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Website Development for Technology Companies: The Ultimate Introduction
The tech industry is made up of a wide range of different types of c ompanies operating in complex and diverse ecosystems. Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), Cloud Providers, Managed Service Providers (MSPs), and Value-Added Resellers (VARs) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers are just a few examples of tech industry participants and company types.
That leads to a variety of different marketing and digital requirements, especially when it comes to the most important marketing asset, the website. That’s why we’ll cover everything you need to know about website development for technology companies.
So whether you are in the build phase of your startup, you are looking for ways to accelerate growth for your scaling tech business, or whether you are already considering engaging web development services with specialist tech industry expertise, this guide is for you!
Table of Contents
What Is the Purpose of a Technology Company Website?
The primary purpose of a website for a technology company is to generate leads and sales.
Websites are the most critical component of any digital marketing strategy. They provide a central location for leads potential customers to learn about a company and its products, as well as to make purchases. Websites may serve other communications functions as well alongside this primary purpose of attracting prospects, identifying and qualifying leads and converting sales.
The objectives of a website will also vary depend on the type of technology company. For example, an ISV website might focus on promoting its products and services B2B, while an MSP website might focus on providing information about its services and how they can benefit a B2C market.
The Best Websites Attract Prospects and Convert Leads Into Customers
Tech brands need to focus on website design and development basics to raise brand awareness, generate demand, capture contact details, and enable retargeting.
When it comes to website design and development, there are three main goals that technology companies should keep in mind: attracting new website visitors, converting those visitors into leads, and then turning those leads into customers.
1) Attracting New Website Visitors and Generate Demand
The first step in website development is attracting new website visitors. You can achieve this in many ways, but the most effective approach is to create a website design with compelling content that is relevant to your target audience in many ways.
This content can take many different forms, such as blog posts, infographics, videos, SlideShare presentations, or eBooks. But whatever format you choose, make sure the content is high quality and provides value to your website visitors.
These activities are generally categorised as Top of Funnel (TOF).
How to generate demand
One of the most important aspects of a website for most technology companies is generating demand. You can achieve this through website design, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and paid advertising.
Website Design
The look and feel of tech websites are the first things that potential customers will notice. It’s important to make a good impression, and the best way to do that is by having a website that is well-designed, visually appealing and articulates your value proposition.
In addition, your website should be easy to navigate and feature responsive design. The layout should be simple and intuitive, with clear menus and links. And all of the content and specific features on the website should be relevant to your target audience.
Content Marketing
To attract website visitors and turn them into leads, content marketing is essential. Content marketing involves creating valuable, relevant content that your target buyers personas and online audiences will find useful or interesting.
Examples of this could include blog posts, landing pages, videos such as video tutorials, white papers, infographics, or interactive pages like online calculators. Anything that provides value to your web visitor who is looking for answers to their questions or to find solutions for their pain points. And the more relevant it is to the website visitor, the better.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
A vital part of website development for tech companies is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO involves optimizing your website to rank higher in search engines like Google and Bing. This will help more people find you when they are looking for information about what you offer.
Paid Advertising
Another way to generate demand for tech websites is through paid advertising. This involves using online advertising platforms like Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook Ads to promote your brand and website content such as product and services pages or landing pages to a wider audience.
2) Converting Visitors into Leads
Once you have attracted new website visitors, the next step is converting them into leads. The best approach is to offer a free download or trial of your product or service. For example, if you are an ISV, you could offer a free trial of your software. Or if you are an MSP, you could offer a free consultation to potential customers.
It’s important to remember that this is not a ‘set and forget’ process. Improving lead conversion rates over time will likely be among your business goals to pursue.
These activities are generally categorised as Middle of Funnel (MOF).
How to capture lead contact details
An essential part of website design and lead generation is capturing the contact details of prospective leads. A common approach to optimally attract and gather leads is to offer meaningful and relevant value on content pages or landing pages to join a mailing list, complete a survey, request some form of a free assessment or download a content offer such as a white paper, template or guide.
For example, if you are an ISV, you could offer a free trial of your software to generate more leads to nurture. Or if you are an MSP, a great example would be to offer a free consultation to potential customers.
