1. An online presence as a growth opportunity
Today, the Internet plays an important role in buying decisions. Before buying a product or hiring a service, many people look for information, compare prices, weigh up alternatives and read other customers’ reviews. Even when the purchase is made in a physical shop, the research may start online.
In this context, having a website can help businesses increase their visibility and reach new customers. A well-structured platform lets you present products and services, answer questions and make it easier for potential buyers to get in touch.
As well as working as a promotional channel, a website can strengthen a business’s credibility and reach people who would not hear about it through the usual channels. When it is developed around the business’s goals and its customers’ needs, it can support growth and create commercial opportunities.
2. Know the competition and highlight your value proposition
To stand out from the competition, it is important to know what other businesses offer and how they present their products and services. This analysis helps you spot opportunities, understand what customers expect and see what could make your offer more relevant to them.
The aim is not to copy what competitors do, but to identify what sets your business apart. That difference may lie in product quality, price, service, speed of response, personalised services or ease of purchase.
It is just as important to provide clear, complete and accessible information. Visitors should be able to understand what the business offers, what its products or services are like and how they can buy or ask for more information.
Simple navigation and a clear presentation can make the decision easier for whoever visits the website.
3. Create relevant content for your target audience
A website should be built with the people who will use it in mind. That is why, before defining the content, it is important to know your target audience, their interests, their needs and the problems they want to solve.
Communication should be clear, useful and suited to each type of visitor. Rather than simply presenting the business, the website should explain how its products or services meet customers’ needs.
Publishing relevant content, such as informative articles, detailed product descriptions, frequently asked questions and examples of past work, helps answer questions and gives a better picture of what the business does.
It is also important to offer simple ways to get in touch, such as forms, an email address, a phone number or other channels suited to the business. When visitors want to ask a question or request a service, they should easily find the most convenient way to contact you.
The contacts collected can also be used to send news or campaigns, provided the applicable legal conditions are met, including consent where required. Communication suited to customers’ interests can help keep a regular relationship with the business.
4. Choose the right keywords
Choosing keywords is an important part of search engine optimisation, known as SEO. These terms help connect a website’s content with what people search for online.
That is why it is important to understand the terms your target audience uses when searching for the products or services the business offers. The choice should take into account search intent, relevance to the business and the language potential customers use.
Tools such as Google Keyword Planner and Semrush can help identify relevant keywords, analyse search trends and study the competition. However, it is not enough to add keywords to your pages. They should appear naturally in titles, descriptions and content that answers users’ questions. Repeating them excessively is no substitute for good information.
5. Analyse the results and improve the strategy
One of the benefits of having a website is being able to track certain performance indicators. With analytics tools, when properly set up, you can follow indicators such as the number of visits, the most viewed pages, where traffic comes from and the channels that bring visitors to the website.
This data can help identify the products or services that attract most interest, the most popular content and any navigation difficulties. For example, if a page gets many visits but generates few contacts or sales, it may be necessary to review the information presented, improve the navigation or make the contact or buy button more visible.
Regularly analysing the results can support decisions about content, page organisation and communication strategies. In this way, the website can also become a tool for managing the business, as long as the data is interpreted in light of the goals that have been set.
6. Why a fast, responsive website matters
With people using phones, tablets and other devices, it is essential that a website adapts to different screen sizes. A responsive website adjusts how its content is displayed to the device being used, making browsing simpler and more comfortable.
When texts are hard to read, buttons do not work properly or pages do not fit the screen, visitors may leave the website and look elsewhere. A good user experience makes it easier to find information and complete tasks, such as filling in a form or making a purchase.
Loading speed also deserves special attention. Visitors expect to reach information quickly, and delays can spoil the browsing experience. Page performance is also one of the aspects Google takes into account, although it does not on its own determine a page’s position in search results.
Measures that can help improve a website’s speed include:
- Image optimisation: reduce file size while keeping suitable visual quality.
