Whether you’re already running a business want to revamp your website or you’re starting up fresh, there are specific features that you need to have on your business website to ensure that your customers are getting the best possible user experience.
Website Features You MUST Have
Most of them are small things that might be overlooked or you might not even think about. Others are major must-haves that you’ll already have in place but could do them wrong. Read this guide below to learn more about the features you have to have on your website.
Engaging Home Page
While not every customer or user will enter your website through the front door (i.e. the home page) it’s important to make sure that your home page is engaging. Those who do land on the home page first will want to see something right away that stands out to them and is pleasing to the eyes.
Keep your home page engaging with images that catch the eye, vibrant colors (if appropriate for your brand), and even videos. The longer somebody stays on your home page looking at an image or watching a video, the more likely they are to look deeper into what you’ve got.
Top Navigation
The top navigation bar is a feature that defaults in place unless you decide you want to turn it off for some reason. It will show the web pages on your site and makes for an easy way for users to get to where they want to be. It can also be a good way to ensure that you’re guiding customers to where you want them to be.
While the navigation bar itself is important, it’s a good idea to make sure that it doesn’t disappear when users scroll down the page. If they scroll down the page, then have to go back up to navigate to another page, they might just hit back on their browser and leave your site for good.
You can change a setting on your navigation bar that sets it to remain at the top of the window even while scrolling. This is called a “sticky navigation” because it sticks to the top of the window no matter what. Sometimes this feature will make the navigation bar smaller so it takes up less of the screen, other times it will remain its original size.
Accessible Contact Info
It should be easy for customers to get a hold of you. Regardless of whether you provide a service or sell a product. Accessibility can be your best ability in business so you should always try to make it easy for customers to reach you.
Your contact information page should include a contact form that automates an email to you and your business phone number. You can also include your email address so customers can message you directly. If you operate out of a physical location, include your address and a map to show your exact location.
About Page
Let people know who you are. Create an About page that shares the story of how your business started, what your motivation was for starting such a business, and other little tidbits about you and your company.
Give your customers something to latch onto about your business. If they can make a personal connection with you on some level they’re not only more likely to buy from you the first time they visit your website, they might become a life-long customer.
In addition to adding information about your business itself, your About page is a great place to put your phone number, address, email address, your business hours, and even a map of your location. Of course, you can put all of this on a contact page, but it doesn’t hurt to have some of that information readily available on other pages as well.
Subscriber Forms
Put forms on your website where your customers can subscribe to an email list. It’s a great practice to send emails to your customers and prospective customers periodically as you can keep your brand in front of them by simply seeing an email.
Even if you don’t send out a regular email, you can still encourage users to subscribe to your mailing list. Keep this on hand and it will eventually be useful should you decide you want to send out product launch announcements, discount codes, or any other communication.
Blog
There are many great ways to drive traffic to our website but few are better than a blog. You can use blog posts as a way to show your customers that you know what you’re talking about when it comes to the products or services that you’re selling.
Beyond that, you can make the interior pages of your website more appealing by avoiding massive blocks of text. Instead, you can refer users to your blog to learn more about what you sell and why it’s different than your competitor.
CTA
Always, always, always have a call to action on your website. Think of it this way, the people who visit your business website are guests on a journey to learn about your company. They’re often going with the flow of traffic wherever they’re guided, much like a lazy river.
If you don’t tell them where to go or what to do, they might not ever figure it out for themselves. Come up with something short, concise, and easily performed. Phrases like “Get in touch,” “Schedule an appointment,” “Call now”, or “Buy now” if you do merchandising are great ways to get the attention of your customers.
