There are three things a good website does: it attracts users to the website; after a first glance or two, it gets people to stick around; and lastly, it gets people to take the action(s) that you want them to take while on the website.
Here are ten crucial elements that your website should include in order to achieve all three goals:
1. An Easy to Remember URL
You don’t want your website URL to include several dashes or numbers. Rather, having one simple and concise website address is ideal.
Since you will tell people your website address over the phone, in a video, or in marketing materials such as handbills and flyers, you want something that’s memorable and can be easily typed without any complications. Ensuring your URL is easy to recall is also why sticking with .com, .net or, in some situations, with .org is better.
2. An Aesthetically Pleasing Design
Your website needs to make a good first impression so it needs to be easy on the eyes. It’s as simple as that. You may have a brilliant product and a powerful service or value proposition but, if the website looks like it was built during the late ’90s, you’ll have a hard time attracting, gaining and converting buyers.
Modern websites now move toward minimalism and simplicity. That means being clutter-free and restricting yourself to simple fonts, colours, and graphics. Always make sure that the first thing a visitor encounters on your web page is well planned because you don’t want the new visitor to leave immediately.
3. Fast Load Time
Google announced in late 2010 that site speed would be a new signal introduced into its organic search ranking algorithm. Website speed has since then become an important part of every website audit.
Google isn’t the only reason to take the speed of your website seriously. Users just don’t have the patience to sit around waiting for websites to load. Low user interaction and slow loading pages have a clear connection.
User behaviour is also one of the factors Google takes into consideration to determine search results. You certainly ought to moderate the load time on your website. Ideally, your pages should load in less than two seconds.
According to Kissmetrics, 40% of website visitors abandon a website which takes more than 3 seconds to load. Not only will a slow website cause customers to abandon your website but Google also penalises slow loading of websites. You can test the speed of your website using the official Google app called PageSpeed Insights.
4. Quality Content
On the web, content is supreme. Without content, there is no such thing as a website. Getting quality and relevant content is essential for all websites.
If you’re creating content simply for the sake of owning it, with no specific intent, your target audience will start bouncing and it’ll be hard to get them back. To produce high-quality content, you should pay attention to how your content is structured and presented, in addition to providing simple, useful information.
5. Readability
The text on your website should be readable and easily scanned. Use charts, graphics, bullet points, and subheadings to break down large blocks of texts so that your content consumers can easily read and absorb information.
This may seem obvious but so many websites are filled with large blocks of texts that turn users off. Word usage is also crucial, you should use everyday words that people can easily understand and ensure your text flows naturally.
If you don’t have the time or expertise, hiring content writers at a trusted platform such as Copywriteroffice.com is often the best option. They are trained to write for the web and a particular target audience., making your ideas come alive.
6. Strong Brand Identity
Google’s Schmidt once referred to the internet as a cesspool but added that “brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.” Simply put, you need a strong brand identity online, not only to stand out but to survive the ever-changing landscape and thrive in the marketplace.
You should consider redesigning your website to carefully represent what you want your brand to stand for. Think carefully about your choice of colour scheme, logo, graphics and images, how much material and negative space you’re going to use, and your brand’s voice. You need all of these things to build a coherent brand identity that implicitly tells your visitors who you are and what you are stand for
Ambiguous brand identity will leave your website’s visitors unsure about your business and unwilling to respond to your messages.
7. A Blog
According to DemandMetric, companies that blog consistently generate 67% more leads on average monthly rates than companies that don’t blog.
A blog is a proven way to generate free organic search traffic and keep people coming back. Your blog should be created under your domain (something like www.yourcompany/blog) instead of off-site with a website like Blogger.com to get full Search Engine optimization value.
A blog will support your company’s marketing objectives in so many ways that not having one is hard to believe in this modern age.
Advantages of blogging include:
· Organic search traffic
· Brand visibility
· Search engine optimisation
· Communications channel for your company
· Producing content that can be shared on social media sites
· A way to establish your business as an industry expert and a way to connect with your customers.
8. Easy and Intuitive Navigation
The ability of users to easily find their way around your website may affect how long they stay on your website. Therefore, it’s critically important that users find your website easy to navigate.
An easy to understand is one of the most important things a website needs to keep its traffic. If you don’t make it easy and convenient for people to find what they are searching for, odds are they won’t stick around and sort it out themselves.
In Summary
Google will love your website and reward you with more website visits if you do the ten things listed above.
Understand that you don’t have to do them yourself, you can always outsource or hire experts to help you get them done. Remember – your website is basically a living organism that needs to be taken care of to make it function effectively and efficiently.