The 11 Key Features of a Terrific Website

11 essentials of a successful website:

1. A Proposal That Is Concise and Clear

The average website visitor has a fleeting attention span, with most users deciding in under 10 seconds whether to leave a site or continue reading. That is precious little time to get their attention and get across who you are, what your business does, and most critically, why they ought to engage in business with you. Make sure this important information is concisely worded and clearly located on your homepage, so that it will catch and keep the visitor’s attention long enough to demonstrate your value to them.

2. Calls-to-action That Are Well Defined

When thinking about what you should have as a call-to-action on your website, you should go back to basics. Think about what you want website visitors to do when they visit your site. Write down your aims, and then make clear calls-to-action that will advance your visitors through the sales funnel to a conversion.

Some common and effective calls-to-action to think about include putting your telephone number at the top right corner of every webpage, placing your full business contact information in your website footer or in the sidebar, and adding buttons alongside core sales messages in order to steer website visitors on the correct course.

3. Measure, Test and Repeat

Is your website working for you? How do you measure how well your website is working for you? What are the areas for improvement that would increase performance? The best way to maximise conversions is to test out different variations of copy, calls-to-action and layouts and then make a comparative results driven conclusion on what works best.

The initial step is to track conversions. You may employ an official tool like Google Analytics or perhaps even keep a basic tally in a notebook of enquiries per day. Whichever method you choose, the key is to have a record of conversions and to use this to compare the ways in which alterations to your website and marketing efforts have had an impact.

If you do not know how to set up analytics reporting for your website, then your web design company should be able to undertake the installation of your tracking code.

4. Build a Connection with Your “About Us” Page

Avoid the generic, dull “About Us” page and instead use this spot as a means of differentiating your business from your competitors.

Place the focus on what it is that makes your business unique and special, or highlight things that your business does especially well, for example, include ways in which your business provides outstanding customer service.

If you choose to have a list of staff on this page, you should include information that will assist your website visitors to view your staff as real people. This will humanise your business and make your business more relatable to potential customers.

5. Content That Is Consistent and of a High Quality

Your website content is a critical facet of your marketing endeavours. Content should be of a very high standard and should be free from any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Your website content should be consistent, which helps to give potential customers a clear picture of your business and its personality.

If this all seems complicated, consider engaging a copywriter who can provide expertly written content that articulates your marketing message in a creative and engaging manner.

6. Attractive Web Design

Create a website that is a pleasant place to come to, and provides not only visual but also functional value to website visitors.

The design of your website should fit in with your overall business branding, be it colourful and bold, or corporate and slick.

Choice of colours, the layout, and design elements like menus, graphics, and buttons will all have an impact on the impression a website visitor gets of your business, and can form a strong and enduring impression of your brand.

7. A Visitor Experience That Is Intuitive

The needs and motivating factors of your customers ought to always be at the forefront of your mind when you are considering your website.

Try to anticipate the queries customers may have, and ensure that the answers are simple to locate through navigation that is straightforward and intuitive.

8. A Web Design That Is Responsive

With an ever increasing proportion of website visitors using a mobile device to view websites, including those of your competitors- you must make sure that your website looks good and works well on all screen sizes and formats.

The simplest way to achieve this is to ensure that your website is responsive, which means it will automatically scale or provide a website visitor a version that will give optimal display on their particular device.

9. A Platform That Is Stable and Secure

The platform on which you build your website will have an impact on the way that your staff and your customers will interact with the website, so it must be simple to use and must work well for both customers and staff.

Your sales and marketing team must be able to rapidly and simply add new products, content and any other resources, as well as make any alterations or add new features with little hassle or required training.

Website visitors should have a streamlined experience on your website – no delays, errors or down-time. Any such inconvenience would reflect negatively on your business.

A good tip is to search for a content management system (CMS) that is established, has a good support network, and is regularly maintained and updated by its creators. You need to be sure that in the long term, your website will be able to grow with your developing business. An experienced web design company will be able to outline to you the advantages and disadvantages of various open-source and propriety content management solutions.

10. A Post Launch Website Marketing Plan

Building a website is only one part of establishing a strong online presence for your business. To guarantee success, you will also need a robust marketing plan once you launch the website. Drawing up a marketing plan can be somewhat daunting, but the key point is to begin small and then go from there.

Your business is idiosyncratic, so do not just go with a marketing plan template. Spend some time thinking about your audience, where that audience will be sourced from online, and the types of marketing your audience will engage well with.

Building up traffic to your website takes some time and needs a commitment of maintenance once the website is live. Stick to your marketing plan to ensure the best results.

11. An Excellent Web Design Company

An excellent web design company can remove much of the stress of building a new website. The web design company will bring with it a wealth of experience and wisdom about search engine optimisation (SEO), content marketing, and visitor conversion.

Look for a web design company with a significant portfolio of (relevant) work and a team that is pleased to discuss your goals openly and will also answer any queries that you may have.

The business success of your website critically depends on making the right choices now.

Now than you have the 11 essentials of a successful website, learn how to get it found with a successful SEO strategy.