In today’s digital world, a professional website is one of the most crucial assets your business can have. No matter what industry you work in, how many employees you have, or when you were established, your online presence is key to attracting potential clients and customers. Without a website, you are essentially invisible in the online world. If you’re a business owner, you most likely already know this, but you may be less sure about exactly what you should include on your website in order to get the most benefit from it. To help you out, here are six features that you should definitely think about utilizing.
The importance of having a top-quality website
Before we turn to the features themselves, let’s spend a moment talking about why it’s important to have a high-quality, professional-looking website. People these days tend to search online before making almost any purchase, whether it’s booking a hotel room, making a restaurant reservation, having their hair done, or even going for coffee. That means a good WordPress website design is important for everyone”?), not only companies that sell products or services directly online (like Amazon). In fact, having a bad website can be worse than not having any website at all, so it’s vital that you put in the time, budget, and effort to get yours right.
After landing on your website, most people judge it very quickly and change their behavior accordingly. If yours is difficult to navigate, lacks key information, or looks amateurish, most visitors will go back to Google and try another company. On the other hand, if it looks professionally designed, has interesting content, and allows people to easily find what they’re looking for, they’re much more likely to decide to give you their custom.
For those who are not confident with technology and computers, don’t worry. There are plenty of options available that can help you to build a decent website by using templates and other simple tools – so you don’t have to learn how to code if you don’t want to! On the other hand, if you want to achieve a truly professional look, you might find it best to hire experts. For example, Denver digital marketing company Twelve Three Media can create an elegant and functional website for you that’s sure to impress potential customers.
Must-have features
So now that you understand a bit more about why it’s vital to have a high-quality website, it’s time to look at the sort of features you should include on yours. Depending on your industry, you might not need every single feature suggested here, but you should definitely at least consider them.
1. The basics
Whether you’re updating your existing website or creating a brand new one from scratch, the first step is to ensure that all the basic key information about your company is on it. Exactly what this is will depend on the specifics of your industry, but could cover details such as:
- Opening hours
- Geographical location
- Contact details, such as phone number and email address
- Product information
- Menus
- Details of the services you offer
- Price lists
- Delivery and returns information
Remember, you are by no means limited to these ideas – in fact, you should actively try to include much more than this. Once you’ve decided what information you need to include, make sure that it’s all presented in a clear manner and is easy for people to find. If your website is confusing, people will likely just get irritated and go elsewhere.
2. A blog
Content marketing is one of the best ways to promote your business online, and a blog is one of the most powerful tools you can utilize for this purpose. The idea is to drive traffic to your website in a natural way by providing genuinely interesting and informative articles that potential customers or clients will want to read. It’s a great opportunity to showcase your company’s expertise in your industry, give customers a glance behind the scenes, and humanize your brand.
So, for example, if you run a clothing company, you could write about the latest trends, or if you sell cosmetics, you could discuss beauty tips. This can also be a fantastic way to highlight the benefits and features of the products you sell or the services you offer without it coming across as pushy. Be sure to take your time with each post, use images to break up long passages of text, and proofread everything carefully before publishing it!
3. An email newsletter signup form
Email continues to be a very effective form of marketing, so make sure that you take advantage of it by setting up your own email mailing list. This will allow you to directly contact people with everything from special offers and discounts to information about new products and services. One of the reasons it’s such a great marketing tactic is because it specifically targets people you know have at least some interest in your company and the products or services you offer. You also have the ability to funnel people into groups receiving different emails depending on what information you have about them.
Be sure to have a signup form in a prominent location on your website to make it easy for people to join. If you’re struggling to get signups, a good tactic is to offer an incentive, such as a free eBook or 15% discount code (depending on what’s appropriate for your industry).
4. Mobile optimization
These days, more and more people are using cellphones and tablets rather than laptops or desktop computers as their primary way of accessing the internet. This means that if your website isn’t optimized for viewing on those types of devices, you’re automatically losing a lot of potential custom. There are lots of tools and tactics you can use to optimize your site, for example, choosing a responsive web design, removing Flash, and compressing images. However, if you’re not confident with this kind of tech, it can be helpful to call in the professionals to handle it!
5. Links to your socials
Whatever your personal feelings towards social media are, nowadays, it’s pretty much a prerequisite for businesses to market themselves. As such, you should make sure that you clearly link to your social media profiles from your website. Remember that you don’t have to be active on every single platform – it’s best to find out which are most popular with your target audience and then focus your efforts on just those ones. Some tactics to keep in mind include:
- Post regularly
- Focus on quality, not quantity
- Use high-quality images
- Use your own images
- Offer interesting and entertaining posts
- Be authentic and let your brand’s personality shine through
- Engage with users directly
- Run competitions and giveaways
- Promote special offers
- Highlight new products or services
- Have fun with it!
6. SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it basically refers to how easy it is for people to find your company’s website when they use a search engine such as Google. It’s an important consideration because the majority of web users never click past the first page of results. That means that if you’re not there, you’re losing potential custom. A blog is one way to improve your SEO, but you can also make it better by using keywords in a natural way, getting other authoritative websites to link to yours, ensuring that your webpages load quickly, removing broken links, and making your website as accessible as possible. Again, if this all sounds like a foreign language to you, an external agency can be a huge help!
