Do you want to build a free showcase site but you don’t know where to start? Follow our tips for creating a website for your business! In this article, you’ll also find a selection of our free showcase site building software to quickly benefit from a great online presence!
What is a free showcase site?
It’s all in the title: The Showcase site acts like a store front with a few extra features. It presents your products or services with the aim of attracting potential customers. They should be encouraged to contact you or leave your contact details. This is why building a free showcase site should go beyond your simple list of offers.
Even if the objective is not to generate direct sales, your pages should lead to conversions in the medium and long term.
To this end, a showcase site provides content that will help the visitor make the best buying decision. So this is a property that cannot be ignored!
Build a Free Showcase Site: Essential Elements
In order to meet your visibility and realization objectives, a showcase site must include certain essential elements.
marketing of products or services
From the first click on the home page, the visitor should clearly identify the products or services you are selling. Whether through animation, visualization or text, he needs to know if he is in the right place to meet his needs.
For example, the site of the publishing house Le Lys Bleu is very clear at this point. The visitor knows that he is going to the reception of a publisher of novels, essays, short stories, and other formats:
If you provide separate services, each of them should have a dedicated page detailing their exclusivity. Products can be grouped by categories or collections.
value proposition
Why should consumers choose your company over another? The showcase site should summarize your value proposition upon entry. This is the key to keeping Internet users in your universe and supporting them through the next step of purchase.
Your achievements and/or customer testimonials
Your prospects are more likely to take action if they know their teammates have already taken the plunge. They like to know what they think of your offer.
This is why the creation of a showcase site requires a “testimonials” section. If you can attach a portfolio with your past achievements, that’s even better! Your experiences and customer reviews serve as social proof to convince visitors to trust you.
For example, the firm Plus Architects offers visitors to consult their past constructions through a dedicated page:
location of your offices
This element is essential for local shops, restaurants and any other business that receives its customers. You need to tell them where to find you and how to get to your location.
If you have multiple stores or offices, be sure to mention them all with their different addresses.
Finally, if you have resellers, consider a “Point of Sale” or “Where to Find Us” page, which tells visitors where to find your products, as the Selnet brand does on its site:
“About” page
The “About” page is where you tell your story and the story of your business. It provides an opportunity to humanize your brand. Remember to add photos of your teams or at least the founding members.
his goal ? Reassure the visitor by showing them who are the people behind the company and let it grow.
a contact form
The ultimate purpose of a showcase site is to convert visitors into leads for your business. To do this, you need a contact form so that he can leave you his contact details.
You can combine this with a white paper, demo request, free online consultation or quote request.
links to your social networks
Most of your visitors use social networks. Suggest they continue searching for your offers on these platforms! This allows you to keep them in your community, build a link with them, and perhaps convert them into customers in the medium or long term.
a blog
Similarly, a blog can inform visitors about company news and help them get to know you better. It is the ideal place to share advice, showcase your expertise and reassure them of your knowledge with your audience.
In addition, a blog builds loyalty in your community. Repeat readers will engage with your business and be more likely to buy your products/services when the time comes.
For example, the Bledina brand offers a blog on its showcase site, which offers advice on food diversification and parenthood in general. This space is also used to list the latest brand news.
call to action
On all pages of your showcase site, you should encourage visitors to take action. Whether it’s searching for your products, visiting your blog, or filling out your form, use a clear, stand-out call to action.
Why and when to go for free solutions?
As we said, the showcase site is not a commercial site. Generally, it does not have complex functionality and consists of a limited number of pages. For this, some professionals turn to free showcase site building software, which allows them to do it themselves.
Often, these tools offer pre-designed templates ready for use. You just have to customize them a bit, using the drag-and-drop feature to incorporate your branding elements. Within a few hours, your Showcase site is up.
The real question remains: When should you turn to free showcase site building software? Here are our answers!
If you don’t want advanced features
The Showcase site has a limited number of pages and features. You do not need to integrate a shopping cart or payment solution. Meaning, no plug-ins or advanced applications.
If a simple site with limited storage space and low bandwidth is enough for you, you can create a free showcase site.
If You Don’t Need a Private Domain Name
You can imagine that there are some restrictions related to building a free showcase site. One of them is likely to be a private domain name.
Most free showcase site building software requires you to have a domain name, which is impossible to personalize. Or you’ll have to pay extra, which sometimes turns out to be more expensive than buying it yourself.
How to Create a Free Showcase Site?
Have you decided to build a free showcase site? Here’s a selection of tools to use!
Wix
Wix is ​​one of the best software you can use to build a free showcase site in hours or less! It offers over 550 customizable templates.
The tools powered by Artificial Intelligence make it possible to achieve a professional layout and structure for your showcase site. Wix also offers an app store where you can find free apps, widgets, and plugins to enrich your pages with various SEO or marketing features.
The free version lets you build a premium showcase site on a Wix-branded subdomain.
Example of a showcase site created with Wix:
site123
Site123 provides you with 500MB storage space and 1GB bandwidth to create a free showcase site in just a few clicks. These displays allow you to add an unlimited number of pages to your website, but at the same time welcome a large traffic.
This free showcase site builder software is suitable for portfolios, small business websites, landing pages and more.
Example of a showcase site created with Site123:
Jimdo
Jimdo favors simplicity. Like Wix, it has an AI-based wizard that suggests the best layout for your site. All the themes offered are responsive, mobile friendly and up to date. However, in exchange for being free, Jimdo allows itself to display a small ad on your pages.
You have 500 MB of storage space, which is enough for most sites. The only downside to this is the 5-page limit.
Example of a showcase site created with Jimdo:
Weebly
Weebly’s promise? Simplify building a free showcase site as much as you can. In its offering, the tool immediately offers 500 MB of storage space, an SSL certificate, an SEO module, and several contact form templates. Obviously, you’ll have the choice between predefined templates to customize in the colors of your graphic charter.
Example of a showcase site built from Weebly:
wordpress
WordPress is definitely the most famous free and French showcase site building software! You will have the choice between 2 versions:
- The .com version: This turnkey offering allows you, like the other tools on this list, to create a free showcase site in just minutes. You will not need to subscribe to any hosting offers or domain names. This is all done through an intuitive dashboard and customizable, easy-to-use themes.
- .org version: An open source tool to be installed on your own hosting service and under your own domain name. Unlike the other version, you’ll need to have some HTML basics to build a showcase site in your image.
Example of a showcase site built from WordPress.com:
our tip
Your site is a reflection of your activity as well as your professionalism. Before starting, if you have no knowledge of web development, we recommend you least Offering free training to build a showcase site.
If needed, you can also request support from a freelance web developer at Codeur.com!