In addition to offering something for website visitors, you should optimize the website for mobile devices so that it is easy to fill out forms on any device. By driving leads to fill out contact details forms, you can build an active CRM list to market to in the future. You can also learn a lot about marketing insights by looking at website trends and who your demographic truly is.
3) Turning Leads into Customers
Once website visitors have become leads, the next step is turning them into customers. The most effective approach is to provide a strong sales pitch.
A great website should have a clear call to action that encourages website visitors to take the next step and become customers. This could be as simple as providing an ‘add to cart’ link, or as complex as setting up an appointment for a consultation.
These activities are generally categorised as Bottom of Funnel (BOF).
How to nurture and qualify leads
Nurturing and qualifying leads is a lead generation process you can use to identify potential customers. The purpose of this process is to identify the needs of the prospective customer and determine whether or not they are a good fit for the company’s product or service. The process of nurturing and qualifying leads also helps to build trust and rapport.
This process begins by identifying the buyer personas . You should base buyer personas on customer research and they should represent the ideal customer. Once you’ve created the buyer persona, the next step is to identify their needs. This is often achieved by creating a survey or questionnaire.
The next step is to qualify your potential customers. It is important to remember that not everyone who expresses an interest in a company’s product or service will be a good fit.
Re-engage leads with retargeting
Many technology companies should also focus on retargeting site visitors as a way of converting website visitors into leads. Retargeting involves placing a website cookie on your website visitors’ browsers to identify them when they visit other websites. This enables you to display ads for your website and products or services on those other websites.
Retargeting works well because it is highly targeted: you are only advertising to people who have already shown an interest in what you offer. And it can be very effective in converting website visitors into customers.
Convert leads into customers by selling products or services
Once a website visitor has been identified as a potential customer, the next step is to sell them products and services. Depending on the offer of your business you can lead the customer to a ecomm storefront to complete a product purchase or if you sell services, you can elicit an inquiry by using a lead capture form.
A lead capture form will enable visitors to provide their contact information so that contract discussions can take place.
Once the lead capture form is filled out, the visitor becomes a prospect or lead and can be passed on to a Sales team for direct engagement. The Sales team can then begin the process of selling them products and services and processing paperwork or invoicing.
Taking a Strategic Approach to Web Design and Website Development for Tech Companies
A strategic approach to web design and website development for tech websites should be based on three core principles. We’ll elaborate on each of them.
1. Minimize Risk
Allowing data to dictate ongoing design decisions is one of the most important aspects of website development for tech companies. Good website design is always evolving, and the best way to ensure that your website remains effective is by making sure that it’s constantly updated with the latest information. This can be done by incorporating user feedback into your design process, and by using analytics to track how people are using your website.
2. Continuously Learn and Improve
Many people mistakenly believe that website design is a static process, and that the look and feel of a website are fixed once it’s launched. In reality, website design is a dynamic process that can be constantly updated and improved based on data collected from user feedback and website analytics. This means that your website should always be evolving to meet the needs of your users.
3. Inform Marketing and Sales
By taking a strategic approach and using data points to dictate your design decisions, you can minimize risk and continuously learn and improve. This information should be shared with marketing and sales so that they can create targeted campaigns that appeal to users and help drive conversions.
By doing so, we can produce a website design that is always changing in response to data and insights based on evidence. Features are implemented in a way that is informed and influenced by the marketing and sales departments’ experiences and learnings.
Why Are User Journeys Important?
User journeys or user journey maps are a way of representing the different paths that users can take on a website. They can be used to identify areas where users are getting lost or confused and can help to improve the website’s usability.
User journey mapping is important to lead generation because they can help to improve the website’s user experience and make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for. This includes factoring in user behavior.
Have you heard of a marketing funnel? A marketing funnel is a user journey that maps out the different stages that a website visitor goes through before they make a purchase. Each stage of the funnel is designed to move visitors further down the funnel and toward conversion, with each step becoming more targeted and specific.
A website with good user journeys will help most users find what they’re looking for and potentially keep them on your technology website longer.
10 Website Content Page Types to Include in a Tech Website
There are a lot of standard website page types that we’re all familiar with, the home page or the about us page, for example. Web design for tech companies should include a logical structure of web pages to make navigation easy, provide the best user experience, and rank higher in search engines.
All tech businesses are unique, but technology company websites need to follow a specific format for what works best and is what users and search engines expect to find.
