Understanding the Types of Websites and Its Purposes
If you are starting a business or own one, it’s natural to consider creating a website for your project. A website is an excellent tool for marketing, outreach, and communication. It will help your business grow and engage more customers.
Like businesses come in all sizes and shapes, so does it’s the website. It has different goals and objectives based on the needs of its owner and customers. So, even if you are not a web designer, it’s better that you know exactly which type of website is right for you.
In this article, we share with you the use and the purpose of the website. We also provide some tips for beginners on how to create their own websites.
What is a website and how can it be used for your business?
A website is a group of interconnected, publicly accessible web pages with a common domain name. For businesses, it is built and maintained to serve information to their clients and customers. It offers a fast and easy way to exchange data from sellers to buyers at its simplest.
Business websites can be used in a variety of ways, some of which you may not know. In this section, let’s take a look at how it is used.
You can advertise your products and services
A business website is one of the key components of online marketing. You can advertise your product or service through a website and attracts more clients to your business.
Also one of the major importance of a website is that people can access it from anywhere and at any time. The website will be open 24/7, even while you are sleeping. Customers can avail of services, buy products, or get the information they need through your websites.
You can gather opinions and reviews from customer
Customer comments and reviews help to improve your products and services. Additionally, it boosts your sale and services if you gathered comments and evaluations and used it in a positive way for clients.
Furthermore, providing feedback to customer reviews and comments is one of the ways to show your clients that your business can be trusted.
You can offer customer support through your website
Customer support and service is the key to growing a company and keeping clients. And there is no better way to do this than by adding a customer care page on a company website or even by developing a special website just for addressing client issues.
You can boost the company’s reputation and builds brand awareness,
Having a website for your company improves its reputation and brand awareness. It also helps to grow and connect with new business opportunities.
3 Basic purposes of website
Aside from being used in different ways, a website can serve more than one purpose for a business. It comes in various forms and every website has a different purpose. It’s no use to create a website and its contents the purpose is vague. Basically, you will need to clearly define the purpose and match it with the use of the functions.
To make money
One of the most common purposes of a website is to make money out of it. It can be posting an advertisement to attract your customer to your shop or creating an online webshop.
Businesses have started making millions online by selling products to online customers and making sure that customers can access them as easily as possible. No matter how you do it, the purpose is simply to make money.
To inform new customers about your business
In the long run, this is important for a successful business. This type of website’s main purpose is to provide customers with important information about the company. It also needs to promote the service or product supplier in a positive and reliable manner.
It’s not necessarily the advertisement but could be such things as a product recall or correction of information. It could also be more general information to serve the interest of your users. Sharing your knowledge and educating an audience, may not have direct sales. But, being open and transparent will certainly make your business trustworthy.
To entertain and increase brand awareness
An essence of entertainment in a website can really offer high conversion rates, creating more audience. There is so many advertisements that people are simply tired of them. In order to attract more audience to your website, providing entertainment can be a purpose of your website.
Whether it’s a game, good music, beautiful visuals, or a funny quote on your website, it will increase brand awareness in a way. Having a good relationship with your customer is important when you want your voice to be heard.
Identifying the types of websites to start with
Now that we have checked some of the basic use and purpose of websites, let’s go ahead and choose the type of website you want to build. Here is a list of widely used types of websites.
Homepage WEBSITE
The homepage is the front entrance of your business. It’s the main page where the visitors will have the first impression before going into detailed information. If you have a small business, it’s ideal to start small with just a 1 to the 5-page website, with essential information and navigation.
Some Features of the Homepage:
- Logo
- Headline
- Navigation
- Web content
Because things are very minimum, it’s budget-friendly as well.
Blog website
A blog is another category of the website. This type of website typically has a casual tone and is updated on a regular basis. It’s different from the corporate page where the information would need to be fixed (like company vision, address, etc). Blogs can include reading material as well as pictures, infographics, and videos.
The point of a blog is to inform your clients of current events, detailed background, or any information which is helpful to the wider audience. If you are interested in creating your own blog, you can read our articles.
E-commerce website
E-commerce is now used widely in all sorts of business industries to sell their products and services. Aside from having a simple homepage with visuals, it will require some functions such as a shopping cart and secure transaction methods.
The main purpose of e-commerce is to attract more customers without the large expense of having a physical shop open. But in terms creating and operating an e-commerce website, it’s a complex task and requires some budget.
Portfolio website
A portfolio website is something related to visual art. If you are an artist, designer, architect, or web programmer, it offers a space to display your professional skills. Rather than using words to tell how good you are at coding, it’s much more convincing to show what you can make and explain how you have built it.
An online portfolio is a good way to appeal to your potential clients by making your past projects available and searchable.
4 Tips on creating a website for your business
If your company doesn’t already have a website and you want to create one. Here are some essential pointers to help you launch your new website.
Select a platform for building websites
Consider how your website will be maintained and how simple it will be to make updates when choosing how to build it. You will need to regularly update the information on your website, and maintenance is one thing that is often overlooked.
Building the website itself can be done by yourself(DIY) or by hiring a professional. If you are not confident of your skills and the time required for learning, it’s better to hire a web developer to create a high-quality website for your business.
Choose the ideal compatibility between your domain name and your company name
The main portal to your website is usually your domain name, also known as your website address. It must leave a great first impression in order to be effective for both search engine optimization(SEO) and usability.
Use a proper domain name that is related to your company name and is easy to search and easy to remember.
Choose a theme or template after installing the WordPress software.
Your website must be hosted by a web hosting company in order to be published and available on the internet. These businesses give you a secure spot on their server to keep all of your website content.
Enhance your website’s search engine optimization by adding content.
Customers will be more comfortable conducting business with you if you provide relevant and expert content and visuals that help them understand your products and services. It’s critical to update the content on your website.
Need some help creating your own Website?
We hope reading this article has helped you to understand some basic ideas for creating your company’s website. To summarize, you will start from thinking about the purpose and the use of websites that would fit with your business. From there, you can choose the types of websites you may use for your content, considering the overall budget.
If you need some professional help, Lookupgrade can assist you further. For support from an experienced web designer, feel free to contact us anytime.
