Sep 7, 2023
Having a website is crucial for businesses and brands looking to establish an online presence in today's digital world. While creating a basic website may appear simple, ensuring it has the correct set of features to engage users and support corporate goals is critical.
When designing or revamping a website, there are certain essential features that need to be considered. Here are the top 10 must-have features for any website:
A website's navigation links should make it easy for visitors to find what they need quickly. This includes having:
Cleanly labeled and logically organized main menus and submenus
Simple, text-based menus that avoid confusing icons or graphics
Consistent navigation on all pages
Easy access to main pages from any other page
Working search bar to look for specific content
Optimizing navigation enhances user experience and keeps visitors on your site longer.
With mobile internet usage now surpassing desktop, having a responsive design has become essential. A mobile-friendly website ensures the site content resizes, reflows, and rearranges fluidly to accommodate smaller screens on smartphones and tablets. Navigation also needs to work just as well when tapped on a touchscreen.
Responsive design provides equal accessibility and engagement for visitors regardless of the device they use. It lets them conveniently view and navigate the site on-the-go. If a site is not mobile-optimized, users will quickly leave out of frustration. Responsive design is vital for reaching today's primarily mobile-first audience.
Slow loading websites quickly lose visitors. That's why optimizing website speed performance is crucial. Some ways to help maximize page load times include compressing images, minimizing HTTP requests, enabling compression through gzipping, implementing browser caching of assets, and using a content delivery network (CDN).
Reducing server response times, eliminating unnecessary redirects, optimizing code, using lighter web fonts, and minimizing plugins also boost speed. Faster load times keep visitors engaged as they don't get frustrated waiting for pages to display. Quickly loaded content also improves organic search rankings since speed is a factor in Google's algorithm. Testing tools can diagnose current speed and pinpoint areas for optimization. Fast performance provides a smooth, seamless user experience.
Having prominently displayed contact information like email address, phone number and contact form on the website is essential. It enables visitors to conveniently get in touch regarding queries, feedback or business inquiries.
Display contact details on every page with clickable links
Use a contact us page with an inquiry form
List addresses of physical locations
Share contact info on social media and email signatures
Provide customer support contact details
An About Us page gives your business a human voice. Share your brand story and values to forge an emotional connection with site visitors. Clearly communicate what you do along with your unique strengths. Include team bios to help visitors get to know you better.
Maintaining a blog or resources section demonstrates your business expertise while also driving SEO value. Share guides, how-tos, industry trends, news, and actionable tips to engage visitors. Useful gated content like eBooks, whitepapers, and webinars also encourage email signups in exchange for downloads.
An active blog shows you provide ongoing and up-to-date value vs. just a static brochure site. Recurring educational content establishes your authority and keeps visitors returning. Make sure blog posts are optimized for SEO with relevant keywords. Curated resources specific to your customers' needs also adds value for site visitors beyond just your products or services alone. An engaging content section retains visitors longer.
Calls-to-action (CTAs) prompt visitors to take desired actions like downloading content or making a purchase. Include clickable CTAs across key pages guiding users along the conversion funnel. Ensure CTAs stand out visually and reflect a relevant user benefit.
Integrating social media aspects into your website design adds new venues for visitors to interact with and share your information, which can increase visibility, traffic, and conversions.
The following are some best practices for successfully incorporating social media:
Including social media share buttons on blog posts, articles, product pages, and other pages so that users can simply share material on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Displaying social media feeds on your homepage or dedicated social media pages helps highlight your overall brand activity across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, among others.
Creating social media profile widgets that allow followers to easily find and connect with your brand's social profiles from your website
Incorporating live feeds from platforms like Instagram and Pinterest to display brand imagery and infographics and increase engagement
Providing clear follow, subscribe, or contact buttons to allow visitors to connect with your brand across chosen platforms
Overall, seamlessly integrating social media engages visitors, improves visibility, and provides additional touchpoints between your website and wider social media activity.
User data protection and privacy should be top priorities. An SSL certificate encrypts sensitive information and enables secure transactions. Strong firewalls, data backups, password protection, and regular security updates safeguard the website against threats and vulnerabilities. Inform users about how you safeguard their data.
Install SSL certificate for HTTPS protocol
Incorporate reCAPTCHA to prevent bots
Encrypt stored personal data
Use authorization and access controls
Regularly update plugins and test for vulnerabilities
Integrating a website analytics tool like Google Analytics allows monitoring and optimizing the user experience based on data. Key metrics to track include traffic sources, visitor behavior flow, top landing/exit pages, conversion funnels, sales, engagement metrics like time on site, page views, bounce rates and more.
Analyzing the user journey provides insights into pain points and conversion bottlenecks. A/B testing landing pages, calls to action, content can help improve results. Tracking ROI attributable to marketing campaigns also determines effectiveness. With analytics, every aspect of the website can be measured, analyzed, and optimized. The learnings inform data-driven decisions to boost conversions and achieve business KPIs.
When deciding what features a website should have, keep these vital components in mind. A successful website is built on a user-friendly navigation system, responsive design, rapid loading speed, high-quality content, and mobile optimization. Including contact information, search features, and social network integration further improves user engagement. Implementing strong security measures and utilizing analytics and SEO technologies will keep your website safe and competitive.
By combining these must-have qualities into a website, you can create a digital place that not only attracts but also retains visitors. Remember that your website is often your audience's initial point of contact, so investing in these important elements is a prudent investment that can reap considerable rewards for your online presence and commercial success.
Use clear menu labeling, minimize menu levels, organize logically, add site search, implement breadcrumbs, use sitemaps, and test navigation with users.
Optimize navigation, speed, and responsive design while crafting scannable content, adding alt text, using large buttons, and ensuring seamless checkout.
Home, About Us, Contact, Services/Products, Pricing, FAQ, Blog, Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, plus landing and account pages.
Use benefit-driven language, make highly visible, use action verbs, limit to one CTA per page, place above the fold and in sidebars.
Compress images, enable caching, minimize redirects, optimize code, use a CDN, reduce server response time, limit plugins, and regularly test speed.
To track traffic, behavior, conversions, sales, engagement, speed, and other metrics to optimize user experience and ROI.
Use relevant keywords, quality backlinks, fast speed, compelling meta descriptions, alt text, sitemaps, and schema markup to improve search rankings.
SSL certificate, firewalls, backups, password protection, data encryption, captchas, software updates, and compliance with standards.
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