1) Homepage
The home page is typically the first thing seen by visitors when they visit your website. It should serve as a portal for all other pages on your site and contain information about what you do, who you are, how to contact you or find more information about your company.
For web design for technology companies, this means having an attractive homepage with clear call-to-actions (CTAs) like “Learn More” buttons to drive traffic to your pages and build a user journey.
Homepages are the most important page of any technology website, or any website for that matter, because they have a very high conversion rate (the percentage of visitors who turn into leads). That’s why it is so critical that information on this page is relevant to your audience, easy to find and understand.
2) Product Pages
Product pages are essential if you sell products on your website. They should include high-quality images of the product, a description of the product, specifications, and reviews from customers.
For web design for technology companies, it’s important to showcase your products in a way that is visually appealing and easy to understand. The layout should be simple with clear headings and bullet points to help readers scan the page.
This website page type is a crucial part of your website because it can be linked to other pages to showcase related products or services that may be helpful for customers looking at one item but not another (e.g., if you sell laptops, link the product with accessories like laptop cases).
The specifications and unique selling points (USPs) of technology products and services are major drivers of demand and conversion on any technology website.
3) Service Pages
Service pages are important because they can be used to showcase the variety of services that your company provides. This website page format is also a good way of collecting contact information and providing space for visitors to schedule appointments, consultations.
Furthermore, it can be used to provide a space for users to leave behind quotes and reviews. Services pages provide key details about your services.
Some website visitors will come to service pages specifically to learn whether you offer the right solution for their problem. They are a type of sales page and should immediately grab the lead’s attention with active solutions and illustrate a valuable exchange. For example, if the user pays a larger fee today, they will get a lifetime user account.
4) Solutions Pages
Solutions pages are an important website page type for technology companies. They are used to showcase the variety of solutions that your company provides. This website layout is also an excellent method of gathering contact information and offering room for visitors to book appointments or schedule meaningful consultations too.
While service pages highlight a service, such as maintenance or repairs, solutions pages highlight software and hardware products as well as the various services that are available to support these products.
When you design your website, be sure to dedicate a section of your main navigation bar specifically for links to your solutions pages.
Be sure that every solution offered on your website is explained in detail on its own solutions page. This includes writing compelling headlines, concise descriptions, and clear calls to action.
Your website visitor should be able to leave your website knowing exactly what product or service you offer that can solve their specific problem.
5) Industry Pages
Industry pages are an important website page type for most technology companies. They are used to showcase the various industries or niche verticals that your company provides solutions for or specializes in.
This page is good for SEO because it can help you rank for keywords related to the industries that your company serves. For example, if you are a technology company that provides Agriculture IoT sensors connected to irrigation, you should have an industry page for Agriculture that highlights your knowledge of that industry.
6) Resource Pages
Resource pages can be a critical part of any website, particularly when it comes to content marketing. Resource pages provide valuable and relevant content for your web visitors and/or existing customers. This can include helpful articles, blog posts, images, videos, and more.
For example, imagine you were a technology company that served the construction industry. As well as a construction industry page, you should have a resource page that links to all the accredited and credible regulatory bodies for construction. This can also be a good place to showcase studies and technology from other businesses that are technology partners or peers.
7) Case Study and Testimonial Pages
Case study and testimonial pages are important on a tech company website because they offer potential customers a chance to see what the company is capable of.
Case studies are detailed success stories of how the company was able to help a customer with their specific needs. Meanwhile, customer testimonials are short, personal stories from customers about their experience working with the company.
These website pages can help sway potential customers in deciding whether or not to work with the company as they build credibility and trust. Sometimes called social proof in the marketing industry, testimonials and case studies help prospects know that a company is trustworthy and has experience in dealing with their specific needs.
It’s important to have testimonials from real customers on your website, as opposed to including fake reviews or paid recommendations. This can hurt your credibility and make website visitors question whether or not you truly deserve their business.
To create legitimate testimonials and case studies, contact previous customers you’ve worked with and ask them if they would be willing to provide either of these for your website.
8) Blog Posts
Blog posts are an important part of website content for many reasons. They can help inform web visitors about the company, its products and services, and industry news.
Nurturing website visitors by providing helpful information will help keep them coming back to the website, which can improve SEO results.
