Best Web Practices for Logistics and Distribution Company Sites

Optimizing your website is the first step to creating a site that will get you traffic. For businesses in the logistics and distribution industry, it seems that a lot of them stick to getting a site up and running and then quit there. 

However, even your customers want a good website experience too. The better the web experience, the more that website visitors will stay on your site. If you want to become one of best fulfillment service companies, then you need to prep your

To become one of the best fulfillment service companies, you should apply these best web practices for your logistic and distribution business website.

3 Types of Logistics and Distribution Sites

Before we start talking about web practices, let’s first figure out the different types of logistics and distribution websites. There are three of the most common types of distribution companies. There’s the corporate websites, freight marketplaces, and freight forwarders.

Each of these logistics and distribution websites has distinct differences. When you know the difference between each site, you’ll know the different essentials for their web practices better. 

On that note, here are the definitions for three types of logistics and distribution websites.

• Corporate Websites: A corporate website is a site that companies use to let clients and other stakeholders know more about their company. From the company’s current news to the mission and vision and even the services, the corporate website serves as the company’s online headquarters.

• Freight Forwarders: Freight Forwarders are responsible for the transportation of goods from one place to the next. They’re also usually involved in the process leading up to the deliveries. For example, their site will also offer warehousing and packaging services, aside from the transporting and distributing.

• Freight Marketplaces: Freight Marketplaces, on the other hand, is the website where both the customers and service providers for shipping services come together. The marketplace serves as the intermediary between the two. 

Best Web Practices for Logistics and Distribution Sites

Now that you’re more aware of the different logistics and distribution sites online, it’s time to move on to these sites’ best web practices. As mentioned before, the innate differences between these sites mean that there will be critical differences in these sites’ best web practices.

If you want to get more traffic and success to your website, you have to use these web practices depending on what type of logistics and distribution site you are. With that said, let’s start with the corporate website.

Corporate Website Essentials

There are a ton of different web essentials that any decent corporate website should have. Here is a list of what you should prioritize on your corporate website to get the best chances of success.

• Keep your web copy short but put your company in the best light: Too many corporate websites go on and on about the company’s history. In truth, almost nobody cares about the history of your company other than you. Even though your website should technically be about you, you should still keep it short. Your readers are still likely going to be potential clients.

• Have a functional and mobile-friendly website: If your website is challenging to navigate, it will make your corporate website look unprofessional. No one will want to stay on your website. Therefore, it would be in your best interest to keep a functional website that’s also mobile-friendly.

• Show off your services: If a potential client is on your site, you want to communicate to them that you are free and able to help them with their needs. You can express that to them by creating a webpage that has all the services that you offer.

• Add a contact form or contact page: At the end of your homepage or any relevant website, you should include a contact form. That way, when clients have questions, after reading through parts of your site, they have a way to ask it immediately.

Freight Marketplace Essential Features

For a Freight Marketplace site, here are the essential features and elements that you need to include:

• Provide general information about your services: Much like on the corporate website, you also want to give website visitors the information they need to discern the services you provide. Include testimonials on your site so that you can establish a better level of trust between you and your website visitor.

• Create content with practical information: If you want to establish your expertise and authority better, you should create content (like a blog) on your site for all things relevant in your market. It could be industry tips, company news, and case studies. Including this information will also make your website rank higher on search engines.

• Have crucial website features for your customers: Since you’re a marketplace, you want to have as many payment portals as possible. You don’t want to lose a customer right when they’re about to avail of your service because they can’t pay you. Aside from payment portals, you also need a cargo tracking feature. The cargo tracking feature is pretty complicated to set up, but it levels up your website compared to your competitors.

Freight Forwarder Website Essentials

Last but not least, you have the website essentials of the Freight Forwarder sites.

• Highlight the Company through content: Much like in the two previous sites, you need to highlight your company’s successes. However, the content you provide in this case will be a combination of the content in the two previous sites. You want to create the content that talks about your site, but you also should consider creating a few blog content relevant to your potential customers here and there.

• Simple interface: When a customer is on your site, they probably want to get right to the information about their packages. Therefore, you should have a simple interface.

• Cargo tracking and payment options and estimations: Again, it would be very convenient for your potential customers to get cargo tracking information from your site. Speaking of payment, you should also include payment estimations for items they plan to ship with you. After your payment estimator feature, this might be the best place to have a contact form.

• Mobile app: If you’re confident in your site’s responsiveness, it might be time to branch out with a mobile app. Even if you have an app, you still need to optimize your site because some mobile users will always connect with you through your site.

Additional Important Features for All Types of Logistics and Distribution Sites

Here are several other essential features that all three websites should observe.

• Reduce your website’s loading time.

• Be consistent in visual and content messaging.
• Don’t assume that everyone knows how to work with technology.
• Keep your main menu the same on all pages.
• Have a search box and make it obvious where it is.
• Keep your web pages short.
• Link your social media accounts on your website.
• Make your hyperlinks obvious.

How you conduct your website will be an indication of how you run your business. Therefore, by ensuring you have all of the website essentials for your business, you’re already creating a friendly relationship between you and your potential clients.

Before you set up your site, run through this list, and make sure that you keep these web elements in mind. You’ll find that it will be much easier for your site to get traction and be useful for your potential customers and your business.