From new York to Hong Kong to Paris and to thriving Singapore, start up entrepreneurs are getting on the Internet bandwagon.
Once, not too far in our past, a start up company needed considerable seed money before even thinking about opening a brick and mortar store. That meant either having personal wealth or in most cases, it meant having to borrow money just to start.
That presented a great deal of difficulty since the entrepreneur had not only to repay the loan(s) but in addition there would be the rent and other expenses, In most cases of that nature, it might take six or more months before the shop might begin to show a profit.
But today, with a free WordPress website and studious enthusiasm, any person may set up a business in as little as a day or so and there’s no money to borrow, no rent to pay and the only expense might be the actual merchandise and shipping materials. In the case of services, the operation might be even easier on the pocketbook.
Naturally, hopeful entrepreneurs have a good many questions and one that constantly appears is the question of pages. Just what are pages that are essential and the next question is how many pages should a website have?
Obviously, a scanty website with very little information and no attractive qualities is unlikely to lead to a resounding success.
On the other hand, too many pages may only confuse the visitor, or a busy visitor simply can’t or won’t devote much time reading copious amounts of material. Therefore, the happy medium is the order of the day here.
For starters, it would be helpful for you to try as much as possible, to pinpoint your potential customers. It would be a wise approach if you can foresee the customer’s needs and desires. Then you must ask yourself if your product will fill that need. Therefore, once having narrowed your search down to the best potential customers, you may begin to look for ways to connect with them. That can also help you determine the number of pages your web site should have.
The thing here is to turn these potential customers into real customers. To do that, you have to build a friendship, a customer/business friendship that involves trust and confidence.
Of course, by this time you will have created an attractive page with perhaps well-made colour prints of your product. Perhaps a beautiful young woman holding your product in her hand or something like that might just be perfect. But then there are other pages as well. A blog can be very helpful in building friendly relations with customers and potential customers – that may include some who only happen to be surfing and chance upon your website.
A blog can be something of a diary, or it can just be some of your thoughts and/or experiences, something that happened on a particular day that impressed you, made you laugh, made you want to scream. You might even talk about future plans, invite questions or comments and suggestions. Thee are many ways to connect with customers through the use of a blog.
By keeping track of all the questions that come in to you, you can eventually create a FAQ list in which you answer all these and other possible questions you believe might be enlightening.
You might devote a page to reviews. It’s important to give some real consideration to what people say and try where possible to humanise reviews, to make customers read them with the feeling that the person who wrote the review might well become a friend.
Don’t allow yourself to be stuck in a rut. You can not only change but to survive in any marketplace, you have to be adaptable. Barack Obama said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.”
Some insist that fifty pages or more prove most successful for the proper development of your website. Although fifty pages appears to be a lot of pages to fill up, it really isn’t that hard. First and foremost is the goal and that is to drive traffic to your website.
Aside from the feature page and other that have been mentioned,
you might devote a separate page to each of your products or services with pictures, explanations, coupons perhaps and any pertinent information that might help the visitor to understand while creating a desire to purchase your product.
There can be a page telling about you and your company. Another page can discuss to greater length your goals and interests, thus humanising you to your customers. Now instead of dealing with some anonymous company, they’re dealing with a person, a person who might well be the neighbour next door.
Another possibility is to have a page connected to every keyword used for your website Remember, keywords are essential for a proper SEO.
You can also check out the webpages your closest competitors have – particularly those who are very established, very successful and ranking very well on SERPs.
If in doubt, go through these common pages and determine what you need:
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homepage
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product page (attempt to categorise by Main Category, Sub- Category and split as much as possible because the more microscope you go, the easier it is for search engines to find and index each product and hence easier for clients to find and purchase from you)
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services page (similar to product page in consideration)
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about us
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FAQ
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resources
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blogroll (and increasing number of blogs you should be adding regularly)
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privacy
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terms and conditions
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partners/affiliates/distributors/resellers page
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contact us
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help and support
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sitemap
Another vital point to bear in mind is that for a successful, ongoing business that will endure, you must always be honest. That means honesty in describing a product, honesty in the reviews about the product. It means that if you promise a complete refund for dissatisfied customers, then you much make sure it is prompt. Some businesses make customers wait three to six months ignoring their letters. Some never refund the money. Obviously these businesses are headed toward failure.
That is not to say that all such businesses are dishonest. Some simply don’t pay proper attention to their daily operations. Once started on your road to business success, you can’t sit back and relax. Your work has only begun.
Running a business, even a small Internet business, requires your full and complete attention each and every day. It will have become a part of you and just as you have to bathe, brush your teeth and put on clean clothes, your business requires the same routine and attention to detail if you really hope for, and expect success in your endeavours.