A blog is also prime real-estate for SEO keywords, which can help website visitors find the website through search engines. Make sure to include keywords in your blog posts that are relevant to both the company and its products and services.
Blog posts offer an opportunity for companies to showcase their communication skills and provide valuable content for their audience.
9) About Page
The about page is important to include on a website for a tech company because it gives website visitors a brief introduction to the company and its employees. It also allows website visitors to learn more about the company’s history, philosophy, and goals.
Including an about page on a website is a common practice, and it’s generally a good idea to have one for your company. Make sure to keep the information on the about page up-to-date and accurate.
Increasingly Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming an essential part of website content. This is the practice of a company voluntarily undertaking initiatives to improve the environment or society as a whole.
These days most customers care whether or not a company engages in CSR. So it’s important to include information about your company’s CSR initiatives on your website.
You can do this by creating a separate page on the website specifically for CSR or including it as part of another page, such as the about page.
10) Contact Page
The contact page is important for a tech company website because it allows website visitors to get in touch with the business easily. This page should be optimized to generate the most leads for the company.
Some tips for optimizing the contact page include providing clear and concise information. This should include the company’s contact information, such as phone number and email address, as well as hours of operation.
Some users for example businesses in Japan can be erroneously blocked from sending messages through email forms. This is because cyber criminals based in the USA often use VPNs and set their location to Japan. So, to truly welcome business worldwide, always include an email address on a contact page, not just a form.
It’s also important to make sure that the website contact form is easy to use and that it works correctly. Broken contact forms have been known to remain live on the websites of even the largest companies and have cost those companies thousands of dollars in leads.
Additionally, you can include a map showing the company’s location on the contact page. This is very search engine friendly.
Additional Pages To Consider
Depending on the products and services that your company offers, your website may also need to include a pricing page, demo page, or environmental responsibility page. We talked about CSR earlier and if you have any accreditations, certifications, or industry awards you should have a dedicated page highlighting them.
Depending on company type and offer, a pricing page can be important because it allows website visitors to learn about the prices of the company’s products and services. This information can help website visitors decide whether or not they want to purchase products or services from your company.
Critical Elements Every Tech Website Needs
There are a lot of essential elements that every tech website needs to be effective.
Let’s discuss nine of those elements. We’ll also provide tips on how to implement each element so that your website can be as successful as possible.
1. Strong Brand Identity With Consistent Website Branding
A website is the online face of your company. It should have a strong brand identity with consistent website branding. Branding refers to visual elements such as colours and fonts that are used throughout the website, helping to create an overall look or feel for your website’s design.
The process begins by selecting one primary font family and two to three secondary font families. The primary font should be used for headlines, while the secondary fonts can be used for body text and other elements such as menus and buttons.
Font and Colour Matters
When it comes to colours, you’ll want to use a limited number of colours that are consistent with your company’s branding . This will help create a cohesive look for your website.
You can use a colour palette generator to create a custom colour palette that matches your brand identity. If you’re not sure how to get started, there are lots of resources online that can help.
2. Mobile-Responsive or Mobile-First Design
Your website should feature responsive design, meaning that it should automatically adapt to the size of the device it’s being viewed on. This ensures that website visitors have a great experience regardless of the device they’re using, whether it’s a desktop, mobile device, tablet or other screen.
If your website isn’t responsive, you could be losing customers and revenue. A study by Think with Google found that 50% of users would use a website less if it’s not mobile-friendly.
A mobile-first website design means that the website is designed for mobile devices first and then adapted for desktops. This approach is becoming increasingly popular because more people are using their mobile devices to access the internet than ever before.
3. Fast Page Speed Times
Page speed is one of the most important factors when it comes to website optimization.
In fact, according to a recent survey by Unbounce , nearly 70% of customers claim that page speed affects their likelihood to purchase.
There are many ways to optimize your website for faster page speeds. Here are a few tips:
Reduce the size of your images and videos
Compress your website’s files
Optimize your website’s code
Minimize HTTP requests
Use a content delivery network (CDN)
Enable caching
Finally, remember to test your website’s speed with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool and make improvements. This will help to ensure you’re keeping the website optimized.
