One of the most important marketing tools that work at home entrepreneurs can use today is a personal or a business website. Once you have attracted enough clients and have gotten your business off the ground, it will be much easier to attract new better paying clients if you present an image of an established, reliable and available business that provides professional services to its clients.
However, creating a website can be such a demanding task – not that it is hard to create one, but ensuring that the website you set up is professional and easy to use. Here are 5 of the most important elements that your website, as a work at home entrepreneur and contractors or freelancers must consider when setting up a business website.
a) Clean simple design
A cluttered and messy website is a sight to abhor – it can easily remind one of a scam website with advertisements on almost every empty space. People who come to your website do so because they want to find specific information and it would be good to make it easy for them to find because they wouldn’t have the time to search for it. Your homepage should be simple and clean and with relevant content.
b) Show Clear and up-to-date contact information
Once you have a clean-cut and simple website design, the next step will be to ensure that your contact information as well as other crucial work information such as the tasks you take or products you sale are easily accessible. You should also make it easy for visitors to find answers to the most common questions they would ask such as your rates and samples of your work or testimonies from previous and current clients.
c) Information about yourself
Even when you are running a business, if you are a work at home, the line between you as a person and your business, is so thin that it shouldn’t even exist. When creating content for your site, put a lot more focus on the ‘About Me’ page and use the first person point to speak directly to the clients and to show that you are ready to establish a more personalized relationship with them.
d) Show your prospects
Clearly outline what you do and use descriptive headers and taglines to clearly show what you do and not leave visitors guessing whether they are on the right site. On the homepage, guide the visitors on what to do such as telling them to contact you, or click a link to view some samples or portfolios. Remember that when visitors are confronted with many options or when they are not sure what to do, they will go with the presented choices or advice.
e) Have a picture of yourself
Having a picture of you is particularly important when starting out. Instead of using the generic stock images found anywhere on the internet, show your sincerity and uniqueness by using your actual picture in the about me page or on the homepage.