What Should a Good Website Have - 4 Things

I'm a website designer so I know that there are a lot of things that a website could have, but should it? We get requests all the time for some pretty crazy things like; having a menu button produce a "ding" sound when you hover over it or having leaves fall to the bottom of the website just because it was the fall season. These features may be neat or cool but do they do anything to enhance how your website works?

Whether you are looking to build your first website, or if your existing website just isn't getting the traffic or leads you were hoping for, you may be wondering what should a good website have. It all boils down to these four things.

Getting found online - you could have the best website in the world with all the bells and whistles but it isn't such a good website if you can't get found online. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an absolute website must have.

This includes both on-page and off-page search engine optimization (SEO). On-page SEO consists of placing your most important keywords within the certain content elements of your actual web pages. These on-page elements include; headings, sub-headings, image tags, body content, and links.

Off-page SEO is about getting other websites to link back to your site. The key here is that they need to be quality websites linking back to yours. The more inbound links you have, the more important your site must be, therefore the higher you will rank.

Design and usability - Now that we have the search engines driving traffic to your website, you next focus is to get that traffic to stay on the site. If you have analytics installed on your site, this is measured by the bounce rate. Bounce rate is the percentage of visits that don't go to another page on the site.

According to GoRocketFuel.com, most website will have a bounce rate somewhere in the range of 26% and 70%. They go on to explain that website with a bounce rate between 26 and 40 percent is excellent, 41-55 percent is average, and 56-70 percent is higher than average. However, this all depends on the industry the website falls in.

Content - Content is one of the most important parts of any website. Without content there is nothing for your visitors to see and nothing for the search engines to crawl and index. Content is what drives visitors to your site and turns prospects into leads.

You probably already know that having a lot of content is a good thing, but these days search engines are smarter and buyers are more selective. So having quality content is the key. Provide content that is specific to your buyers making it more relevant for them, and in turn, of higher quality.

Conversions - Now that you know what it takes to drive traffic and engage your website visitors with great content, the next step is to get them to convert from a prospect into a lead. It takes a lot of effort to get the traffic coming in steadily and provide that quality content. It would be a shame to have your visitors leave without providing some information. Without their information, you will lose the opportunity to nurture your prospect until they are ready to buy. Having effective call-to-actions will help convert your prospects into leads.

The result of a successful Call to Action (CTA) is to drive a visitor to taking an action that you want them to take. Typically, CTAs are kept above the fold so visitors know where to take the next step. Effective CTAs are bigger and bolder than most of the other elements on the page and look so good people want to click on them. They should also offer something of value in exchange for your prospects information, like guides, whitepapers, eBooks, and demos.

Conclusion

The internet has changed the way we do everything and I think it's pretty safe to say that it isn't a fad and will be here for a very long time. Internet usage is growing quickly and you need to be where your potential buyers are when they come looking for what you have to offer.

A business website may be the most important factor in your marketing strategy, however, it is a lot more that just having a website. It's the integration of SEO, social media, blogging, content creation, call-to-actions and landing pages that will drive traffic to your site, turn your visitors into leads, and convert your leads into customers.

Are you still not sure what a good website should have? Give us a call at 336-684-6505 or send us an email and we'll help you review your site!