Making a successful website is not a simple thing, especially now when competition is so numerous. Because of this ever-expanding online service and the saturation of your audience with this online content, the standards of quality are also much higher than they ever were in the past. Sure, opinions on what is the bare minimum may differ but the truth is that this is not that relevant. Why? Mostly because you should never aim for the bare minimum.
With that in mind and without further ado, you need to start focusing on what matters. What you want to do is make a good first impression. You also want to imply that you’re professional and serious about what you do. Overall, here are the top five features that your website needs to have to get you what you need.
- Great navigation
Proper website navigation is essential for the functioning of your website. Namely, great navigation allows a much greater website browsing experience. Apart from this, great navigation is also something that will increase the number of pages visited, as well as reduce the bounce rate. Instead of quitting your site out of frustration (for not being able to find what they need), you lead people directly where they want to be. Other than this, you also get to avoid unnecessary backtracking where you leave the page in a millisecond and have to press the back button too many times.
- Quality content
The best way to gain domain authority is to present quality content on your website. The key thing you need to understand here is that, from the perspective of authority, quality and quantity are both important. With more content, you get more material for internal linking and you earn more backlinks. Even the highest quality of content is not that effective when you have 2-3 pieces published on your entire website. People will consume your content too quickly and will lack a reason to come back. The biggest problem with producing quality content in sufficient quantity is time. The average time it takes to write a blog post is 3 hours and 55 minutes but the majority spend more time than this.
- Home page design
The landing page is the first contact that people will have with your online presence. Therefore, it can make or break your success in the digital world. According to experts in web design from Perth, it determines your bounce rate, seeing as how a poor design, lack of apparent structure or low responsiveness have the power to drive people away from your website. Also, bear in mind that a great homepage determines the credibility of your entire business. If it’s glitchy or buggy, it will send a negative message about your entire organization. After all, if you can’t do something that basic right, how can they trust you with their own money? Overall, a great home page design should always be a priority.
- CTA
The call to action is necessary to steer people in the desired direction. Namely, you want people to know what they should click on next. First, this boosts your trustworthiness on a subconscious level. Everyone has an agenda and if people are still trying to figure out what’s yours, they’re going to be quite suspicious of you. With the right CTA button, you will make this abundantly clear, which will make you straightforward about what you want. Second, choosing the right properties for a CTA button can be just as important. A red button has a greater CTR (click-through rate) than a green one. The oval CTA button is more efficient than a square one.
- Visuals and descriptions
If you’re offering products/services, chances are that you’ll need something to accompany them. We’re talking about visuals and product descriptions. This is trickier to make than you think. First of all, the right visuals are supposed to replace the concept of examining a product in your hand. Feeling its texture under your fingers may not be something that you can replicate in the digital environment but what you can do is offer 360-degrees photography, high-resolution images and more. A product description is harder to make than you think. It needs to be concise and engaging, neither of which is easy to do.
In conclusion
The functionality of your website, as well as its user-friendliness, are two key ingredients. People remember emotions, even if the topic is something that they’re not very emotional about. For instance, they may not be able to recall the design of your website but it will be quite hard for them to forget whether your website was responsive or not. Negative experience results in negative emotions, which will make them reluctant to come back. The opposite is true, as well, which is why making this investment is a great strategy.