In a recent post, we remarked the lack of local designers and furnishing outlets returned in a Google search. As a result, we wondered if this was the result of a lack of branding by these businesses. And so, we now feel the need to consider the best tool for branding your business: your website. The website checklist below could be the key to more effective branding for your business.
As your online showroom, your business website will generally be the first impression potential clients will have of your interior design for the furnishing business. A well-designed, attractive website has inestimable value for businesses that offer such personal services. And, since the interior design and luxury furnishings are almost exclusively local businesses, adding a local flavor to the content you share will add a sense of comfort for visitors.
With all of that said, let’s get to the good stuff; our checklist of what your website needs to be effective.
Your Website Checklist
The list below outlines the basic elements that you need to have in place for your business website to reflect your brand.
Page content – A business website should display a minimum of three pages: Home, About, Services/Products. Each should describe in detail your purpose, as well as the benefits of doing business with you. Beyond these three critical pages, you should also have a Contact Us page and a Blog for sharing fresh and timely content.
Home page – This is the most important page on your website. With 60% to 80% of visitors landing here first and since first impressions are so important, the copy you create for this page will be critical to your success. This is a great place to share your vision and mission, as well as your purpose.
About page – What makes you special? What are your qualifications? Do you have specialized training? Why are you so committed to the path you’ve chosen to pursue? How have you helped others and how can you help the reader? Answering all of these questions will go a long way toward generating interest from your target audience.
Services/Products page – Benefits, benefits, benefits… will be the key to selling your services or products. In other words, while sharing features and details are fine, you must also answer the age-old question of all consumers… “What’s in it for me?”
Portfolio page – Images of projects you’ve completed, along with testimonials from satisfied clients are as important as any other content on your website. Maybe more so. While quality images are requisite, rest assured you do not need to invest in a high-end digital camera. Most smartphones today have amazing cameras built-in and these should be more than adequate for taking and sharing great photos of the work you’ve done. They’re also easy to upload to just about any WordPress website.
SEO – Search engine optimization is, and will forever be, a critical element to a successful launch and there are a few very important steps to consider:
Word count – While Google won’t necessarily ignore a page with little content, they will not consider it very important if you can’t publish at least 300 words. This is true of your pages and blog posts. Basically, if you can’t offer 300 words on a subject, what you have to say must not be very important.
Meta data – Your page titles, Meta descriptions, and tags should all be tailored to the content you publish. All should be descriptive and compelling to attract both the search engines and your target audience. Titles should be 60-70 characters, while descriptions should not exceed 155 characters. Otherwise, it will end in ellipses in the search results which may leave prospects wondering if you’re worth a click and visit.
Image alt tags – Hidden in the code behind the images you publish, image alt tags are hints of the image content to the search engines. They can typically be added in the same menu you use to edit and/or publish your images.
Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (Courtesy of DreamHost.com)
A privacy policy is required by law if you’re collecting any kind of personal data, including email addresses. This policy spells out exactly how any information (emails, contact information, and more) will be used.
Terms of Service (TOS) statements are not legally mandatory in most cases, but they can still be valuable. Your TOS states the ground rules for visitors who want to use your site.
Set Your Site to Back Up Regularly
If your website crashes or is hacked, or if you install a plugin that causes a problem, having your files backed up regularly and automatically is a lifesaver.
There are many ways to approach this task, but one surefire way to keep things running smoothly is by using managed hosting for your website. That way, your provider can take care of restoring backups and automatically archiving them for you.
Set up a Comprehensive Site Map
Sitemaps play a vital role in how search engines “crawl” and index your pages. While a sitemap won’t directly improve your rankings, it can help to ensure that your site is indexed properly.
If you use WordPress, there are plugins available to help you generate and manage sitemaps. Google also has an established process for submitting your sitemap directly.
Add Analytics Tracking to Your Site
Once your website is up and running, you’ll need a way to measure how well it performs. That’s why it pays to set up an analytics tracking solution before even launching your site.
Connect Your Social Media Accounts
Promoting your site on social media can be vital to reaching your target audience. Providing icons so your visitors can easily find your social media pages is one of the best ways to do that.
Check for Responsiveness on Mobile Platforms
Whether you’re writing a blog post or operating a Shopify store, it’s vital that your site looks good and performs well on devices of all sizes. One easy way to check your website’s mobile responsiveness is with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool.
Now that your head is spinning and real panic has set in at the length and complexity of this website checklist, it must be said that these are just the beginning of what needs to be done to ensure successful branding from your website. (Hope we didn’t give you nightmares with that bit of knowledge!)
If you don’t feel you have the tech-savvy to do all of this yourself, we have no problem recommending the marketing support team we use to design and maintain our website, Virtual Business Partners. This Chicago-based group of online marketing pros has been supporting TD Fall for years and we’re extremely happy with Doreen and her team. They can even support you with administrative work, freeing you to spend more time acquiring and servicing clients.
Further, Ted remains available to work with you on an individual basis, consulting on how you might increase local brand awareness as part of your marketing strategy.
With more than 25 years of experience in the luxury furnishings and interior design industries, he has pretty much seen it all. So, if you're ready to work with a professional business consultant who can help you become one of those agile entrepreneurs our changing world demands, feel free to… Get in touch with TD Fall today.
