Elsewhere in our Tower Systems knowledge base, we provide advice on how to connect your Retailer software to Shopify, Big Commerce, WooCommerce and Magento.
The advice we provide here is more of broader business advice on where and how to start in creating a website for your business.
Start with being sure about why you want a website. For some, it is about enhancing business presence, for others it is about reaching more customers for what their shop stocks, while for others it is about a plan B – a new business, a start-up, that provides completely new revenue and customers for the business that operates from the business but not in the shop itself.
So, first, figure out what you want a website for as this helps inform the look and feel, terms and conditions and a bunch of other things you will consider as you develop the website.
The next step is to gather data. Do this before you start working on the website or start talking to a web developer. (You can thank us later for this vital advice):
- Name. Check that you can get the website URL you want. Once you have this, if it is not your business name consider registering the URL as a business name.
- Logo. Design one or have one designed for you. Keep it simple, clean and easily understood.
- Mood board. Start to put together a mood board of colours and images that you like for the website.
- Consider a tag line. This would often sit under the logo and explain the business.
- About us. Write your About Us page. It must be personal. People are more likely to shop with a website they trust and one of the best ways to engender trust is to be personal. Include a photo, and your contact details. The About Us should speak to why people should shop with you, without you explicitly saying that. The About Us page also needs to be brief. People have no time for an essay. What you think is important about your business is not likely what others will value.
- Products. Gather good, meaningful descriptions, photos and usage information. Load this data into your Retailer software. Retailer is the place of truth when it comes to product data.
- Terms and conditions. Put these into a Word document. Look at examples on other websites. Then, create your own.
- Shipping policy. Follow the same advice as for terms and conditions.
- Blog posts / news. A key attribute of a successful website is the fresh content available there. Use a blog feed (call it a news feed) on the website to publish product use information, advice to people using what you sell and customer stories. Our recommendation is that you have some of these written prior to starting work on the website. The best articles are 350+ words in which the target keyword for the article is used five or more times. The best articles are human written.
If you do these things before actually starting on the website itself or before talking to a web developer you will be well ahead. Creating the website will be faster.
For inspiration, look at other websites in your target area of business. It’s okay to see what others do and copy them, but do it in your words and style.
We appreciate many in local small business retail are time poor. Outsourcing this website prep work to someone else is like asking someone to find your new home and completely decorate it, when this is the home you will live in. The more of you invested in the website before you start the better it will be and better equals success here.