Website Design & Development for Oil and Gas Companies

If you come to think of it, one of the major obstacles to implementing the use of digital tools is the traditional mindset of industries that have been caring out business deals solely based on networking.

One such industry is oil and gas. While a lot of industries work on numbers, analysis, and results, this particular industry is more about trust and relies heavily on past business deals for recurring revenue. 

In today’s time, whenever we are talking about any business, our first point of reference for research is the business's website. It can be very well said that a website is a business’s first impression for its potential customer.

In this blog, we will explore how an oil and gas company can leverage the power of a website and digital tools to allow potential prospects to reach out to them easily and more sophisticatedly.

A. Key considerations for website design and development for oil and gas companies

Importance of visual design and branding

Imagine that even after catering to the industry for more than a decade, you are not the first choice of a potential customer only because you failed to keep up with the digital revolution.  

Developing a visually appealing website is the first step to attracting customers, and if you focus on the trends of branding, revamping your brand kit and vision according to your goals for financial years has helped many businesses stay relevant in this competitive market.

Strong visual elements in your website establish the credibility of your business. By conveying a professional and cohesive image, oil and gas companies can project an air of reliability and competence, which can be essential in building long-term relationships.

Essential features for oil and gas company websites

• History: Particularly for this industry, the people availing your service would be deeply concerned about your ethics, and in order to gain their trust, you have to share your values and the story of how your company came into existence.
• News and Updates: If the customers are not sure you are practicing the latest technology to benefit your company and your customers, they will definitely go into business with your competitor. So remember to update your audience about the progress of your Company.
• Foundation: Show how well your company is known and supported. Use your investors as brand ambassadors to build credibility among the audience.
• Services: The oil and Gas industry sounds confusing to people who are interested in doing business in this sector but are unable to crack through the upper surface. An oil and gas company should simplify its services for its audience.
• Infographics: The website should explain the trends in business in a graphical manner so that people can understand the business better.

User experience and navigation

One of the best ways of marketing a business without paid advertising is enhancing user experience. The more detailed and user-friendly website you develop, the more users will recommend your website to other users. This will, in turn, increase word-of-mouth marketing and your traffic.

Also, don’t forget to add a sitemap, as it makes it easier for your users to navigate through your website.

Mobile Optimization

Compatibility:  A major part of losing a great amount of traffic on your website is because of not optimizing the site for mobile devices.  The fact is that 53% of website traffic is sourced from mobile devices, and around 91% of the users interact with the internet from their portable devices such as cell phones and tablets.  

B. Best practices for oil and gas company websites

Importance of clear and concise messaging

The attention span of the audience online is rapidly decreasing, and beating around the bush will only push your audience far away.  Keep it short and simple. Fancy sentences in your website content will only confuse your audience, and after a point, it will frustrate your user to exit the website. 

So if you don’t want to increase the bounce rate of your website, then you should research and frame content that highlights the unique selling points of your business.

Use of high-quality images and video content

Be it for entertainment or for business, nobody is interested in looking at poor, pixelated images. When selecting images and videos for your website, make sure to check the dimension requirements supported by the internet. 

Choose images that reflect your worksite and give users a sneak peek inside your operations. This increases users' interest in associating with your business. 

It is advisable to develop your website from a web development agency as they take care of such small details that affect the success of your business.

Incorporation of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques

You might develop the best of the websites but still aren’t getting enough traffic. Your problem here isn’t the visuals of the website, it is the content and how it is placed and where it is placed.

SEO techniques will help increase the visibility of your website.

Keyword Research

Identify the keywords that are relevant to your industry and the keywords your audience is using to search for getting services you offer.  You have to strategically place keywords in your content like Blogs, taglines, and service content.

Link Building 

Incorporating your website landing pages into other sites with higher search authority will help redirect traffic to your website and will boost your website’s search engine standing. 

Incorporating SEO techniques during website development can help businesses improve their online visibility, attract more organic traffic, and increase their website's overall performance. As such, SEO should be an integral part of any website development strategy.

Use of social media integration

No one on the internet is unaware of the power of social media and how it can change people’s perspectives about your business. Social media is considered a large database of potential customers that can make or break your brand. It is important to redirect the huge amount of active users present on social media to your website, and in order to do that, you need to link your website to your different social media platforms and keep posting on those platforms to uphold the credibility of your brand in the eyes of your potential customers.

By leveraging social media Platforms like Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, users can easily share content and engage with others, which can result in greater audience participation and potentially more traffic to your website.

C. Strategies for effective website development for oil and gas companies 

If you are looking to build a website that brings revenue to your business and keeps people interested in your industry, then you must follow the below-listed strategies while building a website. 

Determining website goals and objectives

Your website goals should aline with your business goals. Here you define what you want to achieve by making a website. Some of the most common goals for a website are branding & reputation management, marketing & sales, talent acquisition, and investor relations. 

Defining Target audience and user personas

Whenever you decide to develop a website or revamp an existing one, researching people who will interact with your website is an important step. By analyzing the type of people, their interest, and their spending patterns, you will be able to narrow down on characteristics of an ideal customer, which will help you target the audience in the same group. This will make sure you are investing in targeting the right people and saving your budget.

Understanding the sales funnel and website conversion optimization

The sales funnel is a marketing model that describes the journey a potential customer takes from initial awareness of a product or service to making a purchase. It typically consists of several stages, each with its own goal and set of activities. These stages are:

Website conversion optimization

Refers to the process of optimizing a website to increase the number of visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a contact form. To optimize a website for conversions, it is important to understand the sales funnel and how visitors move through it.

Here are some tips for optimizing a website for conversions:

• Make the website easy to navigate:
• Ensure that the website is easy to use,
• Clear calls-to-action (CTAs).

Ensuring website security and compliance

Users need to feel safe browsing your website, and for that to happen, you must put some precautions in place to avoid any security breaches of users' data. 

• Use of HTTPS:  One of the first layers of securing data on your website is through HTTPS encryption.
• Use Secure Hosting: selecting a website provider is something you don't want to mess up, as everything on the internet is exposed to cyberattacks; it is important to choose a provider that provides strong security features, such as firewalls, intrusion detection, and malware scanning.
• Comply with relevant laws and regulations: Ensure that the website complies with relevant laws and regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Conclusion

Recap of key points

• Keep your website visually attractive to hook your visitors.
• Use the best SEO & content optimization techniques to rank your website in Google search results.
• Conduct a thorough analysis of your industry and competitors before developing your website. Understand the trends that your potential customers are leaning towards.
• Follow your customers through the sales funnel and make decisions based on the observations.
• Hire a web development agency to never miss out on major details like SEO, website security, and rules compliance.

Final thoughts 

If you want to make people interested in your business, it is crucial that you provide them with enough points of contact for them to establish your brand as trustworthy in their minds.  

A well-designed website is a start to that. Your website is your digital visiting card that will convert users into customers. 

So if you are wondering where to start in the digital world, developing a website for your business is the first step. Lucky for you, Netclues is here to guide you with what lies ahead.