As an internet marketing consultant, I thoroughly enjoy helping my clients understand exactly what their customers are looking for and need. My first priority is to review the navigation layout on their small business website; ensuring it clearly identifies the products and services they have to offer.

 

One thing I find most challenging is when a business combines all their products and services under a single area. Not only does this make it difficult for the end user as they try to locate a specific product or service, but this can also make it difficult for the search engines to figure out exactly what you have to offer.

 

 

Product Listings

 

There are a couple ways a product can be laid out online. The first would be through an online store, which is often referred to as an eCommerce website. These websites typically have a number of products that can be sold through a shopping cart online and shipped to the customer.

Examples of items you might locate in the product area of a website would include, but is not limited to, the following:

 

Shoes Clothing Electronics Food, Beverage & Tobacco Furniture Hardware Health & Beauty

Home & Garden Luggage & Bags Media Office Supplies Sporting Goods Toys & Games Vehicles & Parts

 

Another way to show products would be to include a list of items you actually manufacture. By listing the types of products, whether they might be custom or standard items, you give the end users an idea of what your actual capabilities are. For example, a machine shop provides mostly services. However, the end result of these services is often some sort of good in which they ship to the customer. Here are a few examples of items a machine shop might list as products on their website:

 

Dowel Pins Set Screws Angle Brackets Nose Enclosures Pulleys Brake Backing Pads

Electrical Components & Housing Shafts Couplings Custom & Hydraulic Valves Pistons & Housing Trigger & Release Components Metal Boxes

 

Services Offerings

 

All service offerings would include an activity or process where no physical goods are transferred from you to the actual customer.  It’s important to layout each service you provide along with a description of what the customer can expect. This is also a great area to incorporate details such as experience, skills, certifications, and more.

 

Let’s take a look at a website that offers only serviced based options. Now remember, it’s important to include an area on your website to list and talk about the items in which you provide services to ensure customers are fully aware of your capabilities. A business that comes to mind in this particular area is the Backup Generator industry. Take a look at an example of how this type of business would organize their service offering. 

 

Services Installation Basic Services Maintenance Programs Repair & Warranty

Generators Home Generators Industrial Generators Portable Generators

 

In Conclusion

 

The next time you visit your website, check to see if the above mentioned areas are located and visible in the main navigation area. If they are not clearly defined, you may want to consider reorganizing your navigation layout to make it a little more user-friendly. If you have a website that you feel is a bit more complicated than this, feel free to comment or use the form to the right to send a message . We would be more than happy to take a look and see if we can provide you a little insight as to how you might be able to simplify the navigation on your website.