A website is one of the most integral parts of running a business today. This is because most people start with an online search when they have a problem and rely on the online answers they find before making any buying decisions, again online. If you’re not on the web to meet them throughout this process, you’re missing out on ample opportunities for business growth.
Despite this, many businesses have outdated or under-optimized websites that could be doing a lot more to help their work flourish. With that in mind, the following will take a look at extremely powerful features you can include on your website to help encourage business growth.
Contact Information
You might think this is a joke, but it isn’t. You’d be shocked how many websites don’t have their contact information front and center. People need to be able to immediately see how to get in contact with you. This includes:
- Phone number
- Address
- Hours of operation
- Any additional methods of communication like chat
Yes, you need a phone number and an email. People are set in their ways when it comes to communication, and they want to reach out to businesses in a way that they’re comfortable contacting people. It’s okay to have a contact form directly on your website, but this can’t be your only form of contact as many businesses don’t often check these inquiries, so it’s common for customers to not bother using them as they’ve had too many ignored attempts at contact this way.
A Blog
Don’t listen to anyone who says that blogs are outdated. Blogs are part of a stellar content marketing strategy and serve several vital purposes on business websites, but the main one is search engine optimization. When people use the internet, they’re most often searching for questions in a search box. Working in the field that you do, you probably already know the most common questions people in need of your product ask.
Each of the questions you get on a regular basis is being entered into search engines by countless potential customers. If you have blog posts that answer these questions and use the keywords that searchers use, you’ll be creating a digital magnet for people who are in need of your product or service.
If you’re unskilled or unfamiliar with keyword research or aren’t confident in your writing abilities, reach out to a professional content creator for help with this. You don’t want writing that sounds academic or robotic. You want posts that feel human, and professional copywriters, ghostwriters, and blog writers know how to accomplish this.
It’s important that you don’t use an off-site blog service. Your blog should be a part of your business’s domain. The goal is to bring traffic to your own website.
Functionality
This is another one that should go without saying, but it sadly doesn’t. Your website needs to be functional. All the links have to work. All the buttons have to work. The menu should be accessible and found in the same place on every page to make navigation easy. If you’re not sure what this means for your particular website or even if your website meets all the other criteria on this list, seek out an update checklist for your website, for example. This can help you test different elements and can prevent you from missing important aspects of functionality.
A crucial component of this is ensuring that your site functions well when viewed on a mobile device. More than half of searches happen on cell phones today, and this means that you could be losing out on half of the potential clients if you aren’t optimized for mobile.
Case Studies Or Testimonials
One of the best ways to help people take that final leap to purchasing, is to have case studies or testimonials that show people or businesses just like them benefitting from your business. If you help businesses, keep detailed records of exactly how you impact them (numbers and statistics are your friends) and convert these into case studies that potential clients can read online. You don’t always have to use the name of a business if some of your clients wish to remain anonymous. You can simply share the industry the company was in, how you helped them, and what benefits they saw from your work.
When it comes to testimonials, you need to make it practice to ask all customers for a testimonial. You can even take this to the next level and film short video testimonials. 30-second videos can be highly effective in sealing a deal because humans are pretty terrible at lying, and this means it’s usually relatively easy to sense whether someone is telling the truth or not when we see their face while they’re talking. People trust their ability to judge someone’s honesty when watching a video. But most people know that it’s easier to be dishonest in written form.
Portfolio
Similar to the idea of case studies, if you’re in a business that involves creating things, you want to showcase what you can do. Your website should include a portfolio of your best work or, ideally, several portfolios on different themes. Not only can this help people see your skills, but it can also inspire potential clients to upsell themselves and seek additional levels or products of your offerings. Be sure to showcase your work in as many formats as you can to help keep these ideas flowing in your potential client’s minds.
An Elevator Pitch
This is a simple element of a website that can make a huge difference in how often you convert traffic into customers. On the very first page, visible to everyone who goes to your website, you need a one or two-sentence elevator pitch. This is your hook, the summary of who you are, what you do, who your work helps, and how it helps them.
The above list should have given you a sense of the fundamental elements of a stellar website. If you’re unfamiliar with web design, it’s a good idea to work with a professional web designer or developer so that you can accomplish your aims with minimal code. Clean code is a massive component of how fast your pages load, and this can influence whether or not people stick around when they land on a page on your site.