What kind of website should we have?

Hello, dear readers. In our last issue, we explored why you need a website. In this article, we’ll try to help you determine what kind of website you need. As you can appreciate, your website may vary in both design and programming language depending on your needs; your task here is to request the right design, functionality, and features that align with your requirements. If we look at a few different business sectors, you’ll more easily understand just how significantly they can differ. First, let’s discuss content—a common element across all these areas that’s just as important as design and functionality. Content: This should never be left entirely to the designer’s discretion; it must be provided by your company itself. No one can represent your business better than you. You can seek advice from the designer regarding visual content, but you know best the details you want to showcase to your customers. One of the most important details to keep in mind for written content is to frequently mention the work you do and your position within the text. This is because search engines will base their rankings on your text, not your photos. In other words, the more content, the better… As you can appreciate, even if you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a website built, it won’t do you any good if no one can find it. Ranking high in search engines is the other half of the equation…

Let’s talk about what kind of website we need and what features it should generally include.

Every company’s must-have: a corporate website that reflects your company’s identity and enhances its prestige…

Corporate Website: First and foremost, your corporate website should be simple and have a harmonious color scheme. The primary colors in your logo should dominate the entire site, which must always be up-to-date and supported by detailed text and visuals related to your company’s mission, vision, and the work you do. To ensure your customers can reach you quickly, every page must include a phone number, a contact form on the contact page, and location information on a map. It is also crucial that the site is compatible with all devices; it must be optimized for mobile devices, tablets, and personal computers.

Tourism (Hotel) Website: The design should be particularly eye-catching; while the content doesn’t need to be as detailed as a corporate site, it should still include text containing relevant keywords. Of course, essential features include photo galleries, virtual tours, reservation modules, and—as the final step—a virtual POS system for payment. Thanks to these features, your guests can explore your hotel without leaving their seats, learn about your hotel and its surroundings, and make their reservations and payments with peace of mind—it’s that simple.

Online Store: While relaxing at home or in your office, your customers can browse the features of the products they want, explore compatible accessories, and learn more about them. They can also make purchases online and, thanks to the tracking system, check product availability, track their orders, view their order history, monitor order status, and track shipments… Furthermore, thanks to the customer base you’ve built, you can deliver your new products to your customers at lightning speed and expand your customer base. Best of all, you don’t need to rent showrooms costing tens of thousands of liras or spend large sums on interior design to do any of this. Personal website: This is generally the type of site celebrities and public figures should opt for; it should be visually appealing and include biographical information and an events calendar. The design should be high-quality—and if it incorporates both visual and audio elements, it will attract even more attention. While these types of sites used to be built with Flash, they now operate using XML-based Flash logic, I think owning this type of website is the most sensible option…

Other personal websites: For those aiming to become writers or celebrities—a trend of the past few years—I strongly recommend using a CMS (content management system). These systems, which can be set up without a great deal of design knowledge, are generally built on open-source software. You can easily find almost any plugin or theme you need online and express yourself however you like…

No matter what kind of business you’re in, we all know by now that anyone who wants to reach an audience needs to have a website.