Your website is your window to the world; your first impression to your customer base. With all the advertising clutter bombarding the general population, it’s absolutely essential that your website design be easy to navigate and attractive to your customers so they’ll “stick and click.” 5 steps to a good web design:

1) Brand your site with the rest of your marketing campaign. Your website is only one part of your overall marketing and advertising. Although the web has made sales and productivity easier, it has not yet been commercially developed to the point where most industries generate revenue without a traditional brick-and-mortar campaign. However, customers expect to see a professional website. It won’t make the sale, but it can stop it.

So when you design your site, make sure you have an easily accessible address page and customer service information. Create and advertise a customer service email and allow your customer base to contact you at any time. Your business cards and promotional materials should have your web address.

2) A good design is user friendly, easy to read and navigate. With advances in technology and willing and affordable professional help, there’s no excuse for a confusing website. Your competition is guaranteed to have a website that customers can easily navigate, and the frustration on the internet won’t last too long. The moment your customer can’t find what they need, you lose that customer to Google or your competition.

3) You must develop good detailed content. Be sure to add a page for each service or product. This has implications for search engine optimization (SEO), which will be discussed later, but also for your professional image. To make sales is to be seen as an expert in your industry or field. Going back to the notion of making your website easy to navigate, you need to organize your ideas. The easiest way to do this is to create separate web pages for each topic you want to cover. Be sure to include a FAQ page that answers common questions about your business, and don’t be afraid to give away free advice.

4) Remember, your website is meant to drive business. Make sure you have a call to action or contact on each page. The goal of the entire marketing campaign is sales and increased revenue. Salespeople have a saying, “You lose all the sales you don’t ask for.” Make contact information obvious and always link to your sales page from every other page. You can’t predict at what point in the process your customer will win over and buy from you, so give them every opportunity available. There are also ways to track which pages produce the most sales. Use this technology to further refine your process.

5) Optimize the site as you build – If they can’t find it, why build it? This is perhaps the most important piece of website development. Most people do not find services through direct referrals, but through search engines. This means that your website should be optimized to appear first, or near the top, when potential customers search for anything related to your niche.