When starting a new business website or improving on your web presence there is one thing that tends to get overlooked almost every time: What do you want your website to say?

As designers we know the importance of a professional and inviting website that breathes confidence into your customers to use or buy your goods and services. The customer needs to feel that they are not in the hands of an amateur or an inept organisation. Aesthetics are important to the psychological side of business. A solid, well placed, professional brand gets you that first impression that is so important in today’s markets and with the advances in web implementation across multiple platforms means that getting ahead with your brand is a serious concern for your budget and makes it a top priority.

However, all the shiny graphics in the world won’t save you if you have nothing good to use them for. So before diving into the design agency pool for the best creative mind, ask yourself the basic and most important questions first: What do we need to say? How should we say it to get the best response? How should we make the important information stand out before the small print? All of these questions need to be looked at first so that the creative can take your ideas and words and make them stand out against your competitors.

Think of any novel and you’ll be able to see a structure. There’s an introduction, maybe a background, a prologue? A clear beginning, middle and end. This concept is the same for any information that sells a service. What is the service? Why would I want it? What does it cost? How can I get it? When I have it how do I use it… It’s the same old story! But it works and it’s one of the age old methods for best delivery.

So look at your business and ask yourself how you need to promote your service. Keep it simple but get the information across that you need to to make the sale. If you don’t know how to find the information you are trying to provide then how are your customers expected to find it? If they don’t understand then they’ll never be able to trust your product and they wont invest in it. Good content on your website is a must for getting the best out of your business. Be sure you are selling things right, neatly and simply and the customer will have less anxiety about committing their hard earned cash to your bank account!

Once you know what you want to say it’s best to look into how you say it. You’ll want to think about what will get the most attention. A sale? A great price? Anything that will pull the customer into the benefits of your product need to be emphasised. Think about keywords: What do you want the customer to see first? How can you grab their attention? With specific keywords you can also grab Google’s attention and get the exposure straight from the word go! Be specific. If possible be unique! Sell your product and make the offer irresistible!

With planning and thought you can optimise any sale by making simple text into an olive branch of positives for the product. When the customer gets what they want with the minimum of fuss it’s a success and they’ll soon be coming back for more. Make your keywords stand out, Yes use bold text and headers for the important elements but make it simple and the customer will thank you for it. Say what you want to say quickly and easily and you won’t have to deal with phone calls asking about the features of your service from confused potential customers. It can all be right there at the click of a mouse button.