With so much to choose from, it’s easy to see why so many marketers and planners get confused.

And some of you reading this might think that you already know what you want, which is more than likely due to how simple web design packages have made it all seem.

In our opinion, website packages suck as they don’t recognise your individual requirements, meaning you spend money on functionality and design that you don’t need.

Which is why we’ve never offered web design packages at Canny and never will.

When looking for web design services, you need to know exactly what your website requires.

The Web Design Brief Template

The Web Design Brief Template is a free template that will help you get the brief for your web design project right. ...

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To help, we’ve put together a complete rundown of web design services, not to mention, a comprehensive list of website deliverables.

Reading on should help you answer some of those lingering website questions you may have, such as:

• Do I need a brochure website?
• An e-commerce website
• A WordPress website?
• A responsive website?
• And do I need UX and UI design?

We understand that time is money, so let’s jump right in.

The Different Types of Website

Before we begin to explore website deliverables and services, let’s take a quick look at the various different types of websites there are.

Brochure Websites

Brochure websites work to show your customers exactly what your business is about.

This type of website is a simple solution that pushes your business online, without any added complications.

The entire site is designed to look and feel like a printed brochure, and contains copy and images that promote a company’s products or services.

A brochure website doesn’t typically have a large number of pages, so it’s a great option if you looking for a website design that’s concise and informational.

If you’re looking for an example of a brochure website, check out YardLink from our portfolio.

Ecommerce Websites

Ecommerce websites allow your customers to buy from your business whenever it’s convenient. It’s important that your ecommerce website sells, without creating friction or complications for your visitors, in order to provide a seamless online journey for each consumer.

Specifically for ecommerce, the main options for your website are Woocommerce or Shopify.

There are other ecommerce options available, but there is a reason that these two giants of Ecommerce dwarf all others in terms of existing user base and usability.

Firstly, Woocommerce is a flexible platform that allows users to create highly-responsive and top performing websites. and has a range of some of the best website features such as plugins and themes. If you’re looking to make a website about your entire company Woocommerce is the top choice as you can create several pages to include news or a blog or an “about us” page.

However, Shopify is a quick and easy to use platform that is secure, mobile ready, customisable and has consistent 24/7 customer support. So depending on your website needs and goals, it’s a good idea to weigh up the pros and cons of each platform before making a decision!

WordPress Websites

WordPress is the world’s most popular platform and powers over 15% of the world’s top websites. The great thing about WordPress is it allows you to easily update your site, changing content, images, adding blog posts and that’s not all!

WordPress allows you to focus on what really matters, good design, good content, solid HTML, CSS and JavaScript (technologies used to build your website).

From a developers point of view, using WordPress means we don’t have to design and build the backend, it already exists! Equally, there’s a global network of experts you can rely on to help.

The site you’re currently on was built using WordPress.

We can’t say enough good things about the platform!

Responsive Websites

With the growing popularity of mobile and tablet browsing, it’s important that your website always looks good.

Mobile responsive websites adapt to your device, giving your visitors the best website experience.

For any website to be effective, you need to cover the following steps in the web design services journey.

These steps are:

• Website discovery session
• Marketplace research
• Competitor research/analysis
• Website design and development
• Partnership and relationship development

That final bullet point, ‘partnership and relationship development,’ is an area a lot of designers skimp out on, or even miss out altogether!

The partnership we have with our clients here at Canny is the key to the success of our projects.

We like to be in regular contact with the people we work with, just so we’re in the loop and we can keep you updated with everything that’s happening on our end from start to finish.

This allows for a level of flexibility and reactivity that larger teams, or those who simply don’t have the time to over communicate, simply couldn’t achieve. This is always good for your business.

If you’re ready to talk about the web design services you need, why not fill in our web design brief template to get the ball rolling?

Website Services

Web design services are very easy to find, so when searching you will be presented with an endless list of them!

This is the stage where you might find yourself asking the questions just outlined.

Again, these questions may be: do I need a brochure website? An e-commerce website? A WordPress website? A responsive website? And do I need UX and UI design?

You may need a WordPress website with e-commerce or just a WordPress website. You may also just need a brochure website or even a single landing page site.

So, which is it?

Regardless, you will definitely need a content managed site.

We use this in all of our sites (including our own, as mentioned).

You will also need UI and UX design in any type of website. The harder part is deciding the right type of website for your business.

Enter your website discovery session.

Website Discovery Session

Your website discovery session is designed to help you and us.

Simply put, they are designed to gain a solid foundation of what you’re looking for in your new website.

This also means gaining a good understanding of your business, the primary goals and objectives of your website project, what actions you want your visitors to take and more!

The partnership we have with our clients is the key to the success of projects, and your discovery session gives us a great insight into your business and helps to get that ball rolling.

Firstly, you will answer a questionnaire that will help us gain insight into your project.

At this stage, the goal is to build a solid foundation to build your website upon, and it will allows you to outline the “dos” and “donts” of the website project!

It will also allow us to see your marketplace and competitors that you are facing.

Then we will talk about your ideal client and start to build up your ideal customer persona.

Near the end of the website discovery session, we will look over the visual styles, and identify what type of website will work best for you and your business, and which options are to be avoided.

As a matter of fact, we have ran discovery sessions across the globe, as we have clients spanning from Australia to Canada. We carry out these sessions both physically and virtually as it’s important that everyone involved in the project is well, involved!

Marketplace Research

There are two levels to Marketplace Research. It gives you a top-level view of the market that you operate in.

For example: if you were in the business of photography, you’d need a photography website.

So, we’d be looking at:

• The photography industry in general – we’d ask questions such as: What’s trending? What’s working? Who you’re up against and how do you compare against them?
• The actual geographical area in which you operate or are going to operate – again asking questions such as: what’s popular, what you’re up against and how do you compare against them?

At this stage, it is very important to gain insights at both an industry (photography in this example) and geographical level.

Once this research has been carried out, it is time to start reaching out to your potential clients or customers, and this is when you start to get a feel for customer and client preferences and behaviour (and truly understanding your target market).

Competitor Research/Analysis

Carrying out a competitor analysis is paramount in the success of your business. It is essential in order for you to grow your business. Some of the elements carried out there include:

• SWOT analysis
• Look into the future
• Competitor inspiration
• Determine your USP
• Use your competition to be competitive

You want to ask yourself:

• Who are your competitors?
• What are they doing well in?
• What are they doing not so good in?
• Do you like how they are?
• What do they offer compared to you?
• Why would your clients choose them over you?

Using a SWOT analysis will be very helpful when looking into your competitors.

It is very easy to compare websites (especially photography websites), as you can look at how the websites are structured, see the visuals, and get a feel for the overall user experience.

Once the comparisons have been carried out you will know what might work and what might not. You will also see current trends, you may even want to look into future trends in order to plan ahead, and hopefully get ahead of the competition.

Customer Personas/Avatars

To identify your target audience, and consider how they use websites, we will build customer personas (sometimes referred to as avatars).

This will give you a better idea of how you should build your website, what a typical user journey will look like for your ideal customers, what demographics you should be targeting, and even what sort of language and tone you should use on your site.

These personas help guide the design of your website and can even help you decide which type of website would be most suitable for you and your business.

To get an idea of what goes into creating a customer persona, and how in-depth we go with our research, check out our customer persona worksheet.

Website Build and Development

Building a website involves taking the sitemap and web design files created by a design team, and using a mix of coding languages to bring them to life in the form of an all singing, all dancing, fully fledged website.

