Whether you are operating a website on behalf of a business, brand or yourself, implementing the right balance of aesthetics, technical design and valuable content is crucial. In order to be seen – much less enjoyed – by countless visitors, subscribers and customers, a website must be both effective and appealing.
Every website needs a few elements in order to be successful. With so much competition these days, it’s important to optimize your website for performance in your niche. Whether you’re selling products, services or merely trying to build a loyal audience for persuasion, you want to be sure that the following seven elements are present!
Functional Design
Above all else, the first impression people get of your website will determine whether or not they become loyal visitors. A high bounce rate can also reduce your search engine ranks, so make sure that when visitors land on your site, they stay!
Implementing an aesthetically-pleasing, functional design is paramount to success. With countless templates and themes available, it is relatively easy to find a design that incorporates all of the design wishes and functional needs you want for your website.
If you can’t find something out-of-the-box that works for your needs, then enlisting the services of a professional design firm is the next step.
Calls to Action
It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling a product, providing some insight or offering assistance: every website serves a purpose. Whatever your website may be aiming to provide, you absolutely need to feature multiple calls to action throughout each page.
Whatever you wish people to do while visiting your site, find a way to implore those visitors to act.
For some, it may be subscribing to a newsletter. For others, it can be convincing them to purchase a new product. Regardless of the motivation, the use of calls to action on your homepage – and the creation of separate landing pages for specific promotions – is an absolutely vital element of any website.
3 Resources To Check Out:
21 Call To Action Examples From Crazy Egg
31 Call To Action Examples From Hubspot
11 Call To Action Examples From Wordstream
Social Media Integration
One of the biggest and easiest ways to quickly gain exposure in a niche is through the use of social media. Your website must be connected to social media in a variety of ways for these benefits to manifest, so it’s important to incorporate these elements into each page and post.
From sharing options to social plug-ins for commentary, it has never been easier to add these elements.
In many cases, your design or theme will already have this integrated, but if not, there are many plug-ins and apps available that can do the hard work for you.
Easy Navigation
If somebody cannot find their way around your website, then there’s a good chance they won’t be sticking around for long. Being able to find what you need is crucial to the internet experience: the best way to ensure this is by including strong and easy-to-use navigation options.
Your menus and links should be easily accessible across both mobile and traditional devices. In addition, every page should feature multiple navigation options: from top-level menus to main page links in the footers, make sure you’re including easy access to menus on every page.
Testimonials & Case Studies
Whether you’re offering yourself as an expert in a given field or selling services to the public, giving people confidence that you are legitimate is absolutely crucial. One of the best ways to do this is by featuring testimonials or case studies on your website.
Testimonials can be done in a number of ways. You can allow individuals to submit their own reviews of products and services provided on the website, integrate review pages from sites such as Yelp via plug-ins, or simply include testimonials offered by satisfied customers.
Case Studies can be a little easier because you can write up the case study yourself + ask your client if they approve of having it used in your marketing material. A company that does this really well is Only Way Online. They display their case studies proudly on their website for prospects to get a deeper understanding about how they help their clients. Ensure you use specific stats to back up your claims as shown here.
Features and Benefits
What exactly does your website provide in terms of benefits? Considering that benefits and features are the biggest individual selling point in any consumer decision, it only makes sense to feature this information prominently. By ensuring that all of your landing pages, product pages and other vital elements include a clear and concise listing of what people stand to gain through you, more people will be ready to commit in whatever way you need them to commit.
Quality Content
Last but not least, every website needs quality content in order to be successful. Whether it’s a personal blog or a professional e-commerce hub, providing users and search engines alike with content is absolutely necessary. Not only will visitors feel more comfortable purchasing from and committing to websites that offer detailed information, but search engines will be more likely to rank your website if your content is detailed, informative and original.
Top Tip: Use Google related search to build out your blog post. Search for your primary keyword in Google, scroll down to the end of the page and see what other search terms Google suggests. Use these extra search terms as the basis for subtitles to add extra depth to your post. Google loves content which goes deep into a topic and gives specific advice.
While there are hundreds of potential considerations you need to make when building and maintaining a website, these seven elements are essential to long-term success and performance. By appealing to the natural desires and psychological proclivities of visitors, you’ll be better equipped to convert them into loyal followers and customers.
