So you’re looking to revamp your business website or you’re just getting started on a new business venture. Here are 10 must-haves that you shouldn’t neglect.
A Logical Roadmap
Figuring out how you’d like your website to work is important to provide a pleasant user experience and for SEO purposes. It’s important for your website to make sense and be useful. By mapping out a website design, you’ll be able to test it out with people you know to see if it’s something customers would find useful.
Business Information
The most important part of a website is your business information. Besides your products or services, it’s what customers are looking for. Forget the thrills of a website for now. If you’re a restaurant, you should include things like your menu, contact info, directions and photos. Keep the amount of text on your website to a minimum, because users don’t want to get drowned in text. A short, powerful mission statement is enough. Any information that you think like they’ll be looking for should be added to enhance the user experience.
Contact Information
An aspect of your website that customers get frustrated with is finding your contact info. This should be a no-brainer. By having your phone number, email, address and contact form easily available, it will make a huge difference. Make sure that they’re in text form and not a photo so that customers can easily copy your information.
Navigation
A clear navigation bar is something that you shouldn’t skimp out on. Make sure you have separate sections for your products/services, contact info, FAQ, locations, etc. Include a call-to-action section as well so that users will either join your mailing list, place an order, become a member, etc.
Security
Feeling secure when browsing is imperative for customers. You should secure your website with an SSL certificate. This will give customers some ease when they’re providing any information like name, address, phone number, credit card numbers.
Social Media
If you have social media accounts, make sure that customers know this. By having clickable icons on your website for your Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. you’ll make yourself more accessible on these accounts. It will also improve your SEO and engage users.
Mobile-Friendly
With users searching on their mobile phones for local businesses, you want to make sure you have a mobile website set up so that when searching on their smartphones, customers will be able to navigate your website much easier.
FAQ
If a user has a question regarding your business, it’s more than likely others will also have that same question. If you have a section for FAQs, it makes it easier for users to get their questions answered without having to contact you. By collecting the most frequently asked questions, you can comprise clear answers for users.
Google Analytics
In order to track what’s working on your website and what’s not, you should set up a Google Analytics account. It’s completely free and is a huge advantage for your marketing team. You’ll be able to see what parts of your website need to be changed and what parts are effective.
Forget These
You shouldn’t include things that will slow your site down like music, Flash, videos that are on auto-play and anything that aren’t beneficial to user experience.