Most websites are made up of several key languages, so let’s think of it like a house starting with a solid foundation and building until you can finally decorate the place exactly as you desire.

HTML

HTML stands for hypertext markup language and is used to construct the building blocks of your page. This is the foundation and main structure of your house.

PHP

Some websites prefer Javascript over PHP, but PHP allows you to connect to data stored in a database and display it on your website. PHP is like the pipes that serve utilities to your house, it connects your website from one place to another.

CSS

CSS is the language used to style your website up and getting it looking perfectly on-brand. This is the paint, wallpaper, and carpets you add to your house.

Javascript and jQuery

Javascript and jQuery allow you to take and manipulate code in fancy ways, adding unique functionality such as popups, animations, and more. This is the painting that you hanging above your fireplace, or a motion sensor outdoor light outside of your front door.

Website Domain Name

Your website domain name is extremely important, as it’s seen by customers/clients and search engines.

It’s also a huge part of your brand.

We are saying this now and we will say it again later, don’t just pick a random name if the one you want is not available, put some thought into it.

For example, at Canny our domain name is “canny-creative.com” it is relevant to our brand because it’s our company name, and the hyphen in between doesn’t change the name so much that it will confuse users.

However, if we had made a simple error such as spelling the domain name this way: “cany-creative.co”, it looks far more sloppy and careless, and doesn’t match up to our brand!

So, in short, choosing the right domain name will:

• Improve your marketing and visibility
• Build online and offline credibility
• Get more traffic to your website
• Increase your search engine ranking

Your domain name needs to match your business name, it will be used on:

• Social media
• Business cards
• Invoices
• Emails
• Search engines
• All URLs (on your website)

You want to make sure you start looking for a domain name as soon as possible!

Check out our post on How to Name Your Business Brand if you’re stuck with finding a good domain name.

Website Hosting

Canny also offers a website hosting service for when your website is live and operational. You can pickup hosting options for peanuts, but with Canny you know you’re in good hands, and in the hands of people who understand your website back to front, top to bottom.

We’re the ones who built it, after all!

‘Cheap’ or free hosting options often serve slower website times, have unprofessional looking URLs, adverts from 3rd party providers on your site, and worse.

The web is littered with horror stories about bad hosting, if you care to look for them!

But fear not, as with Canny you’re in safe hands, and can rely on an end to end hosting solution, which manages everything from plugin updates, security, and general functionality, to faster loading pages, xml sitemap management, and even network reporting.

If you’re part of the marketing department, or a startup founder, it’s more likely than not that you’re short on time.

Using Canny for hosting buys you back all of the time you’d otherwise spend trying to sort out the multitude of technical issues that can crop up at any time.

Our packages start from £50 per month, and can save you from constant headaches from website trouble.

If you’re not hugely technical, or you don’t want to devote all of your time trying to fix server issues or fight cyberattacks, this is a no-brainer.

Where Can Website Budget Be Saved?

Building a website from scratch is a difficult thing to do.

Your website is often the first experience a customer has of you, and so it shouldn’t be skimped on at all.

You can save budget by not having an all singing, all dancing website, but even then you’re presenting yourself with false savings.

You should view your website not as a cost or initial outlay, but as an investment that will pay for itself ten times over the course of your business life cycle. The true answer to the question “where can budget be saved when building a website?” is:

Elsewhere in your advertising or branding budget.

Don’t go cheap on your website, because it will harm you and your profit margins in the long run.

It’s as simple as that.

Website Deliverables

For those not in the know, website deliverables are the output of your engagement with a dedicated web agency.

They’re tangible things that you, or the agency, take and apply to your site.

We’ve put together a website deliverables list below, so try not to worry if you’re slightly confused about the difference between the last section and this one, we will make sure the difference is clear as we go!

Website Wireframes

The very first step into having a website made is the wireframing. A wireframe will show how elements are laid out on the web page and how the site navigation will work.

The wireframe is free from design and colours. It is there to focus on the layout and navigation only. It is paramount in order to get your website structure just right.

The next step is the mock-up.

Your website mockup will have the layout and navigation from the wireframe, but with your brand colours, logo and content.

It will mimic the real-life version of your website.

From here you can easily make any changes before the website is developed. Once everything is good to go, it can be brought to life with code.

Your website is your 24/7 online brand touchpoint, So it’s important that the design and functionality are in line with your business and brand.

Website Design and Development

Your website is the place where you want to spend most of your business branding and marketing budget.

For your website to work properly, you need to have a solid digital and content marketing plan. This is because your website is a huge portal for sales and enquiries.

As a matter of fact, when working with a professional agency that focuses on long term relationships you will get a digital marketing plan.

The “plan” you get is part of your website deliverables.

At a basic level your digital marketing plan will likely include a plan for each type of content you will be creating that may includebut isn’t limited to:

• Social media
• SEO
• Customer reviews and testimonials
• Content strategy
• Blogging
• Video
• Podcast
• Email marketing or a newsletter

Be sure to check out the post above to see what a full digital marketing plan consists of.

We have already mentioned that your website is your brand, but you need to have a solid brand all throughout your business.

We have also stated that you need to have a solid marketing plan in place.

But, you also need your overall brand to work for you. This means you need a brand strategy, only this post is not focused on your branding strategy. So, we will direct you to our Ultimate Brand Strategy Development Guide instead for more insight onto creating a great strategy for your brand.

Your Website

The most obvious deliverable is your actual website.

To get a good idea of what you will get, here is what could be included in a typical business website:

• Homepage or landing page
• About page
• Contact page
• What you do page
• Services page

Each of these pages will have good content that is driven by your digital marketing plan.

It shouldn’t just be any old content just to “fill up the webpage”, it needs to be meaningful and relevant.

UX and UI Design

If you’re looking to build a complex web app or software product, then you’ll want to consider in-depth user experience and interaction design. Without consideration, you run the risk of alienating or disappointing customers.

You can only either have a brochure website or an Ecommerce site, and both of these types of websites we design and develop use WordPress and have user experience and user interaction in mind.

One final point: every website we output is fully responsive. This is always a surprise to us, but we always find poorly designed “responsive” websites.

We see things from horizontal scrolling navigation to elements not even falling in place properly on small screens.

You may have even noticed this yourself!

But why does this happen?

This is down to inexperienced people setting up their own websites (using builders).

Check out our work with iVent to see an example of what can be achieved with good website design.

Website Services and Deliverables FAQs

Let’s recap a few things, while answering other frequently asked questions relating to website services and deliverables.

Website Deliverables and Services: Considerations

There are always additional considerations that fall outside of any obvious remit in projects like these.

At Canny, we cover all bases for you, and often find that something we provide as standard hasn’t even been considered by the client!

Here are some examples of the added value extras you get with Canny.

SSL Certificates

SSL certificates add a bit of extra security to your website. It gets you that little padlock icon in your URL and lets visitors browse your new site with confidence.

This also has an influence on your ‘findability’, as Google prefers to serve SSL certified websites in their search engine results.

Payment Providers

For any Ecommerce or commercial offering site generally, it’s vital to integrate a trusted payment provider so consumers can buy with confidence and trust.

At Canny we tend to use PayPal as our go-to on web payment provider, as it is a well established, high profile and secure brand. If you would prefer a different or more flexible payment option on your site we can integrate lots of options, including Stripe payments.

Video and Imagery

Integrating video and more dynamic elements to your website can be tricky if you try to go it alone.

At Canny, we consider serving multimedia assets from all angles from day one — if it’s going to effect load speeds, where it should sit on the page from a UX/UI point of view, what is going to be the most impactful, autoplay options etc.

