As you know it is really important to protect yourself and these documents will allow you to do that. The terms & conditions you set out will let people know what they are agreeing to when using your website and is very important. You will also need a privacy policy if you are going to collect any data from your visitors so they know how you will use it.
2. Contact Details
It is really important to include your contact details on your website. This should not just be a form but if possible an address and telephone number. This will enable people to call you if they need to and also gives them comfort that you have a registered address. This is also important for the search engines and Google will check this to ensure you are a genuine business.
3. Search Facility
You want to make it as easy as possible for people to find what they are looking for. That means it is essential to include some form of search or way to navigate your site. If you have a lot of content it might also be worth including a site map as this will help the search engines to navigate your site which could benefit your rankings.
4. Google Analytics
It is a good idea to have some form of analytics on your website as this will show you what people do on your website. You will be able to see what sort of traffic you get and where they come from and what they do on your site. This will help you to adapt your strategy in order to target the best place to get visitors from and also to change your site to get the most out of your visitors.
5. Consistent Navigation
It is really important that people do not get lost on your website. If you have a different navigation system on every page the people will not know where they are. This will only result in you losing visitors as they can't work out your site and so will be unlikely to buy from you.
6. Newsletter
If you have visitors that might not be ready to buy yet it is important to try and capture as many as possible for future sales. If you have a newsletter function then you can get people's email addresses and follow them up in the future when you have promotions. The more people you have to market to the better.
7. Optimised Content
It is vital that you optimise your content for the search engines. This will help you to be found by the search engines and could ultimately help your traffic and sales. A website without optimised content is probably missing a trick and could miss out on a lot of valuable business.
8. Share Buttons
It is a very good idea to include social share buttons on your pages. Then if people like what they see on your site they can share it with their network. This will help you to get more publicity and also to gain valuable links for the search engines.
