3 Secrets Of An Effective Business Website

Your website can make or break your brand. An effective one will be able to engage your target users and visitors to stay and navigate through your site. If you are selling products or offering services, your site can just encourage your visitors to go ahead and make that purchase. On the other hand, if you are someone who is trying to make a name online, your site can also pave the way for your visitors to share your content and your links.

But before digging in deeper, it is important that you know the basics of coming up with a site first. The article “I Bought A Domain, Now What?” written by Martina of the Zyro blog walks you through the process of connecting your domain to a web host and eventually creating your website. It also sheds light on how you can develop your brand and monitor the growth of your site. As far as an effective business website goes, it pays to know some important secrets.

Before we launch into the three secrets of an effective business website, it’s worth giving some quick thought to whether that site is delivered in one language or in multiple ones. If you’re planning to use website translation services to connect your site with international audiences, you’ll need to bear that in mind throughout your plans, in order to make your site as effective as possible.

That said, each of the three secrets below still applies, regardless of the number of languages that you use – you just need to consider each point in relation to each language that your site will be in.

1. Optimized Design

The look and feel of your website is the first thing that is noticed by its visitors. Statistics show that you only have a couple of seconds to make a great first impression to your visitors and if these first seconds are spent loading your site, then you might as well say goodbye to your visitors.

Thereby, make sure that your website’s design is optimized such that it loads quickly and your users will find it relatively easy to navigate around it. This can be due to the layout of your site, or where the call to action buttons are placed. Make it as intuitive as possible and you will have a high conversion.

When it comes to connecting with users in other countries, you’ll also need to ensure that your website design supports multiple languages. This isn’t just about supporting a couple of accents in the text, but about building in the ability to deliver your site in non-Latin alphabets, to allow text to flow from right to left or vertically, to resize around differing lengths of text and more. All of these is essential if you want an effective business website that works in multiple languages.

2. Relevant and Updated Content

Relevant and updated content is also another way to win the hearts of your visitors. If they get the information they need from your site, then for sure they will be coming back many times over and be regular visitors, even after they have already purchased your product and services. Make sure that the information you post is not only relevant, but it is also updated regularly.

It’s also important to know your target market and localize your content. Why should you localize your website? Because localized content has six times more engagement. It’s not just about using the right language, although that’s obviously important – Nimdzi’s research has shown that nine out of ten people will ignore your product unless it’s in their native language, so you need decent translation in place.

But that’s not all. The next step in the process is website localization. Website localization means you can shape and mould your site to better suit the cultural expectations of your readers. No matter where they are located nor which language they are using your site in, the experience will feel native to them. This is essential if you want to engage with different audiences as fully as possible.

You’ll also need to keep your content fresh. The world is changing rapidly, from political shifts to healthcare concerns to environmental matters. As the business environment around you continues to evolve, so to must your website. That means keeping not just your content updated but also your products and services.

Review regularly how you are providing value to your readers and scan the horizon to ensure you will continue to do so. Otherwise, your website runs the risk of becoming outdated and side-lined.

3. Searchable

Additionally, an effective website is searchable. You may have the greatest website ever designed and you may have the most informative content, but if your site doesn’t reach your target users, then you would not have any audience. This is the reason why it is of utmost importance to make sure that people can find you and for this, learn about search engine optimization techniques, or SEO and use it to your advantage.

The most effective websites not only have an optimized design and relevant content. Most importantly, they are searchable. This is because no matter how great your website is, if your target market isn’t aware that it exists, then it will really do no good for your business. Thereby, make sure to tie up all these three together and your website may just pave the way for your business growth and longevity.

Bear in mind that you can use a translation company to help with your SEO. You are far from alone in this endeavour. If you shop around, you’ll likely find translators with multilingual SEO expertise, so you don’t need to start the task from scratch. Tap into the right combination of language skills and SEO techniques and you’re well-positioned to get ahead of the competition.