We also offer services to create original video content in partnership with our clients, so you get professional, clean looking video that fits seamlessly into your site.

Partnership and Relationship Development

The partnership we have with our clients is the key to the success of your projects.

It applies to every project we work on.

The partnership you build with an agency is priceless. An agency will be a nice little extra to your business. Your go-to when you have problems and your trusted resource partner.

Developing a good relationship with one another will allow your business to grow even more so.

At Canny, we focus on building partnerships with our clients.

This means that we support you every step of the way, beyond the delivery of the website, to ensure success. Some agencies view website projects as a ‘once it’s done, it’s done’ sort of deal, as they have met the criteria of their contract.

At Canny, we believe sustainable support and partnership is the best way for everyone involved to get exactly what they want out of any project, whether it be content based, design and branding based, or web development based project.

The Complete List of Web Design Services and Deliverables

Hopefully, this blog post has given you a solid idea of what web design services, and what website deliverables, are out there.

Remember that your business, branding, and website are all rely on the other in order to bring your company success. Your website is part of your brand (not an afterthought) and your brand is the foundations that hold everything upright.

You simply need to work with the right agency in order to grant your business the best possible success.

Enter: Canny Creative

When you’re ready to engage with us to talk websites, feel free to get in touch.

There are pages that your business website needs in order to be effective. These are the Home Page, About Page, Services/Product Page, Pricing page, Who We Help Page, Blog/Testimonial/Case Study Pages, Contact Page, and the general page templates that can be used for the legal information such as the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

These pages will always always have blocks (the features needed) of content that make up the page and the website as a whole.

These are the features your business website need in order to function and present content the admins and users expect.

The features that are to be discussed can be applied to any page. It is the design and needs of your business that will determine where these features are implemented, or even excluded.

An example for the home page would be Header, Hero Section, Service/Product Section, Facts Section, Who We Help Section, Contact Form, Testimonials, and the Footer.

We will also cover other features that are critical to your business website’s success that do not make up a webpage. So without further ado, lets get started.

Top Level Domain

The Top level domain name must be carefully considered. It what shows up on Google and is seen by everyone.

Your top level domain must be relevant to your business, aimed toward your target audience, be industry specific. As long as you have a well thought out Domain Name, it will go hand in hand with SEO as the keywords used throughout your website will match your domain name.

Search Form

Having a search form on your business website means your users can quickly search for the content they need on your website.

This is especially useful if your website is going to have a lot of content. This is because it can save the user going through pages and pages of pagination, thus, allowing the user to see what they need quickly. However, if your website does not have much content, it may not be needed.

Clear Messaging

Your website needs to be effective at getting the correct message across to your target audience, this can be what it is you do, the product or service you provide, and how you help clients/customers. This can be achieved with good design and well thought out content.

Your site needs to have the correct pages and have different sections that make up the webpage in the correct/relevant places. Further down this list, you will see the sections that are needed for your business website.

it is absolutely critical that you get the design of your website right. We have a neat post on our web design process, so check it out if you’d like to know more about this.

Readable(meaningful) URLs

There are different URL formats for websites, some simple examples include: including the page ID as a number, displaying the date, or just displaying the page name. In general, it is good practice to just display the page name. This is because it looks clean and concise and the user can easily see what page they are on.

On top of this, if they want to share the page or post, having a clean URL means users on other platforms can easily identify where the link will be taking them.

Good Content

Content is king. Content drastically affects SEO, it isn’t just about the focus keywords, you need the good content to go along with the keywords.

Good quality content can be added all over your website (from the home page to the blog pages). Simply put, if you have bad content, your users will likely leave the page they are on increasing your bounce rate, thus, reducing SEO. If you would like help with SEO, we provide marketing services.

Legible Font/Good Font Paring

If you have good content but have bad fonts your users will not read the information on your website. You need to have good font pairings that make up the brand of your business, don’t just choose a font because it looks good.

A good example would be choosing a good font that suits the design of your unique logo, if you do this, the font you use will likely become known as part of your brand – you can use it on your business cards, leaflets and merchandise.

Header – Logo

The header is a top feature of all websites and is displayed on all pages. It must contain your logo. This will be seen on every page. Not only does your logo need to be visible, but it must also contain a link to go back to your home page. Your users simply expect this.

Header Top Bar Call To Action

The next important feature that needs to be on your top bar is the call to action section. This can include your business contact details (number and email) and button with a relevant link. This will allow your users to instantly carry out an action if they don’t need to browse your website.

Header Responsive Menu – Desktop

The most important aspect of the menu on your website is, it must be responsive. It needs to work on all screen sizes. Your desktop navigation will generally have a horizontal layout with vertical submenu drop downs. This will keep your navigation tidy as your website grows.

Header Responsive Menu – Tablet

Your business website tablet menu will generally be the same as the menu used on your mobile menu, there sometimes will be enough space to accommodate the desktop menu, but your users use tablets just like mobile devices. This can be tricky because some users convert their tablets (tablet sized screens) to a laptop.

There is a fine line between when to use a desktop menu on tablet and when to use a mobile menu. If you are unsure, we provide web design services that can seriously help you.

Header Responsive Menu – Mobile

The mobile menu must allow your users to properly navigate your business website as well as clearly see all content on your website. This means it must be well thought out and collapse (hide when the user does not need to see any links).

Footer – Contact Information

Again, like the header, the footer is visible on all pages of your business website. It must contain contact information. This must be included so your users can get in touch with you after they have scrolled through the page relevant to them.

This also prevents the need of your users to have to navigate to another section of your website (increasing the chance of them leaving).

Footer – Short Menu

It is generally good practice to include the top most important links of your website in the footer, this means if your user is not ready to get in touch with you, they can easily navigate to a relevant section of your website before getting in touch.

Footer Contact Form

A contact form in the footer means your users don’t have to set up an email or phone you to get in touch, they can simply fill out the contact form and leave. Reducing the effort needed to get in contact with you.

Footer Social Media Links

Social media links mean users can navigate to all of your social media platforms from one place. We say from one place because social media links will sometimes be scattered throughout your business website on the single blog pages (to share the post) and on the sidebars. It will simply save your users traversing your website just to find the social media links.

Footer – Legal Links

Legal information must be included on your site, period. But you don’t want these links getting in the way of your main quality content. The best

place for these pesky legal links to go in the footer. This is the place you almost always see these types of links, so your users expect this.

Footer – Logo

Having a logo in your footer will mean another opportunity to link back to your home page, this is almost like another form of a quick link, but in a more visual way. This means your user doesn’t have to scroll all the way back to the top of your website just to get back to the homepage.

Large Hero Section

Hero Section – USP

Hero sections are used as part of landing pages of your business website. They must contain relevant content and be engaging to the user. This is the perfect opportunity to advertise your unique selling point to capture the user’s interest.

Hero Section – Blurb

Having a blurb is a good way to include a short introduction to what the page is about. This is helpful because if the user happens to click on a wrong link by accident, they will know this before they start scrolling down your webpage. Not only is it good to display what the page is about, but a chance to talk about you and your business.

Hero Section – Image/Graphics/Video

The hero section of your website needs to have something that sets it apart from the content on your webpage. Adding visual content will increase the engagement of your users (grabbing their attention). It is also the perfect opportunity to show off your product or service in action.

