This is the first post of the Restobox blog, and so I have dedicated this post to highlight what Restobox has been doing for the past few years: building websites for small and medium businesses to help them grow. Here are a few words of advice for any business owner or manage who is considering to invest money to get an online presence.

Crucial components of a good website:

• Decent and complete content. If a potential customer who has never heard of or dealt with your business sees your website, will that person understand what services your business provides within 10 seconds? If so, then the content is good; if not, then the content needs to be revised.
• User-friendliness of navigation. The user must be able to go to all parts of the website with ease. The system of navigation must be consistent throughout. There should be no hidden pages that can only be found in obscure places.
• Mobile compatibility. With the prevalence of smartphones and tablets, and the habit of link sharing, mobile compatibility is critical. In the web development world, it is called “responsive”. (Responsive means the website is responsive to the size of the screen and adjusts accordingly.) If you have an existing website that is not compatible with mobile, do not worry. The cost to convert existing websites to responsive is not high and much lower than making a new website from scratches. Contact us for more information.
• Contact information. Always include complete contact information to your business. Phone number, fax (optional), address, a Google map with your location, email address, and business hours. We would recommend an online contact form so potential customers can contact you. A lot of users are phone-shy and prefer a web form over speaking over the phone. Also, the web form is available 24-7; calling works only during business hours.

Pitfalls you should avoid:

• Making a site before major changes in your business. If there are major changes to the business or key products, we would recommend getting the finalized content first before having to re-making again.
• An overly “rustic” design. Does your website remind people of Windows 95? If so, that is a problem that we should fix.
• Focus on design and neglect content. Attractive and eye grabbing designs are important, but do not forget that the real key to a website is good content. Always give precedence to the content and work the design around the available content. For example, if the text is hard to read – change the colours even if it sacrifices aesthetics; if you have lots of content, put them on the website even if it looks less “clean”.
• Overspending for the “perfect” website. There is no perfectly designed website. As your business evolves, so do the content and the needs of the website. The perfect looking website will look outdated in a year. Abide by the 80/20 rule, aim for good and fairly priced; not perfect and expensive.
• Overspending on functionalities that you do not need. At Restobox we are big proponents of buying what you need, not what you think you might potentially need in a year. You always have the option of having your web development firm adding new functionality down the road.

We hope our insight has been helpful. Got questions? Feel free to contact us. We are always excited to help you reach your goals.

Sincerely,
Leo & Team