While most sites include "contact us", "contacts" and "company" sections and
areas about "products" or "services" there are a number of different areas
appearing on company websites these days.
Sections in company
websites | Purpose of section. |
What's New | Bring attention to new
contents of the website, perhaps added since the visitor was last at the
website. Only worth doing if there will be regular new content added. |
Newsletters | Archive
of company newsletters which may have been email or postal. These can add to
the depth of the contents in the website. |
Press | Contacts for people from the
press, often this will list the CEO and a retained internal or external PR
consultant. A press section would list all past press releases for journalists
and other visitors to read online or download. (note: if they are provided in
html they will be more search engine compatible than if they are only available
in Adobe Acrobat) |
Applications | An area for application stories, can
include diagrams or animations, interactive or picture board stories of
applications solved with your products. If you have an extended sales force
this area can be as much of use to them as a training aid, as to your
customers. |
Downloads | Any
customer relevant data which may be downloaded from the website, examples
software fixes, audio or video demonstrations, presentations, datasheet packs,
faxable enquiry forms, adobe acrobat installation notes, etc. |
Equivalents | Normally within a "products" area, the
ability to search for an equivalent product to a competing one. Replace your
competitors products with your own, should be database / query driven and can
include links to datasheets, downloads and specific enquiries or shopping
carts. |
Offers | Area for any
special offers, again only good if there are regular special offers, otherwise
use home and or what's new section. |
Clients | This can
list client examples, it could allow clients to log into secure areas where
more detailed information is available for them perhaps such as order
progressing or tracking, or can be an area for customer testimonials or
application examples. |
Legal
notice | Legal exclusion clause, "company reserves the right to change
product data at any time. Company does not accept any liability for use of
products or website, take any responsibility for sites linked to or from this
website. etc" increasingly present on company websites as in technical
brochures, including copyright notice which should anyhow be present on each
page. |
Purchasing | Buying / company requirements. Websites are
not only useful communication tools for selling things, you can list things you
are or would like to buy and ask for offers or for prospective suppliers to
contact and or make bids to you. A number of automotive and industrial groups
are now running online bidding programs, you might like to think more about
this. |
About | Often simply an
about this site or about this company. |
Search | If the
website is to be large with more than 100 pages a site search would be a good
idea, can use one of the search engines such as google which offers site search
services from nothing. |
Register | Could be a register for email newsletter or
to receive information on offers etc from the company. If you are going to send
out newsletters email is the cheapest way and can promote people to revisit
your website for further new information. |
Feedback | Can take
visitors to a general feedback page which could include a section or
questionnaire on what they would like to see on the website or if they find the
website easy to use or can suggest improvements. |
Buy now | Especially if the website is
commerce enabled but also when not it can be useful to have a section all about
how to buy your products, do you for example have a credit account application
form customers could fill in on line and email you or print out and fax to you?
Do you require customers to buy with credit cards? Do you require customers to
buy through an agent who will take payment risk? I would spell this out on a
"buy now" or "how to buy" page. |
Resellers | Resellers, distributors and agents. This
section can incude static or dynamic maps and text links, details of your
resellers can lead to enquiry forms to allow visitos to send enquiries direct
to their nearest point of purchase. If you have a decent server these enquiries
can be copied to your own sales team so that you can support the reseller in
selling your products and monitor the effectiveness of your website in
generating wider enquiries for your sales channel. Note: if in the UK conform
to the DPA Data Protection Act
and warn people that their data may be retained. |
Excess Stock Sales | With a large
distribution chain you may wish to motivate your resellers to register their
stocks on your website such that customers can find the fastest available
stocks and resellers may be able to buy over stocked items which reduces the
financial risk for resellers stocking your products. |
Request a quote | If
prices are not going to be displayed you may like a "request a quote" page
where people can send specific enquiries via email, fax or the phone. If you
are intending to generate business you have to answer likely questions, what do
they need, how can they find it and buy it, how much will it cost, how is
delivery carried out. |
Tracking | Some websites offer track a package service
in which the customer can enter their tracking number from UPS, Fed Ex etc and
entering it into a box they can see where there package is. If your company
uses a freight company with online tracking and advises customers of tracking
numbers this can be provided from your website. |
Forum | Discussion
forum where interested parties can discuss application issues, resolve product
problems etc, advisable only if you have significant traffic, field many
questions and queries from customers, are very confident in the written
abilities of your staff, are happy for such information to be pubic. |
Employment | List any available job
vacancies in your company, or to whom speculative applications should be
sent. |
Meet
us | Section listing opportunities to meet company staff .. includes
exhibitions the company will be attending, could include a schedule of sales
people visits to distribution outlets or scheduled training days which people
could attend. |
Detailed
questionnaires | Your website may be a good place to locate some more
detailed enquiry forms where specific information is needed from a client
before you are able to quote price and delivery. You can still allow the
customer to contact you with a simple form or email but can refer them to an
online questionnaire should you need more details. |
Call me | Instead of
a contact form or telephone numbers, how about a call me button in which
visitors enter their telephone number and request you to call them, saving
their phone bill and allowing them to contact you in their time (perhaps your
night time) to register that they need personal sales advice or technical
support. Premium services allow this message to be texted to your sales staff
on the road. |
F.A.Q. | Frequently Asked Questions: this could relate
to products, use or installation of products or your company as a whole.
Companies tend to try to incorporate sections into their brochures and
catalogues which answer the queries they fequently receive from clients. Your
website should be the same, let people find the answers easily on your
website. |
Site
Map | Increasingly important with some clients being sold websites with
flash navigation which search engines cannot read or dynamic databased contents
found by manually entered queries which search engines also cannot access.
Providing a sitemap with a simple html link to all the contents in your website
provides both human visitors and search engines a way to find your website
contents. |
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