General Hero Section

We have discussed what to include within the hero sections for landing pages of your site, but you need a hero section that can be used on generic pages (could be the about, contact or legal pages). These pages don’t have any child pages. So, this type of hero section will generally be shorter and just include a title, and an image. It should be kept short and sweet. It does not need to take up all the user’s screen space.

CTAs

You need to include call to actions across the different pages of your website. These need to be where the user would expect and not surprise them with a glaring CTA.

A good place of a CTA could be below the service section, a contact form could be included so the user can get in touch with you after reading the product/service you provide.

Also, another good place to include CTAs is the hero section for landing pages. Having a call to action in the hero section of your business website allows users to carry out a relevant action after they’ve read a bit of information about your business.

This is particularly important if you do not have sticky navigation – meaning your top bar call to action is not visible as the user scrolls down the webpage.

Service/ Product Section

Your website will have a service or product page(s), but you need a way for your users to get to this page from other areas of your website. You also want a way for your users to see what you offer if they are not on the product or service page(s). A way to do this is to include a short service or product section outlining what it is you offer along with a link to the relevant product or service page.

Benefit Section

The benefits of your product or service will be on your product or service page. Again, just like the service/product section, there should be a dedicated section that can be used on other pages of your business website outlining the benefits along with a link to the service/product page. This is particularly important as providing the benefits will basically show off to your users how good your product or service is as they are browsing the website.

Facts Section

On the topic of showing off how good you are, you should include some tasty facts about you and your business. This can range from the number of people who use your business to the clients you have. This is the perfect time to really grab your users attention.

How We Help / Who We Help Section

You are providing a product or service, after all. Your business website should tell your users how you help them. It is also important to state who you help (your target audience). This is the time you can really make your target audience they need your product or service.

Team / Author Page

Having a team or author page allows your potential clients/customers to put a face to who they are talking to. It also allows your visitors to find out a little background information about each team member. It can also allow your visitors to get in touch with the correct person straight away.

Contact Form

If you provide different type of services or products, it is important to provide specific contact forms relevant to the product or service. This way you can really customise each form individually. This will also mean you can have a clean, short and concise general contact form and a more in-depth services form with extra form fields.

In short, if you don’t’ have well thought out contact forms, you simply won’t be collecting all the information you need from your clients.

Testimonial Section

The testimonial section is the perfect way to show off what people really say about you. This reinforces to potential clients/customers that your product or service is truly good and genuine.

Case Studies

If testimonials are not enough for you, you can go as far as case studies. Here you can simply collect more than just what people say about you, but a full “report” on how you helped another person (could be another business) as well as what they say about you.

Links to other pages

We have discussed the importance of including links to relevant pages from sections that can be used on any page of your website. But you should include general links to other pages from different areas of your business website. These can consist of call to action buttons and can be included in the sidebars.

A good example is a contact call to action in the blog sidebar that takes the user to the contact page.

Child Pages

Child pages are a very good way to categorise your content under a parent. This provides good structure as your website grows and provides meaningful navigation (URLs) to users and for anyone who shares your website pages. A prime example includes the services your business provides.

If you have five services, you could have a parent service page that contains these five individual services as child pages. This can drastically tidy navigation as instead of having a ream of horizontal links, you can have a parent “service” link with drop down links (five services you provide).

Legal Pages

We have talked about the importance of providing legal links on your website footer. But what are all the specific legal pages you need? Well, some include privacy policy, terms of user, data protection, data retention, cookies, responsibilities for you and clients/customers. You as a business need to identify what legal information your website needs.

FAQs Page

Providing a frequently asked questions page or section on your website means users do not have to get in touch with you just to ask a simple question. They can get answers to any queries they have, then get straight to the point when they come to actually contact you.

Blog Page

A blog page is a perfect way to talk about your business and other relevant topics that relate to your business and customers without bloating out other sections of your website. This can be the go-to place to really talk in depth about a topic and generate quality content. If you do this, over time, the SEO of your website will improve.

The blog page is crucial part to your digital marketing (which can mean the difference between the success and failure of your business).

Side Bar

The sidebar will generally be included on your blog pages. This is a good way to put small bits of extra information or extra functionality on your website. Some of this extra stuff can include contact call to action, social media links, adverts, calendars, notifications messages and much much more.

Because we have mentioned contact call to actions, it is absolutely critical that you include these throughout your site. it would be a mistake to miss these out.

Sliders

Media on websites generally takes up more space than text and can really bloat out webpages. You can really show this content off on large desktop screens, but you want a good compact way of displaying media to users on tablet and mobile devices. A way to this is by using sliders. These allow users to swipe through individual media pieces without much webpage space or screen space being used up.

Responsive layout

We have talked about responsive navigation and providing sliders on tablet and mobile devices for media. but, in general, why is a responsive layout needed? Every single inch of your website needs to be accessible on all devices. The content needs to adapt.

For example, three columns for desktop, two columns for mobile and a single column for mobile. This keeps navigation tidy and improves the readability of your business website on small screens (you do not want three columns of text on small mobile screens).

Map

Providing a map on your website is particularly useful if you have a larger business and have multiple locations. A prime example could be on a restaurant website. You want people to know if your restaurant is available in their area and how far they need to travel. It is simply a good consolidated place to provide such information.

Share Links

You don’t just want links to your social media platforms, you want users to be able to directly share content from your website to social media platforms. This can help generate traffic to your website as your users’ target audience will have the chance to link back to your website.

Comments

Comments provide a way for you to communicate with your target audience on a higher level – you can engage in debates and really find out how your target audience behaves. Having comments on your website also shows that you have nothing to hide and welcome any constructive criticism. From here you can do nothing but improve.

BreadCrumbs

Breadcrumbs are particularly important if you have a large website or an e-commerce site. But why? Well, breadcrumbs provide an easy-to-way for users to navigate your site and allow them to instantly understand your website structure. On top of this Google likes breadcrumbs. So be sure to use them.

Also as e-commerce has been mention, we would like to mention we offer e-commerce solutions using WordPress and WooCommerce, so if you are thinking about an online shopping or e-commerce website, please contact us.

Live Chat

Live chats provide a real-time convenience to customers to get in touch with you. There are many benefits to using live chat and some include competitive advantage, increased conversion rates and sales and the opportunity to build long term relationships.

Subscriptions/News Letter

Subscriptions are a perfect way to notify your mailing list of any offers you have or any new blog posts, posted. This saves your mailing list from having to manually check your website every day for any potential updates. One good benefit to having a mailing list is the opportunity to build relationships with your customers.

SEO

Your website needs to be search engine optimised, it is all well and good having the right elements and content on your website, but it needs to be “right” for Google. There are various SEO plugins that can audit your website’s SEO. One is Yoast’s SEO plugin.

Google Analytics

Once your website is properly search engine optimised, you need a way to track your visitors. One way to do this is by using Google Analytics. Google Analytics automatically collects data about your visitors and places it into meaningful reports.

Optimised image sections

Your business website will have videos, images and graphics. This means larger file sizes. You want media sections of your website to be properly optimised. This means small file sizes, the correct images loaded at specific resolutions as well as appropriate layouts for different screen sizes. This is where sliders can come in.

Security

Your website must be secure, and you want to let your users know it is secure. One way of doing this is by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Simply put, SSL is a way to keep sensitive information sent across the internet encrypted. This information can then only be read from the server it has been sent to.

Admin Area Setup

Whether your website is small or large, you want a clean admin area to add, edit and delete content on your website. You want to be able to easily write blog posts, add different page blocks and update site-wide settings such as your contact number and email address. One way this can be achieved is by using WordPress.