- Caching: temporarily store certain resources to speed up later visits.
- Code and file optimisation: remove unnecessary code and minify CSS and JavaScript files.
- Redirect management: avoid unnecessary redirects that slow down loading.
- Suitable hosting: provide resources that match the website’s technical needs.
These measures should be accompanied by performance testing, to identify the priority problems and check whether the changes have made things better.
7. SEO: improving visibility in search engines
Having a website does not mean potential customers will find it easily. To improve visibility in search results, it is important to develop an SEO strategy that considers content quality, page organisation and the related technical requirements.
SEO aims to improve a website’s presence in organic results, that is, the results that are not paid ads. A well-developed strategy can help attract visitors interested in the business’s products or services and create commercial opportunities over time.
Broadly speaking, search engine optimisation can be divided into two main areas.
On-page SEO
This covers the elements that can be worked on directly in the website’s pages, namely:
- Relevant titles and meta descriptions;
- Proper use of headings and subheadings;
- Original, useful and well-organised content;
- A clear URL structure;
- Image optimisation;
- Internal links between related pages;
- A good browsing experience on mobile devices.
Off-page SEO
This refers to external factors that can contribute to the website’s reputation and authority, including:
- Links from other relevant and credible websites;
- Mentions of the brand in external sources;
- Sharing content worth passing on;
- Building a consistent digital reputation.
Although many of these factors cannot be controlled directly, it is possible to work on the business’s digital presence through relevant content, professional relationships and quality references.
Search engine ranking depends on many factors and cannot be guaranteed simply by applying isolated techniques. Results require monitoring and adjustments over time.
8. Domain and hosting: the foundations of a website
Before putting a website online, two key elements need to be in place: the domain and the hosting.
The domain is the address used to reach the website, for example www.empresa.pt. It should be easy to remember, simple to type and suited to the brand’s identity.
Web hosting is the service that provides the resources needed to store and serve the website’s files, images and other elements, making its content accessible.
There are different hosting options, the most common being:
- Shared hosting: several websites use the resources of the same server, usually an affordable option for smaller projects;
- Dedicated server: a server’s resources are reserved for a single client, offering more control and configuration options;
- Cloud hosting: uses an infrastructure of servers that can allow more flexibility and adaptation to the project’s needs.
The choice depends on factors such as budget, expected traffic, technical requirements, security and room to grow. Knowing these needs helps you choose a solution that suits the project and its maintenance.
9. Online shops: growing your business beyond the physical space
E-commerce lets businesses offer their products through a sales channel of their own. An online shop can present the catalogue, show prices, take orders and give customers information without being limited to a physical shop’s opening hours.
Its advantages include reaching customers in different regions, making product information available at all times and automating some sales-related tasks.
However, an online shop also involves costs and responsibilities, such as developing the platform, hosting, payment methods, security, order management, deliveries, returns and customer support. That is why it is important to weigh up these factors before going ahead with the project.
A digital presence does not have to replace a physical shop. On the contrary, the two channels can complement each other. An online shop lets you present a wider range, promote campaigns and send customers to the physical shop, while the physical space can offer personal service and direct contact with the products.
How digital and in-person channels work together should be planned around customers’ needs and the business’s capacity to respond.
10. Set goals before developing the website
Before starting to build a website, it is essential to set concrete goals. The business should work out whether it wants to increase sales, receive quote requests, promote services, gather contacts from potential customers or build brand awareness.
Defining these goals helps determine the structure of the website, the content to publish and the features needed. It also helps avoid information overload and focus visitors’ attention on the most important actions.
Planning should consider the target audience, their interests, the most common questions and the reasons that might lead them to choose one business over another. From this analysis, it is possible to create clear navigation, with organised information and paths suited to visitors’ tasks.
Where the project justifies it, working with professionals experienced in web development, design, SEO and digital marketing can make it easier to apply good practice and reduce technical errors.