What type of site do I need?
That depends entirely on your business goals and the purpose of your website. Different types of businesses need different types of site, and the size and design is influenced by what you want to achieve with your web presence. But at the most fundamental level, it’s pretty obvious that every business needs at least a basic website these days. People do expect to be able to search and find you!
Wow, this photo is a few years old. I don’t have physical Yellow Pages anymore, do you?
Let’s say you’re a relatively new dentist in a country town, Coopersville. Here’s the scenario. Joe Blow and family move to town, and pretty soon mum Flo wants to get dental checkups for the kids. She searches Google for “Coopersville dentists”. She finds Local Search and Yellow Pages listings for 4 dentists in towns within a three-hour radius and none of them have websites. Dr G. Brown has a PO Box address and phone number in Coopersville, but no other details. Your practice isn’t even listed.
Flo Blow jumps on to the local buy swap sell Facebook group and asks for advice. A couple of people reply and say Dr Brown is the only one in town. Someone else says they heard a new dentist had come to town, but didn’t know any details. Margaret tries phoning Dr Brown on the Yellow Pages number but gets no reply (she doesn’t know Dr Brown has had Mondays off to play golf for years – and he has no answering service). So now what? The family might try one of the other three in neighbouring towns. They might drive around and happen to see your practice. A friend might eventually tell them of you, or when the Yellow Pages are next updated your listing might appear there (if you advertised).
But what if you’d had just a basic website with your services, hours, location & contact and a little about you to reassure Flo you’d be great with her dentist-shy autistic 5-year-old? On her first Google search, bingo – there you are. No need for fancy animations, detailed life story or online booking forms. Just who you are, what you do, and how and when to find you.
Now let’s look at an entirely different business: a sculptor specialising in rustic garden art. This time you need the same basic information as the dentist, but you’ll also want a gallery of your work, testimonials on the timeliness and smooth flow of your commission service, and maybe a blog with articles on how much you love your work, why you do it, and what your pieces can do for people. Do they bring joy? Do they add value to the real estate? Bring interest and life to the garden? And why should people support a local artist instead of buying a concrete emu from Bunnings?
A graphic designer would need a portfolio of past projects, a counsellor would concentrate on their experience and own life history, a business coach would want to talk about past successes and why their philosophy of business works. A shopfront site selling eco-friendly household items wants to focus on the product features and benefits, and probably try to encourage people to buy local or Australian made. A mechanic or bakery might want to focus on their specialities and what makes them different from others in town.
It comes down to this: every business and website will have a different purpose, and therefore a different structure, size and design. In order to decide what you need, you must first define your goals - that is, answer the question: What do I want my website to do for me? From there you can decide if you need the most basic 1-3 page informational site (usually applicable to bricks-and-mortar businesses that simply need their online presence to tell people what they do, where they are and when they’re open), or a more complex site that attracts, educates, engages, and turns online browsers into buyers.
This is where a good website designer can help to clarify your vision and purpose. They will usually ask you to fill in a questionnaire with quite detailed information about you and your business. It may seem like a lot of homework, but it is necessary to allow your designer to get inside your business mind and see what is needed in your website design. Help them out, and give the best answers you can! It will be worth it when your site does everything you need it to do reliably and seamlessly.