If you are thinking about a new site or want a website refreshed, we happen to use WordPress for our websites. If you are interested get in touch with us.

Anti-spam

Anti-spam software is the best way to prevent unwanted content from entering your business website. It prevents unsolicited messages within your comments section as well as your mailbox. You simply do not want reams and reams of spam entering your website’s database (increasing the size of your website) as well as your clean and tidy inbox.

This will also benefit the comments section as it will be kept clean and tidy. You do not want visitors going down to your comments section to find spam. This will make it difficult to communicate with your target audience and you will be spending unnecessary time cleaning out spam.

Conclusion

Phew! That was an extensive list of 50 must have website features. Hopefully, we have helped you identify any missing features on your website or have helped inspire you to get a new website going.

Regarding the different sections that can make up a webpage (testimonials, services, who we help etc.) talked about in this blog post, there can be dedicated pages for testimonials, services and who we help.

But, including these sections on different pages will be based on the needs of your business and the functionality of the website. So, if you need help with this and you do want a website, please get see our web design services and get in touch with us.

And if this list is still not enough information for you, we have a blog post covering the Complete Website Checklist.

Launching a website can be a stressful time, Does it look right? Are there any bugs? How am I going to get all of the content to fit in with the design? How am I going to get my site on Google?

All of the above may start to seem overwhelming and you may be thinking about what have I missed, adding to the stress even more.

The Complete Website Checklist is designed to help you out and help get your stuff together.

We are going to list out and cover the most important areas you need to go over before launching your site. By the end of this post, your mind will be at ease and you will be able to sail smoothly through launching your site.

To make this as easy for you as possible, there are three sections:

• Pre-Launch (checks before launching your site)
• Launch Day (what to do on launch day, exciting times!)
• Post-Launch (what to do after you’ve launched your site)

If you are planning to launch your website and need some guidance on digital marketing, we offer a range of web services and we can help you with digital marketing.

Pre-Launch

Pre-Launch checks are critical in making sure the whole site is ready to sail up onto the web. We are going to cover the visual checks, them pesky cross-browser inconsistencies, content checks, and the magic of search engine optimisation (SEO).

Visual Checks

First things first, does your website look like how it’s supposed to look? Are there any weird spacing issues causing elements to get too close to each other?

Spacings

Are spacings between elements consistent?

This one is very important, if there are inconsistencies in element spacings throughout the website, the user will start to notice as this throws off the visual flow of the website.

There is nothing worse than having miss horizontal-aligned content flowing down your webpage, clean lines on either side are a must! (if this is the design of course).

Images

Do full size and thumbnail images look good?

Imagery needs to be clean and crisp, you do not want blurry or pixelated imagery floating around your website to catch a user off guard (seeing a pixelated hero section as soon as they land on your website).

Now for the critical point – Images need to have alt tags, this is a must so screen readers can read out what the image is all about. This is a simple and quick process if done from the beginning.

There is nothing worse than having to go through your whole site adding alt tags once content has been added, this can be done when uploading images to your website.

Typography

When going over your website to make sure the text is legible and readable, keep these following points in mind (font styles and font sizing). This will make it easier to actually spot them subtle font errors.

Font styles
Websites usually don’t just contain one font, they have a font stack. You need to make sure the correct font is being used on your headings and your body content (paragraphs and links).

The last thing you want is a heading font being applied to your body copy.

You also need to make sure correct font modifiers have been used, proper italicized and bolding.

Font Sizing
The size of your fonts need to be consistent throughout, make sure all your headings, paragraphs and links are the correct size.

Colours

Websites contain few to many colours that also make up your brand, check over all your website to make sure the correct colours are applied to the right elements.

Are my headings the correct colour? Is my body text the right shade of black? Are the correct background colours and gradients used?

One error that can slip under your radar is the same coloured text on the same coloured background (white on white, black on black).

This can make it seem too much spacing is being applied between elements.

A top tip. Click and drag your mouse over the contents of your webpage, this will highlight any text that is not visible to you.

Cross-browser Inconsistencies

Browsers render websites differently to one another, this can make a webpage that works perfectly on one browser seem broken on another.

Simply open your website up on different browsers. I.E. Chrome, Safari, FireFox, Opera and the like.

From here you can identify any layout and visual changes.

There are a few different areas to watch out for when looking at your site on different browsers:

Layout changes

Is the overall layout consistent across different browsers? One thing to watch out for is the alignment of elements.

One example could be: You may have a vertically bottom aligned button that always sits at the very bottom of a container that contains text and the button.

Thus leaving space between the text and buttons. On some browsers, the button could be sitting right up against the text.

General colours, images, fonts

Colours, images and fonts tend to be the areas that can change the most across browsers.

For example, some browsers can make the same bit of text seem to have two different font weights applied. These are the type of problems that can slowly build up, so make sure to get them all ironed out.

When checking for any colour, image and font inconsistencies across browsers, you can use the visual checklist above to help you out. Simply make a note of which browser causes any issues and let your designer/developer know which are the problem browsers.

Website Optimisation

Website optimisation can massively contribute to your website conversion rate (the visitor of your website completing the desired action).

If your website is bloated and slow, your users will simply leave.

Your website should load between 2-5 seconds, any longer your bounce rate (visitors leaving a webpage before browsing any further) will begin to increase. You most certainly do not want that.

There are a few things you can do to make sure your website is properly optimised:

Check the loading times of content

If the load time of your content seems slow, one thing you can do is check the size of your imagery on your website. If the images have huge file sizes, this can seriously bog down your website. You want nicely web optimised images that are lightweight, look good and load in a blink of an eye.

If the images have been optimised and the website still seems slow, this can be a number of things.

Website assets (CSS, JavaScript) may not be properly minified and there may be a lot of HTTP requests.

An HTTP request is simply made when different parts of a website are being downloaded so that you can use it.

If you are in doubt simple make a note of the above and let your designer/developer know so that they can get it sorted for you.

Responsive Checks

Websites need to look good on all platforms: mobile, tablet and desktop.

For this to happen the layout and styling of elements of your website generally needs to be changed to suit the different screen sizes, and so it is still functional and usable.

To make these checks you can simply resize your browser window expanding it or contracting it.

On all platforms/screen sizes, you need to make sure the correct layout and stylings are being used across all elements.

Some things to look out for include:

Layout

Is the correct layout for each element being applied for the different screen sizes?

For instance, is a single column being used on mobile, are two columns being used on a tablet and are three columns being used on desktop.

Styling

Is the correct style is applied to each element for the different screen sizes?

Text sizes generally change across screen sizes.

One thing to look out for is the desktop sized headings being applied on mobile or vice versa.

Having a huge primary heading for desktop is simply not going to fit on a mobile screen, or having a small heading for mobile that is used on desktop is simply going to be too small.

In general, these are the types of errors that can be easily spotted and fixed, as they generally stand out.

So make sure these are all ironed out before launch. As these can totally break the design of your website.

Content Checks

Once the preliminary checks have been made (visual checks, cross-browser inconsistencies, website optimisation and responsive checks).

The next step is to check the overall content. There are a few steps here to carry out including links, lorem ipsum (developers love this), content and design and general proof-reading.

Links

Go over your whole website clicking all clickable elements and make sure they go where they’re supposed to go.

Check that internal links link to the correct parts of your website, do they open up the correct modal windows, do external links open up in a new window or do they open in the same window closing your webpage.

Lorem ipsum

Lorem ipsum is used as filler content as your website is being developed, this is so the developer has some content to work with whilst fleshing out your fancy new design.

