After the homepage, the most visited page on most websites is the About Us page.  The web is a great equalizer for business and your visitors know a shady company can put up a reputable looking website.  In order to gain trust, you have to answer the biggest question a consumer on the web is asking:  Can I trust you?

To answer that question, your visitors will turn to the About Us page.  You need to convey information about your company, demonstrate why you are trustworthy, and develop a personal connection with your visitor, all in 400-600 words.  This information is expected and delivering the goods boosts your online image.

Elements to consider when crafting an About Us page:

• A physical address – An 800 number and contact form are easy, convenient ways for customers to reach you, but a physical address shows a prospective customer that you are a real business.

• What you do – Most of your site will focus on solutions for your customers.  The About Us page is the corner of your site to talk to visitors about your company.

• Why you do what you do – How did the company begin and what is the driving passion behind it?  This is a great way to demonstrate dedication to your customers.

• Your successes – This page is not for the modest!  If you have received any awards or recognition, tapped into a competitive market, or experienced impressive growth mention them.  These are signals to your potential customers that you will do a good job for them.

• What makes you different– Chances are you are not the only business doing what you do.  A look at what sets you apart gives visitors a reason to choose you.

• Personality – If your company is fun to work with or singularly dedicated to helping customers, make sure visitors know that.  Your company’s culture should shine through in the writing.

• Staff bios – Give your visitors a connection with the people behind the business.  The web is cold and impersonal, but humanizing elements add a friendly face and make the experience more personal.

As much as the web has changed the way businesses relate to their customers, the importance of trust has not diminished.  Potential customers want to know they are dealing with a reputable company in addition to getting a great product.  Build credibility on your site and convert visitors into customers.

Listen, if anyone tells you that your website isn’t as important as printed marketing materials they’re dead wrong. Your website is your online identity and its look needs to match the branding of your company. How you setup the site and the visual elements directly effects the kind of traffic you get on the website. Key components and information about your company should be accessible.

Here are some things to watch out for when you’re putting a site together:

• If you have a search box, make sure it’s placed in a position that makes sense. Search boxes are very useful to have on a large scale website because it allows people to find the information they need quicker.
• You should absolutely have a phone number somewhere obvious on the website. Don’t bury your number deep within contact areas. Always consider placing the phone number somewhere near the top right of the website.
• Break up your content so that it’s readable. You have to realize that when people come to your website they are looking for particular pieces of information. They’re not coming to your website to read everything you have up there. They’re coming to you to find an answer to a very specific question. So, breaking up the content into different blocks or adding sub-headings helps people navigate your website easier.
• Widen your color palette beyond 2 colors. Look, some of us out there like to have things as uniform as possible, but in the marketing world you need buttons and other elements of your website to jump out at people. Now, I’m not suggesting that you use bright neon colors (please don’t do that). Just think about your marketing goals and understand how people browse a website.

Keeping your site in line with the companies goals is an important part of the overall process.

Websites are meant to bring in traffic and revenue. Don’t spend your money developing one if you’re not willing to think outside of the box.

E-commerce is something that almost all business owners are after. The point of developing a website for your company is to bring in traffic and ultimately use it as a tool to bring in more business. Building a store into your website is one of the fastest growing requests in the Web development world. All kinds of companies ranging from handmade soap developers to kids self esteem programs are capitalizing on a user base that likes to do, find and get everything all in one place.

It’s simple enough to request a store be added as a part of your projects scope, but the real tricky part is setting it up in a way that will convert users and increase your sales. Some will argue that on-site stores aren’t the answer, and in 3 years they might not be, but for now this is where the industry is headed and you have to be hip to the trends.

So, how can it be the “ultimate e-commerce tool”? Well, it’s going to take a great deal of time to organize the thoughts of the designer and the rest of the development team. If you’re utilizing this kind of tool then it’s important that you have a few spots on your home page to entice users to visit the products area of your website. This could be in the form of an elegant button located in the top right area of your site or a featured product box in a sidebar or somewhere else so long as its above the fold.

You can use all kinds of other marketing tactics such as offering freebies if they purchase a product now. This is a great way to pull people in. If they can get something for free without having to do a whole lot of work than that can be big, especially if they like what they’re receiving. They’ll say good things about the company and direct other people to the site who might be interested. Word of mouth, in my opinion, is the most important piece of the small business puzzle. If you have a great website that has some interesting offers and you’re visitors are pleased, then wouldn’t you agree that Web usability could very well be the ultimate e-commerce tool?

Use Web usability to direct traffic towards the areas of your website that you want them to go. This is how you get customers to convert.