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Six Must Have Pages on Your Website

Six must have pages on your website

It’s time to audit your website to verify you have these six must have pages on your website.

Service and Products Landing Pages

I’ve seen far too many community bank and credit union websites lately with combined pages for all service offerings. For instance, if an institution has a page for consumer products, the page simply has a listing of all the consumer products listed on it.

Instead, create a detail page for each product or service under their respective landing pages. Here is an example focusing on business products and services. For clarity, let’s say this institution uses the words “Business Services” to categorize them.

First, we would create what is known as a landing page for “Business Services”. This page would be off the root of the website in the structure as:

/business-services/

Why do we use the entire phrase “business-services” in the URL structure? This is so we can attract search engines with some words which describe the content on this page and all pages underneath it. If the page has “business services” on it, you should use that phrase in the URL structure, the title of the page, the H1 header of the page, in the body of the text on the page, and in the ALT text on any photographs on the page. All of this is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and is a critical part of how well your website is indexed by search engines such as Google.

The content of this page should describe the various business services you offer in a table, graphic or some other way to provide links to details about each business service. I have seen everything work from a table of icons to custom graphics. Just make sure it is mobile friendly.

Once you have the landing page built (/business-services/), it is time to start building service detail pages which describe each of your services in detail.

For instance, say you offer a service called “Business Checking”, this service would have a service detail page located at:

/business-services/business-checking/

There are many reasons for creating service detail pages, but the most important of them all is to attract search engines to the page. If someone is searching for business checking accounts and you have a page specifically built for responding to the query “business checking”, it is more likely that a search engine will offer that page in a search result.

Create each service detail page with an eye toward search engine friendliness (see the page tips paragraph above about the URL structure, the title of the page, the H1 header of the page, the body of the text on the page, and the ALT text on any photographs on the page). In addition to these elements of the page, the text on the detail page should be somewhere between 500 and 1500 words – the longer the better.

Here is what your “Business Services” page URL structure should look like”

/business-services/

/business-services/business-checking/

/business-services/business-loans/

/business-services/business-wire-origination/

/business-services/positive-pay/

/business-services/lockbox/

/business-services/business-online-banking/

I think you get the point here. Create a page for each of your services so the search engines know where to find the proper information on your website.

Contact Us

Your site needs a dedicated page for reaching your staff. If you have different contact methods for consumer and business customers, list them on this page. This page should have contact forms, email addresses (if applicable), phone numbers, hours of operation, physical addresses, mailing addresses and any other thing you can add to make contacting your institution easy and friendly.

Privacy Policy

Your site should already have a Privacy Policy page and reviewing it annually should be on your to-do list. Privacy laws change all the time, and you need to keep yours current – especially if you serve any customers in California or the European Union.

Terms & Conditions

This page is necessary to cover terms of doing business with your institution not covered in your privacy policy. Again, it needs to be annually reviewed.

About Us

This page is a great place to showcase your institution’s founding and history. The more detail, photos, and stories you can add to this page, the better.

Location(s)

The reason you need a location page (even if you have only one location) is to make it E-A-S-Y for your customers to find you. The location page should have your addresses, photos of the site and a Google or other map link the site visitor can click on for mapping detail. If you have multiple locations, I recommend building out a /landing-page/detail-page/ structure for each of your locations to help the search engines and your customers find each of your locations.

While this is not an exhaustive listing of everything you need on your website, we feel this core list is a great place to evaluate the six must have pages on your website.

Looking for ideas to expand your Treasury Management reach to new business customers? Look into the TMClarity Framework, our comprehensive and transformative training and Treasury Management business management system that leads to greater sales success, higher margins, and increased customer retention in a competitive marketplace.

How to Stay Relevant as a Legacy Employee

How to Stay Relevant as a Legacy Employee

It is important to discover how to stay relevant as a legacy employee. Have you been with your community bank or credit union over 20 years? Do you have a lot of knowledge that few employees have in your institution? Do you remember how “things were done” 20 plus years ago? Then you are what I lovingly call a “legacy employee.” You are valuable!

Do you find yourself trying to keep up with technology? Are the “new people” changing everything you used to do to a new way of doing things? Do you sometimes feel lost in the sea of information and don’t know where to begin to stay on top? Then you are what I respectfully call a “legacy employee.” You are in transition!

If you have been with your organization for 20-50 years, and want to learn how to stay relevant as a legacy employee, below are some tips that will inspire you to enjoy this season in your career:

Willingness to learn.

One of the keys to being a successful professional is to adopt a life-long learning attitude. The moment you lose the ability or willingness to learn, you start lagging. Attitude is everything! Your continued willingness to learn will open new doors of opportunity within your organization and you will experience less stress on your job.

Share your knowledge.

When you are willing to share all the amazing knowledge you have accumulated over your career with your coworkers, you will become a most valuable asset! It may seem that if you share information you will not be needed anymore. But it works the other way around. The more you share, the more others will seek your advice and input.

Mentor others.

Mentoring is taking someone under your wing and sharing your experiences with them. Mentoring is different than training in that mentoring is more informal, and you choose to mentor someone. Most likely what you mentor others on is not in any book because it’s based on your own life experiences. As you start thinking of your next adventure in life, you will find that leaving a legacy of knowledge is very satisfying. Your organization will keep you for as long as you want to because you are voluntarily creating your own succession plan.

Be open to new jobs.

Often workers who are contemplating retirement, want to stay put those last 3-5 years and not be bothered with having to move to a new position. They feel scared to learn and may feel threatened by others who have more technological knowledge. But taking on new jobs can help you stay sharp and may open new doors to stay in the workforce longer than you planned—not because you had to but because you want to and enjoy your new responsibilities. You may fill a need in your institution precisely because of your longevity with the organization.

Be coachable.

Typically, you may think of coaching the new generation or emerging leaders. However, being coachable simply means being open to doing things in a different way. Additionally, and regardless of age, some people may always need coaching to improve their communication or interpersonal skills. It takes humility to stay coachable throughout your career but it’s very rewarding to see your continued improvement.

It is important to discover how to stay relevant as a legacy employee. I hope these tips inspired you to act and continue to learn as you enjoy your present season in your career.

Books by Marcia Malzahn