You should check your whole website for any residual lorem ipsum, checking the home page, all internal pages, modal windows and the header and footer.

Proofread

Always check for any spelling and grammatical errors.

Proofread all your content yourself and get someone else to check over it.

There always seems to be a spelling or grammatical error that slips under the radar, so it’s always good to get another set of eyes on it.

Having one little spelling or grammatical error can drastically reduce the professionalism of your website, so make sure they are all gone!

SEO

Now for the magic of search engine optimisation.

SEO will be carried out and maintained after the launch of your website, but there is one check that needs to be covered beforehand. Semantic Structure.

Semantic structure

Having a semantic structure simply means having HTML elements that reinforce the meaning of the content on your website.

It also helps search engines (Google) understand your content, this will make sure the search engines display the right content on the list of search results.

When you are adding content to your website, a blog post for example. When using your text editor (generally a WYSIWYG editor) make sure that you have the correct headings applied.

This ranges from heading 1 to heading 6.

You also want to make sure all paragraphs are wrapped in the paragraph element.

You do not want any text floating by itself (not wrapped in heading or paragraph tags). This will reduce semantics (reducing the meaning of your content).

Launch Day (or just before launch)

Now for the exciting part. The launch of your website!

Before moving onto this step, you want to make sure you’ve completed all the steps from the pre-launch checks.

You also want to make sure your website is properly set up on the server and has the right domain name. (Simply put, can it be accessed from the domain name of your choosing).

Functionality

The first step to carry out is the functionality of your website.

By now your website should be visually pleasing meaning no visual errors, no cross-browser inconsistencies, no slow load times, no layout errors across different platforms and no content errors.

It is now time to check your forms, social media links, mailing list, security and spam protection.

Check forms work

There are a few things to check here, the things to check include:

• Form validation
  • Does the validation work for each field where validation is required (email format)?
  • Does the required field work where users must enter information before submitting the form?
• Form notification email
  • Do the notification emails get sent out as soon as the form is submitted?
• Instructions for the form
  • Does the form have a clear indication of its purpose (form names, input placeholders and any descriptions to go along with the form)?
• Form confirmation
  • Is the form confirmation clear/helpful to the user? Does the correct thank you message appear? Is it clear that the form has been submitted?
• Responsiveness
  • Does the form adjust appropriately for all screen sizes? One thing to check here is, does a two column form go down to a single column for mobile? Two columns may be too squashed on mobile.

Check social media links work

Somewhere on your blog post page, you will most likely have social media icons to allow visitors to share your post.

You want to click on each icon and share the post yourself to make sure the icons are working.

The last thing you want is for people to be sharing your posts, and for them to not actually be shared.

Check mailing list integration works

You will probably have subscribers to your website. You want to make sure that all your subscribers’ mail is being sent out.

If your mailing list is not working, it will more than likely need to be updated with settings for your new website. For instance, is the correct form embedded on your website?

If this is not working, you may end up losing subscribers. So make sure not to miss this one.

Harden security

Before your website goes out into the wild, it is absolutely paramount that your website is secure.

Luckily there are many options out there that can make securing your website easy. On WordPress, there are various plugins available that cover all your security needs.

The top three include:

• WordFence
• Bulletproof Security
• iThemes Security

WordFence, Bulletproof Security and iThemes Security, in a nutshell, are firewall and security scanners for your WordPress website.

This means your data is safe and your website is safe from being hacked.

Activate spam protection (Akismet for WordPress)
No one likes spam. It bloats out your website (especially the comment section) and reduces your website’s credibility. There are two options, dealing with spam manually or automating the process.

The best option available is the Akismet Anti-spam plugin for WordPress. With this plugin, you can simply wave goodbye to spam.

The only setup required is the activation of the plugin and setting up an API key.

But don’t worry, this process is well documented and is very simple to follow.

Visually check website matches what you had before launch

Now that the functionality has been dealt with, it is time to complete the final check.

Does the website match the original designs? If you have carried out the previous checks it should!

But, it is good practice to check and recheck again. Go over the site with a fine tooth comb and identify any areas that may have slipped under your radar.

Hopefully, these are very minor, but if not, the bulk of the issues should be done and out of the way.

Post Launch

Now that your website is out in the wild. It is time to complete the long-awaited post-launch checks.

These checks primarily consist of the configuration of your website.

Configuration

Configure SEO plugin

If you completed the pre-launch SEO, your content should be good to go.

It is now time to install (if not already installed) and configure your SEO plugin.

The top plugin we recommend is Yoast’s SEO plugin.

This plugin will allow you to get more website visits, attract more people from social media and increase the engagement of your readers.

With this plugin you can:

• Optimize keywords
• Keep a watch out for outdated content
• Preview what your pages look like on search engines
• Check the readability of your content
• Have control over Breadcrumbs
• Set up Content insights
• Configure Focus keywords
• Set up the Site map
• And more

Redirect old website and changing DNS settings

Redirecting old site

It is paramount that people find your new website, not your old site.

You can do this by taking down your old site, disconnecting the domain name from that site.

However, If you are using the same server, the settings should more or less be the same.

If you are using a new server but the same DNS, you need to connect your DNS to your new server, so that it’s no longer pointing to your old website.

If you are using a completely new DNS, you still need to make sure your old DNS is not pointing to your old or new site.

Changing DNS settings

Now, how to actually update your DNS settings.

Let’s use the example of pointing your DNS from your old site to your new site on a different server.

As mentioned before, if you have a previous domain name pointing to an old website on a different server, you want to update the DNS settings so that it points to the server where your new website is hosted.

This may sound complicated, but it’s really not.

All that is required is changing the settings in the A records on your DNS. an A record is responsible for pointing a domain name (yourdomainname.com) to an IP address of a hosting server (where your website is stored).

If you are unsure, you can ask your developer or your domain name business and get them to sort it for you.

Make sure emails work

Double check the emails.

After launch, it is important to check that all your email services still work.

Enter information into your contact form and click submit to see if the email is actually being delivered.

If you are using links to open up the mail app, make sure that the correct email is being implemented into the send to box.

Google Analytics and SEO

If you want your website to show up on Google, it doesn’t just magically happen.

The three most critical parts here include:

• Submit your website to Google’s search console (this will allow Google to index your website pages and provide you with access to SEO tips and tricks)
• Implement google analytics (track and report website traffic)
• Submit your sitemap to Google (provides the information so Google can crawl your web pages more easily)

Once you have completed these three steps, your website will begin to show up on Google and you can start analysing the statistics to continuously improve your website’s SEO.

Links

LinkBacks

Previously we have talked about on-site SEO – adding semantic HTML, implementing Yoast SEO and adding your website to Google along with implementing Google analytics.

You need to also make sure you have off-site SEO, one way to do this is by making sure you have plenty of links back to your website.

This means links on other blog posts and social media platforms, link back to your website.

This process will promote the authenticity of your blog posts and website in general, what this means is that search engines will begin to trust your website for providing good authentic content.

Conclusion: The Complete Website Checklist

Hopefully, after going through this website checklist, your mind will be at ease on what needs to be done when launching a website.

Going through this checklist should save you a lot of time going back and forth to your designer/developer as the most crucial elements have been covered.

