Are you looking for a way to get better established as a farm business? Keep reading to find out why a website is important, as well as how to make it a great site!
Why a Website?
Why should you go through the trouble of creating a website for your farm? Why not just have a Facebook page, or a twitter or Instagram account? Well, there is nothing wrong with having these, they are great places to get the word out about your business, but they just aren’t the same as a website.
Having your own site allows you to educate people about what you do and why you do it, in an easily accessible way. It also gives you a place to advertise your products without the restrictions (especially in regard to selling animals) that come with using a platform owned by someone else.
What makes a great site
A poorly designed website can be worse than none at all, so what makes a website a good one? Below is a list for easy reference and then I’ll explain each one in more depth.
Features of a great site:
Easy to read font
Many high quality pictures
Lots of information, especially on what you do and the products you sell
Clearly stated prices
Easy to find contact info
A name that's easy to spell, pronounce, and remember
Black words on a white background
Easy to find pages
Easy to Read Font
Have you ever tried to read something more than about a sentence long that was written in a really fancy or difficult to read font? It starts to get really tiring trying to figure out what it says. A hard to read font will make people want to go to another site, rather than spend their time trying to decipher it.
Many High Quality Pictures
We live in a highly visual age, where pictures are a critical part of marketing. A good camera will be a worthwhile investment for your business. You can get some good pictures with an iPhone, but usually only at close range, and animals rarely cooperate for pictures when you are close up.
We have been on a site where the photos were so underexposed (dark) that you could hardly see what was going on. You want to do everything you can to keep people on your site and coming back to it. Bad pictures portray that you don’t take care of your animals well and you aren’t very serious about what you are doing.
This applies to all posts about your farm, regardless of the platform. How many times have you not even bothered to click on an ad for an animal because of a bad image?
Nice pictures give people the feeling that you care enough about your farm that you took the time to get quality images.
Now, you don't need to worry about getting stock photo quality pictures right away, everyone has to start somewhere. Just be sure the photos you use are focused, well-lit and it's clear what is going on in the picture. If you are wondering if that is a three-legged chicken or a two headed goat, better take another one! You also want the background to look nice, no trash or anything messy looking.
Lots of Information
Education is the key to successful marketing. People need to know what is special about your business and why they should buy your product over someone else's. They also need to be able to tell exactly what you are selling.
A well designed website is a great educational tool. The more information you have the better. Tell people all about your farm, what you are selling, and why you decided to do things the way you do. Include information on your experiences and what has worked for you and what you would do differently.
Clearly Stated Prices
Research has shown that if a customer can't easily find the price of something they will just move on to the next site. Clearly stating prices will also reduce the number of inquiries you get from nonserious buyers.
Easy to Find Contact Info
You should ideally have a contact form at the bottom of every page or as one of the main pages on your menu.
A Good Name
Another important part of your website is its name. If the name is hard to remember, pronounce, or spell, you won't get many people searching it. You also won't get many word-of-mouth referrals, which are the best way to get customers.
If people don't know how to spell the name, they are unlikely to share it with others.
The name of your site should also have something to do with what you will be selling, or what kind of business you are. This will increase the chances of your website showing up on search results.
Black Words on a White Background
Black on white is the easiest color combination to read. We have seen a site with a dark blue background and yellow words, kind of like US Navy color theme?! Anyways, it was very hard to read, and we never revisited that site. You don't want something that easy to change to deter potential customers.
You should also avoid patterned backgrounds, just plain white is best. Now, this is for blogs, articles, or other longer, or informative writings, for page titles you can do whatever you think looks good, including fancy fonts!
Easy Navigation
All the pages on your site should be accessible from the main menu on your home page. Pull down subpages are fine as long as they are on the main menu. What you don't want is for people to have to go to one page to go to another. Putting links on a page to other pages in your site is actually a good idea as it keeps site visitors engaged longer, just be sure the page can also be directly accessed from your main menu.
Starting Out
When you are first starting out with a website don't try to get everything on there right away. You can always add more later. I would start with an about page, a blog and, depending on your preference, a product page or a separate page for each product.
We actually have both, we have a separate page for each of the animals we sell (birds are combined for now) and then a product page for everything else.
Well, hopefully this blog gave you most of what you need to know about starting a great farm website! If you have any questions feel free to contact us!
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