want visuals. Help them understand your business, services and products by adding plenty of visuals and colourful pictures. Also, include meta descriptions and alt tags on your images to improve your search rankings. Not sure how to add these details? Check out Bloomtools' search engine optimization services we can help you optimize your website with high quality content.

Your website design must include "WHERE?"

If you have a bricks and mortar business, visitors to your company website will ask how far away it is. During website development, make sure your location and phone numbers are displayed prominently in the 'Contact Us' section, which itself should have a prominent link in your top navigation. Include an online map on the page (Google makes it easy!) so visitors can easily pop in their location and get directions.

A company website should tell "WHEN?"

Now that they know who you are, what you're offering and where to go, don't forget to tell them when you're open for business! If a customer is unsure if you're open or closed, they might just opt to pay a visit to the competitor who has a metaphorical 'open' sign displayed on their website! You can include your business hours in the 'Contact Us' section near the address and map.

Website development beyond the basics: Tell them "WHY"

Once you've covered the basics, there will undoubtedly be more questions in your visitors' minds. Now you can delve further into their needs and desires. Think about answers to the tough questions that customers ask, like "Why should I contact you?" or "Why are you better than the competition?" or "What is the benefit to me, when I choose your business?"

At this stage, website development goes beyond the basics and becomes more about convincing and persuading your target. A website development company, an experienced copywriter and some customer testimonials can help create a superior website design that compel syour visitors to stay longer, read more and ultimately increase your website conversions.

Do you need help with website development? Contact Bloomtools to learn more about building an effective website for your business. Think your website is fine as is? Try our free website assessment tool to learn more about weaknesses and areas of opportunity on your company website.

What is your lead generation plan? Are you satisfied with the number of website conversions you're getting? Bloomtools converts leads into customers. Check out our online toolbox! It's packed with tools that will help you grow your business, guaranteed!