For a brief recap and a nice consolidated list, here are all the areas to cover when launching a website:

Pre-launch:

• Visual Checks
• Spacings, Images, Typography, Colours
• Cross-browser inconsistencies
• Layout changes
• Colour, image and font changes
• Website optimisation
• Load time of your website
• Responsive checks
• Layout
• Styling
• Content checks
• Links
• Lorem ipsum
• Proof-reading
• SEO
• Semantic Structure

Launch day:

• Functionality
• Forms
• Social media links
• Mailing list
• Security and Anti-spam
• Visual checks
• Make sure the final website matches the design

Post-launch:

• Configuration
• SEO
• Redirect old website
• Changing DNS settings
• Making sure emails work
• Google analytics and SEO and link backs

If you like to be super thorough and you are yearning for information, check out our guide on how to get your launch just right.

Whether you have a small team of 4 or 5, or a larger team of 20, 30, or more, you need to realise that you’ll all have to work together if you want your business to run smoothly.

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We understand that each team member has their own way of working and communicating, especially when collaborating with a diverse group of people, whether remotely or in the office.

Some are introverts, some extroverts, others are visual learners, while others are listeners and prefer verbal instructions.

And that’s absolutely fine. Difference is a good thing!

However, we all have to find a way to communicate and collaborate if we want the businesses to grow. That said, there’s got to be some kind of help online to make our processes more effective and get our businesses running at top speed, right?

Replicable Systems and Business Solutions

Here’s the thing:

Email is the conventional type of communication at work; it’s common that email service providers like Gmail offer special options to filter incoming emails and help us organise our inbox.

But should your team members really be using email to share links, documents, and forward newsletters?

There are better online business solutions and software out there, that will help lessen the email load, organise everything and streamline your tasks.

It can be overwhelming.

We don’t want to spend all of our time filtering emails, or trying to get our inbox organised. There has to be a better way!

There just seems to be a lot of information headed our way, and as business owners, we need to find solutions that are going to save us time, not eat up more of our time.

We want our team to be able to share information with us, and we want to be able to keep up with the trends in our industries.

While email filtering systems can help sort out the spam from the good, it’s not always a perfect system.

For example:

An excited colleague at work who has stumbled upon an insightful case study, forwards you a link via email.

That’s great, but before you know it, an abundance of other team members have also done the same. This leaves you with an inbox swamped with hundreds of emails that you’ll forget to open and read.

By neglecting your email (due to it being swamped), you might miss out on a great opportunity.

While we want to encourage getting rid of spammy emails, we don’t want to miss out on the next big idea that could grow our business.

Brian Shephard, General Manager of Turnstone, wrote in his Fortune thought-piece that too much information stalls productivity.

“Responding immediately to a text or email only increases stress and frustration while decreasing effectiveness. Instead, schedule specific times throughout the day to check email. Additionally, find ways to display key information for easy reference. Posting data on nearby whiteboards or magnetic privacy screens means you won’t find yourself sifting through documents unnecessarily, a venture that always consumes more time than you anticipate.”

That’s where project management and business productivity solutions come in handy!

Building a productive team and having replicable systems is crucial in today’s time sensitive business world.

And that’s where great project tools can make your job easier.

As PwC put it:

“An astounding 97% of organizations believe project management is critical to business performance and organizational success.”

The importance of great online business solutions and software has never been greater.

So without further ado …

Your List of the Top Online Business Solutions and Software

In the list below, we’ve included free, freemium, and premium options, depending on your business needs and budget.

After all, perhaps you’re a brand new start-up business with a team of 3 people and you’re just experimenting with different tools at this stage.

On the flip side, if you’re a huge corporation with multiple departments then you might need a range of software to keep communication running smoothly and to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Whatever your requirements, all of the tools below are designed to help improve your team’s performance and output. There are also both mobile apps and web apps depending on which you find most beneficial.

Let’s get into the list:

Credit to Trello

1. Manage Personal and Team Projects With Trello

Trello is a project management tool perfect for handling personal and team tasks, whether you’re a one-man or large team. It’s easy to use, and visual learners will quickly adapt to its features; you can create a board for each project, add a card, and assign it to a team member.

You can implement the Kanban methodology using this tool, which was also used by Toyota in the 1960s to improve the process and get things done while increasing your productivity and efficiency.

Takeaway Features: free version, supports other online solutions and storage like Google Drive, Dropbox, Box and more, easy to use, Calendar power-ups, easy tagging of members in a task, available on multiple devices, and it has it’s own dedicated app.

Credit to Evernote

2. Organise Pinned Articles and Virtual Notebooks With Evernote

Got an idea to share? Stumbled upon this insightful article that might be useful for content development?

Evernote is for you.

Evernote is a lifesaver for collecting, nurturing, and sharing ideas with the team. Although it has overwhelming features – for not-so-digitally-savvy folks – once you adapt to the overall UI/IX, you’ll find it useful, aside from having a ton of virtual notebooks in the cloud.

You can download the browser plugin or extension and start pinning articles in each notebook, add a tag (e.g. a topic or keyword about that article), and file it under a specific notebook.

This is just one of the many online business solutions, and it’s also available on multiple devices.

The premium version allows you to access your notebooks offline.

Takeaway Features: free version up to 60MB monthly upload limit, premium version comes with more storage capacity for uploads and advanced business solutions, work chat for team collaboration, tags for organising notebooks and pinned articles.

Credit to Canva

3. Design Graphics Like a Pro With Canva

Canva, the cloud-based freemium graphic design tool, comes with a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to create graphics like a pro.

It can be your digital marketer’s best friend because there are several design types available in different dimensions to optimize your social media graphics.

The free version gives access to hundreds of graphics, illustrations, photos, fonts and more that you can design a decent Facebook motivational quote in just 5 minutes.

Whether you’re creating an online ad or a print media design, this tool can save you a lot of time.

If you don’t have the budget to work with a creative design agency, then Canva is worth exploring. However, if you can afford a professional designer, we always recommend you do that instead.

Takeaway Features: access to hundreds of photos, graphics, and illustrations for free, a host of design types and templates, use of custom dimensions, team collaboration, upload a brand kit – logo, palettes, and fonts – for the paid version

Credit to Pomodoro

4. Stay Focused On One Task at a Time With the Be Focused Pomodoro App

Having a hard time focusing on your task? For Mac and iOS users, Be Focused is a useful tool to manage tasks, track your progress, and customize breaks to maximize your productivity.

It uses the Pomodoro method, a technique that Francesco Cirillo developed in the 1980s, that uses a timer to break down the tasks into intervals, usually a 25-minute break.

Be Focused app allows you set these breaks – long or short duration – and the target number of work intervals in a day.

A list of tasks can be renamed for each project, then just press the play button to start.

There’s an alarm sound even if it’s working in the background, reminding you to take a break or start again.

The free version comes with ad banners and limited features.

Takeaway Features: track your progress and label the tasks, switching from one task to another, customise your work intervals and breaks, export logged hours in CSV file (available on the paid version).

Credit to Google Drive

5. Your One-stop Microsoft Office Alternative On the Cloud With Google Drive

If you’re not a fan of Microsoft Office monthly subscription, you can always use Google Drive for creating documents and presentations, plus you can enjoy 30GB of free storage.

The cloud-based office tool saves you a lot of disk space on your computer as you work online, rather than installing a standalone licensed software, which comes with a hefty price tag.

Start working with your team in real-time and share the documents as you write, edit, and revise texts or while creating a pitch deck or analyzing financial statements on the Google spreadsheet.

Here’s a convenient way to work and save files on the cloud.

Google Drive offers an extensive range of office tools – from creating a PDF file to a survey form – and you can track revisions.

I find this is a useful tool for smaller projects or one-off clients where collaboration is important, but you don’t need to create an entire Dropbox folder or system.

