Before you start to sell your products or services, you need a website. A website is the foundation for any business, regardless of its size. Running a business without a website is unprofessional and calls your credibility into question. When users come across your business name, they would prefer to visit your website to learn about yourself. In case they do not find any website of yours, they will simply consider you bogus and leave it away.
However, there are many websites that are not functional and attractive at all. They are all badly missing user experience. Your website should be attractive and easy to navigate to enhance the experience of your users. They should be able to get all the information that they want to get quickly without further ado. Here are the essential features that you should add to your business website.
- User experience
This is the most essential thing that you cannot ignore. At the time of creating a website, you should step into the shoes of a customer and ask yourself if the design you have proposed is engaging. Will your customers admire it? Will they be able to navigate from one page to another? Are they able to get information about your products and services quickly? Have you highlighted a call-to-action at the right place?
Once you have built your website, you should go through it and check if it has appeal. Does it look good? Is it compatible with mobile? Does it run fast? You should focus on all the factors that influence engagement. If your website lacks an engagement factor, you will not be able to rank in search results. Your visitors will face difficulty getting information, which will result in an increased bounce rate.
- A clear call-to-action
A call-to-action is another essential feature that should be on your website. It must be clearly visible so your users can easily place an order. A call-to-action should be displayed on every page, and each page has multiple call-to-actions so a user does not have to scroll up and down all the way. However, it does not mean you will flood a webpage with call-to-actions. Try to present them in different ways so it does not sound repeated.
- A website design
A website design cannot be ignored if you want to show up in the top search results. A good design makes your website appealing and increases engagement as well. There is no doubt that it is Google that introduces your business to your users when a relevant query is made, but at the same time, Google analyses whether users are interacting with your business. If it is discovered that people do not bother to visit your website or if they quickly close it, Google will push you down in the competition.
A good website design is not just determined based on its appeal. There are a number of other factors as well. Using real and authentic images purchased from online platforms will give a generic look to your brand. Try to show you are unique and different from your competitors. It is a good idea if you have videos as well to provide information. Users prefer watching videos to reading text.
For instance, if you are a direct lender providing loans on benefits, you can create a video that highlights how your loans are better deals than other direct lenders. Use a chat button so your customers can talk to you when they want. Use pop-ups for exciting deals, offers, and information, but remember not to use them too much.
Apart from all these features, your website should be able to articulate what business you do, how you stand out, how your users can contact you, and your product or service pages with detailed information. Create a separate page for general FAQs as an attempt to answer the queries of users.
- SEO
Getting your website found in search results is not a cinch. Although paid ways can be accessed to get traffic to your website, Google prefers sites with organic traffic. SEO is a vast term. It is not simply targeting keywords and integrating them into your content. You will have to ensure all your web pages are organized.
Focus on page titles and meta descriptions. Google reads them to analyse what the page is at. Do not forget to assign tags to your images. They play a crucial role in determining the rank in search results. Ensure that your web pages load very fast. Try that they do not take more than two and a half seconds to load. Provide relevant content regularly. Update it whenever required.
- Blogs
Add a blog section to your website. Blogs are crucial to provide relevant and informative content to your users. Further, they are also essential to attract organic traffic to your website. Landing pages will consist of promotional content. You will simply be informed about the features and benefits of your products and services. However, your users would like to know information that helps solve their problems.
It is not necessary that you need to pitch them for your products or services to solve their problems. For instance, if you are a lender, you may create a blog section to help people understand budgeting, savings, investing, retirement funds, etc. You can target topics such as tips to create a budget, how to build an emergency cushion, how to choose the best lender like MyFinancialLoans and so on.
When you create a blog section, your users will more likely trust you as most of their queries will be resolved through it. It seems that the company is not just motivated by its profits, but it instead cares for its target audience.
The final word
A website will bring you business if it is appealing and user-friendly. Make sure that your website has detailed and relevant information about your products and services, a clear call-to-action, and is SEO-optimised. Apart from this, you should also focus on its design and create a blog section.