Make Your Website Work for You
Having a website is so essential to stay known and relevant today, especially with growing competition from many other businesses. With that said, creating a website is not as easy or straightforward as it sounds since you have to make sure it is designed well and appeals to potential customers. You cannot whip up a website in a few minutes and expect it to generate amazing results--you have to plan each aspect carefully and think about web design, platform, content, and other things.
Your business website does so much more than act as a digital flyer. With the Internet being a huge source of information today, it is clear that sites are the first place that consumers look at to get to know more about a company. As such, you have to make sure you leave a good first impression from the start and give them the information they need. Without the right components and elements, you cannot achieve the purpose or reap the benefits of a well-designed site.
To help you out, here are six essential elements that every website should have. With these, you will be able to increase your company’s growth potential and gain more customers.
Homepage
You may be familiar with the idea that users have extremely short attention spans, which means you have to get them interested in a matter of seconds. As such, your website should have a homepage that clearly states what your company does and why the user should continue looking. To be more precise, you need to capture the user’s attention within five seconds through eye-catching images, attention-grabbing headlines, and the like.
This idea stems from the five-second test , a usability test that shows you what users think about a web page after seeing it for five seconds. You have to deliver an impactful visitor experience within that short time to get them interested in what you offer. In that timeframe, they should understand exactly what you do and how you can help them.
Calls to Action
A call to action (CTA) refers to a statement that guides users and prompts them to perform a specific action.
This usually comes in the form of a button attached with a hyperlink, along with texts like “Get Started,” “Sign Up Now,” or “Try It for Free for x Days.” CTAs can vary in form based on what you are trying to achieve, but their overall goal is to guide your site’s visitors in their journey and direct them with the next steps to take.
If you do email marketing, providing an opt-in with a high value “gift” is an essential CTA to help you grow your list.
Contact Information
Users who visit your website may have questions or concerns about what you offer, so you have to be ready with the pertinent contact information. Dedicate a page that outlines contact details that customers can use, or design the page so that users can send a query immediately by filling in a few fields. Make sure this page is easy to find, so customers do not have to go through such lengths to contact you.
If you accept calendar appointments, embed your calendar on this page as well, so they don’t have to click off of your site to book with you.
About Us
One of the strengths of a website is having the chance to tell your story to promote your brand. Create an “About Us” or “About the Company” page to give a general overview of what the company does and how it started. This section helps customers understand what you have to offer and learn more about your company, so they can better relate to it. Part of building your brand is telling your story and leaving a good impression, so this section will do that.
Photos play an important part here too. Having friendly, yet professional images to represent yourself and your team (no stock photos on this page!!!) begins the process of trust and likability.
Testimonials and Case Studies
Your website must have trust elements to help boost brand loyalty and encourage new users to become customers. As such, you can include testimonials or case studies based on your experience with previous clients. Testimonials refer to feedback and positive comments from satisfied customers, while case studies refer to content that highlights the success of your product or service. Case studies are particularly impactful marketing tools because they give insights on how your company can help customers.
Secure Connection and
Mobile Friendly for Google
There are several things that Google requires in order to allow your website to show up in searches. We won't go into the technical details of some, but two of these are basic and every site should have them.
First, the website should be secure, meaning there is a little lock in the URL indicating it is. If it is not, it will show as "not secure" on Google Chrome and may even be blocked. To get a secure connection, you will need an SSL certificate installed on the site.
Second, if your site does not read well on a mobile device Google will penalize the site and likely not show it in search results. Things like breaking points and text/button sizes matter. Remember, their ultimate goal is to return search results which the reader wants and many readers want to read on a website.
In summary, these are just the basic elements we recommend. Your business and niche will determine additional features and elements, depending upon your website objectives. If you would like a free consultation, reach out to us at: https://wordflirt.com/contact and we’d be happy to chat.
Did you know that we have FREE website design ($2000 value)? You can get your 1-5 page website designed for free and only pay the monthly hosting and maintenance fee of $99/month.