In my business, there are many tools that I use to keep the content flowing and help clients get their own content online and this is definitely one of them.

One of the added features that I love is the autosave feature, which allows you to recover various versions of a document. You can also determine the level of editing a user is allowed to have, with permissions.

Takeaway Features: works like MS Office, no need to install software, saves you more space on your local drive, easy sharing and collaborating with team members, revisions tracker, file storage, back-up and more.

Credit to Hootsuite

6. Engage Your Target Audience With Hootsuite

Instead of manually posting social media updates, you can use Hootsuite, a social media management tool, to schedule updates, monitor and analyse your online campaigns.

You can time optimise your posts to increase your exposure and engagement rates across your social media accounts.

The free version only supports three accounts; however, the Pro version can accommodate up to 50 social media profiles, 1 enhanced analytics report, bulk scheduling and access to premium apps.

Hootsuite also offers free courses to improve your online marketing skills; some are free while others are paid with certifications.

Takeaway Features: monitor or listen to conversations using the engagement tools, assign a team member, supports browser plugins and extensions, available in multiple devices, generate short links, auto schedule posting for optimal exposure.

I put Hootsuite on this list because it’s a popular, easy-to-use solution and I know that I can safely recommend it.

Hootsuite is used by many businesses that just need to schedule and manage their social media posts, but there are also other scheduling options such as Buffer.

This tool is very similar to Hootsuite and the interface is really easy to use.

The free version allows you to schedule social media posts for 2 accounts, but the pro version is only $10 a month. It also gives you clear analytics on your post performance and easily allows you to “rebuffer” content so you can share it again and again.

Credit to Skype

7. Conference Calls With Skype

Who can forget Skype?

Online business operations wouldn’t be complete without conference calls via Skype.

Get connected with the team members, whether using online text message, voice calls, or video chats. You can send documents and attachments or share your screen while working in real-time.

Call your colleagues anytime and for free.

A group chat allows you to add people in the teleconference and it’s available across devices. I happen to love Skype, even with some of the inherent kinks in the interface (why does my microphone suddenly stop working?).

I use it to keep in touch with many of my clients, and my staff.

As someone who has an almost entirely remote staff team, Skype is an essential online business tool. I even have the app downloaded on my phone so I can chat and check in with my team on the go.

You can also share screens, send documents from anywhere, anytime. I use it so much when a new client or write starts working with me and doesn’t have Skype, I am left bewildered!

Takeaway Features: free calls, group video chat conferencing, screen sharing, file sharing, Wi-Fi calls, and the ability to call telephones directly from your computer.

Credit to Pocket

8. Offline Viewing and Reading With Pocket

No time to read the entire article? Let Pocket collect all your articles, videos, and attachments so you can view them later.

If you’re always in transit while working, you can save the articles and read them while on board, layover, or when you’re just killing time.

Whatever stories that interest you, you can read them while on the go.

Offline is the keyword here, and as mentioned in the previous tool, Evernote only supports this in the premium version. This makes Pocket a good alternative if you’re looking for free apps.

Takeaway features: offline viewing of articles, pages, videos, etc.; supports browser plugins and extensions for easy clipping; available and syncs in multiple devices.

Credit to Boomerang Gmail

9. Boomerang for Gmail

If your business email is hosted on Google Services, you might find Boomerang very useful to keep track your emails.

How?

Installing it in your web browser allows you to schedule an email, remind you if the email has been opened or viewed, and much more.

The free version allows you to send up to 10 email credits using the Boomerang features per month.

Reminders also help you to follow up emails.

Takeaway features: View receipts, schedule email suitable for global teams and target audience, a reminder to follow-up with a time-optimised feature.

Credit to Grammarly

10. Proofread, Edit, and Check Your Grammar With Grammarly

Grammarly is an indispensable online business tool, a constant friend to your content writers and digital marketers.
You can proofread and correct the grammar with the free version, but with limited features. It supports browser plugins and extensions where it can also proofread your emails and social media posts.

The premium version comes with a host of features with advanced grammar tips and also auto-suggest words and phrases to make your paragraphs succinct and readable.

Although it’s a useful tool, I don’t believe Grammarly can replace a good line editor for all of your content.

I do so much editing online and have to format thousands of articles a month, it would be tough for me to do my job without Grammarly.

While I don’t agree with every suggested change, I do think it’s great at finding typos or misused words.

Another added feature, if you use the Google Chrome extension, you can check any online writing you have – including Facebook posts. So don’t send out a Facebook campaign with errors!

Takeaway Features: grammar tips, plagiarism checker, supports American and British English, supports personal dictionary, vocabulary enhancement, for the premium version.

Credit to Monday.com

11. Monday.com

Monday.com is a fantastic online business solution where your employees and clients can easily keep track of different projects.

Using a range of different ‘boards’, they can easily update the progress of pieces of work so that everyone is on the same page. There are various ‘tabs’ which allow users to change the status of different projects depending on where it sits in the completion cycle.

For example, you could update a task to say ‘working on it’ then change to ‘done’ so that all parties are informed.

You can also use this to plan your working week, instead of using pen and paper. It’s much more efficient as everything lives in one place, instead of having to sift through a bunch of different lists!

You can upload documents and links to the boards so that everyone can see the same pieces of work and comment with feedback.

Monday.com is a great way to streamline tasks within your business so that projects can be completed on time. It’s something we use on a daily basis at Canny, and it helps the whole team to stay on top of their growing to-do list!

Credit to Toggl

12. Toggl

Time tracking can be a right headache!

Your team get so buried in different tasks that it can be easy to forget what they’ve worked on, or where they’ve spent the hours.

That’s what makes Toggl such a great tool for businesses.

Through an easy-to-use online portal, your employees can simply log in and time track their day. For a business founder, this gives you a complete overview of how/ where the hours are being spent, to ensure your business remains profitable.

It’s important to understand which projects are consuming the most time, to ensure your business is generating value. This brings many benefits such as helping you assign areas of the budget, planning work, and knowing which resources you need.

Furthermore, Toggl provides you with important insights and opportunities about how to optimise your workflow. It lets you see which areas are consuming more time than necessary, so that you can identify areas of improvement.

The best thing about this software is it’s simplicity. It requires very little training meaning your employees can start using Toggl straight away.

This enhances your current workflow, instead of disrupting it which is what Toggl is all about.

Online Business Solutions FAQs

We’ve covered a lot of ground when it comes to finding business solutions for small businesses.

Hopefully after reading the above list, you have some ideas on which tools would suit you and your team best so that you can maximise productivity and efficiency.

With that said, we thought it would be a good idea to address some of your most burning questions when it comes to online business solutions, so we’ve devised some handy FAQ’s.

Top Online Business Solutions and Software for Small Businesses

Whilst this is not an extensive list of online business solutions to help you get more organised, it is a great start.

There are thousands of online business solutions and software that claim to save you time and money, whilst also keeping you organised. However, it can be hard to find those that will work for you, so it’s best to know what your business needs before you subscribe to anything.

If you can test out a product or service for free first, do it!

Trust me, software platform costs can quickly add up.

I know people that are always testing out new software solutions, instead of just sticking to one that works.

Essentially, online business solutions should help you get back to what you do best – growing your business. Whether that is selling the best cupcakes the world has ever known, or creating awesome IT solutions – you need to focus on that.

We are all about helping business owners here at Canny, so keep coming back to the blog to find out more useful information and advice!

Remember, if you need any help with your brand, website, or content, then get in touch with our team.