What do I put on my website?

Customers routinely ask us what they should put on their website. Your website should contain information about your business, your products or services, and you. By looking at your website, your customers should know that you are trustworthy, that you are capable of providing them with the product or service, and that you know what you are doing.

The easiest way to figure out what information to put on your website is to put yourself in the position of your customers. If you were the customer, what would you want to know? What would you want to see on a website? Also, you may want to consider reviewing the websites of your competitors to see the information they are adding.

Keep in mind that the content on your website should be updated regularly (i.e., at least on a weekly basis). Search engines will come through your website more often if they see that you are updating the text. Also, your customers will come back more often if they see you are updating the pictures. Remember that search engines like words because people type in words to find information online. So, in this context, in helps to be verbose.

A few questions to help you figure out what information to add to your website:

• About You and Your Business

• Do you have a mission statement?
• When was your business founded?
• Have you always provided this type of product or service?
• What is your experience in the product/service area?
• How did you become interested in providing this product or service?
• Is this a family run business?
• Has your business or have you received any press?
• Are there any reviews available about your product or service?
• Do you go to shows or events (e.g., craft shows, trade shows, etc.)? If so, is a schedule available? (If you go to events, be sure to take pictures of your booth because this makes for great content for your website!)

• Getting in Touch with You

• Do you have a physical store? If so, what is the address? Is a map available? Can you provide directions? Are pictures available on the website?
• Do you have multiple physical locations? What are the addresses?
• Do you have a business phone number available?
• Do you have a business e-mail available? How quickly do you respond to e-mail?

• Buying Your Product or Service

• Are there any special considerations customers need to make when buying your product or service?
• Are your products/services adequately described? For example, if you are selling clothing, have you included colors and sizes? If you are selling food, have you provided a list of ingredients? (Remember that search engines love words so the more words the better!)
• Are you products available in any stores?
• What are the shipping rates?
• How quickly are products packaged and shipped?
• When are people charged for their purchase - immediately or upon shipment?
• What payment methods do you accept? (If you accept checks, be sure to update the records in the secure server.)
• Do you require a deposit? If so, can this deposit be paid online? (We can work with you to set up this option.)
• Do you sell gift certificates? (The pageBuzz system includes a gift certificate program.)
• Do you offer coupons or discounts? Many of our customers who travel to shows or events choose to offer coupons to people who visited them at the event so that these people can purchase directly from the website after the show. This also allows the customer to better track the success of the show. (The pageBuzz system includes many options for coupons and discounts including buy one get one free, discounts on certain categories, percentage or dollar discount, etc.)

• Policies

• What is your shipping policy?
• What is your return policy?
• Will you take custom orders? If so, do you have examples of previous work?
• What is your gift card policy?
• What is your privacy policy?
• Are there any other terms and conditions you need to tell people about?
• Do you need to make any product/service disclaimers?