4. User-Friendly Navigation
Earlier we talked about the user journey. The difference between a website that’s easy to use and one that’s not can be the difference between a visitor who returns or quickly leaves.
Your website’s navigation menu should be easy to understand and use. It should be intuitive so that visitors can find what they need and reach their desired destination without having to search for it.
Make sure your website’s navigation is consistent across all pages. And, if you have a website with a lot of pages, consider using drop down menus or hamburger menu to keep things organized.
Tips for website navigation:
Make sure your website’s navigation is easy to understand and use
Keep your website’s navigation consistent across all pages
Use a drop-down menu or hamburger menu to organize your website’s content
Test your website’s navigation with different users
Lastly, remember to install appropriate website security and keep security certificates up to date.
5. Logical Page Structure
You may have noticed this is a rather large guide. The way to make it digestible is to break it up with H-tags, these are the different sized subheadings. Google loves these, readers love these, use them!
Headlines (H-tags) should be used to indicate the most important sections of your content. There are six levels of heading tags, ranging in size from one to six. The level of a heading tag reflects its importance in the website’s structure.
There are some other things you can do too such as adding breadcrumbs which are great for the user and internal linking.
Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs are a great way to help website visitors find their way around your website. They provide a trail of links that lead website visitors back to the homepage or other pages.
Breadcrumbs also help search engines understand the structure of your website.
Tips for breadcrumbs:
Add breadcrumbs to your website’s header or footer
Create a trail of links that lead website visitors back to the homepage
Help website visitors find their way around your website
Make it easy for search engines to understand the structure of your website
Use internal linking
Google Loves Structured Data
Structured data is one of the most important aspects of SEO. It helps Google understand the content of your website and its pages.
There are many different types of structured data, but the most common is Schema markup. Schema markup is a code that you add to your website’s HTML to help Google understand the content of your website.
6) High-Quality Content Relevant to Target Buyer Personas
To target the right web visitors who are more likely to become prospective customers, you need to create high-quality content that’s relevant to their interests. This content should be useful and interesting to them, not just a sales pitch. To optimize lead generation results, your business needs to build Target Buyer Personas.
Content should be original and relevant to website visitors’ interests. It should also include keywords that are related to the topic of the page it’s on.
7) Clear and Strong Call-To-Actions (CTAs)
A website’s call-to-action (CTA) is a button or link that encourages website visitors to take action. The most common type of CTA is a button that says: submit or add to cart.
CTAs are important because they encourage website visitors to take an action. If you don’t have a CTA, website visitors may not know what you want them to do next. It’s an important part of any customer journey.
Tips for creating effective CTAs:
Make sure your CTAs are easy to see and easy to click
Make your CTAs very concise, 1 – 3 words works best
Finally, remember that CTAs should be on every single page as they’re a core part of the user journey.
8) Compelling Imagery and Photography
When it comes to website design, visual appeal and compelling imagery are key. Your website needs to look good if you want people to stick around long enough to learn about your company and what you do.
Think about your reaction to websites that look dated or visually unappealing versus those that load quickly and command attention. Tech companies also need to use images that are relevant to their company and the products or services they offer. This may even include photography of existing customers.
The images should be high-quality and appropriate for the target audience. Many tech companies may be unsure what images to use or how to communicate their brand visually. Here at Filament , we’re great at selecting images that make your brand messages shine!
9) Easy to Access Contact Information
When it comes to technology website design, one of the most important elements is easy access to contact information. This includes your contact details, such as your website’s address, phone number, and email address. It’s also a good idea to include a live chat or contact form on your website.
Having easy access to contact information is important because it makes it easier for website visitors to get in touch with you. Any small stumbling block in the user journey is a chance to lose your lead.
Make sure your contact information is easy to find on every page of your website. You can also include it in the header or footer of your website. You should also have a page dedicated to contact information that website visitors can find by using the website’s search function.
The Importance of Google Core Web Vitals
Core web vitals help Google determine whether or not your website is high-quality, which can have a big impact on where you rank in search results. These website metrics are measured by Google’s Chrome browser, which is used by over 63.5% of website visitors worldwide .
To check your website’s core web vitals, Google offers the PageSpeed Insights tool. This tool provides website owners with a score for their website’s performance, as well as suggestions on how to improve it.
Some of the most important core web vitals are:
Site speed
