Table of Contents
A modern business, local or global, needs to have a website. Simple as that. Fail to launch an online presentation and build an online presence and you might as well close up shop. At the very least, you will have wasted a huge potential and limited your company’s chance of success in a competitive marketplace. Needless to say, you shouldn’t allow this to happen under any circumstance.
That said, simply having a website doesn’t cut it anymore, as the modern online customer is looking for websites with impeccable, responsive designs, intuitive navigation, and of course, compelling copy that will inspire them to connect with a brand on a deeper level. Here are the six elements of a successful website that will help you achieve all of this and more.
A clear value proposition
The average attention span is diminishing with each passing year, which means that you will either grab the visitor’s attention within the first fifteen seconds, or lose them to your competitors. Without a doubt, this is an extremely small timeframe you’re working with, so you need to make every second count.
The key here is to send a clear message from the moment someone lands on your homepage. In the first ten seconds, your visitor needs to find out what your company is about and why you’re different than the rest. This begs the need for you to create a strong value proposition. You can achieve this efficiently by including a descriptive photo or video on the homepage that further explains what you’re all about.
Technical, on-page, and off-page SEO
Search engine optimization has become one of the most important pieces of a high-performing website in recent years, and while your site should be user-oriented first and foremost, you should also put high emphasis on SEO elements to further boost your visibility in the online world. The majority of your SEO efforts will take place behind the scenes, in the coding phases of your website development.
This process is called technical SEO, and it simply constitutes the backend optimization of your website for search engine crawlers so that they can index your site and rank it accordingly. On the other hand, on-page SEO means that you have to implement keywords on every page of your website to boost ranking, while off-page SEO refers to links and website promotion methods. Make sure you’re covered on all three fronts.
Transparent terms of engagement
Terms of engagement has more to do with the owner of the website and their legal team than the developers of the website, but it’s nonetheless a vital part of a successful online presentation. Unfortunately, not many entrepreneurs consider these legal matters with the level of importance they deserve.
Quite simply, you need to have your terms of use, privacy policy, and your legal binding contract templates clearly laid out on a separate page of your website so that your potential clients, customers, and employees can inform themselves on the legal aspects of doing business with your brand. It’s a valuable addition that will elevate the trustworthiness of a website and its level of authority in the industry. Always keep in mind that the more information you provide on your site, the less effort the visitor will have to put in, resulting in higher engagement, satisfaction, and retention rate.
An appealing visual design
It should go without saying that a modern, sleek, and aesthetic website has a much higher chance of capturing the attention of the visitor. Not only that, but aesthetically-pleasing websites have been linked with higher trustworthiness and credibility, so all the more reason to update your current look or build a website from scratch.
If you want to appeal to the modern online audience, you should opt for a clean, transparent look with plenty of white space and a simple color scheme comprising a base hue and an accent hue, simple as that. Make sure that the images are properly scaled and the overall design complements navigation and UX as a whole.
A content management system
The platform you choose to build your site on should have an integrated content management system, or CMS for short. This software will prove instrumental in your efforts to manage and run a contemporary website that has no broken links, no faulty metadata, and no disorganized content. WordPress is the most popular CMS platform on the web, and it’s a good starting place for novice entrepreneurs, as you can learn the ins and outs easily and manage content on your website in an efficient and effective way.
Optimized for speed and mobile
Finally, if you want your website to stay competitive in the years to come, you will need to optimize it for mobile. With global audiences increasingly consuming online content on the go via smartphones and other handheld devices, it only stands to reason that you should optimize your site’s UX and UI for the best mobile browsing experience possible. It will mean the difference between higher traffic and brand recognition, and a deserted website in near future.
In conclusion
The future of global communication, information sharing, and commerce is in the digital realm. Everyone knows it, which is why more than 380 websites are created every minute around the world. In order to separate your site from this kind of noise and content overload, you will implement these elements into the foundation of your online presence.
