What Your Website Needs to Succeed: The Essential Elements of a Website

Certain elements of a website guarantee business success; so, if you’re building a website to showcase your brand, we give you an idea of the important elements to include.

Let’s begin by defining what makes a website successful. The website must educate and entertain users and offer valuable information so those reading it will want to return and read more. It should be easily navigable, so customers or users feel comfortable going from one part of the site to the next. Content needs to be engaging and give people the answers they’re searching for about any problems regarding the services and products the business provides.

We also look at the essential elements of a website, which include everything from attracting customers to making them loyal to your brand, creating an easy-to-use, simple website that they enjoy navigating and offering a pleasurable experience when browsing. These website elements may well convert those browsing into loyal customers who return to your website.

Know Your Audience

Before you build a website, you need to know who your audience is, and who those people are you wish to buy your products and use your services. Consider their requirements, and if you’re unsure, use market research to get a clear idea of how you can give them what they want. Ask for feedback on your site, so you can use this to customise your offerings to suit these people. Once you have this information, you can create the perfect website for your brand.

Decide What You Want to Accomplish

You will build your website according to your brand and what you plan to achieve to make this business successful. Your website design and goals should focus on a clear idea of what you want to do. Is your goal to educate prospective customers?

If this is the case, you need to produce informative content. If you are selling products, you need great images, product descriptions and a call to action (CTA) that motivate people to buy these items. Go through every step of the customer experience, and ensure you’ve provided users with the information they need to get from one step to the next.

Great CTA’s include using words like “Download now” and “Sign up today”. Have visible links to download or sign up on your pages, so that customers can just click to download or sign up, etc.

Build A Simple Website

The simpler your website is to navigate, the more likely people will use it. Ensure website navigation is smooth and intuitive so that they enjoy moving from one page to the next. Remember: keep it simple. If you over-complicate the design and clutter it, they may leave and find another similar site that is easier to use. Readers want a site where they can find information easily, purchase items and pay for them without a hassle.

With a few clicks, users should find it simple to navigate each section of your website. Don’t use too many drop-down menus, or links that may confuse.

Rule of thumb: Most websites are accessed on mobile phones, so ensure that you have responsive design, which caters for this by changing the size of pages and the content on them to the size of the device, whether it’s a laptop, tablet or mobile phone. You want the website to be easy to read, no matter which device is being used.

Content is King

Create enticing content that is educational, informative, useful and entertaining. Attract readers’ attention by writing engaging blogs and tutorials that engage them and have them returning for more. Your content should have a distinctive style and language that is consistent throughout. When it comes to illustrations, remember: a picture says it all!

Instead of lots of content, add colourful images, charts and diagrams – and use videos, which educate and entertain.

Don’t Forget to Use SEO

It’s essential to make your content SEO friendly, so anyone looking for topics related to your brand will find your website easily. Find keywords and phrases that a prospective customer would use to search online and use these in your content’s headings and body copy so that your site regularly appears in searches. This type of SEO is called ‘on-page SEO’. But there’s another kind you can also use, called ‘off-page SEO’ which uses link building and social media platforms to increase traffic to your website.

How Fast Does Your Website Load?

One of the biggest problems people have when reading online is adjusting to a website that takes a long time to load. Your website must load easily so that readers can read something on it without waiting for it to load. If your website speed is slow, they may tire of waiting and search elsewhere for information or products.

One of the things you can do to speed up your website is compress images so that they load faster. You can also ensure you update software regularly so that slow-loading times are never an issue.  There are various tools to use online to measure your website’s performance and recommend how to improve it. These include Google PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom.

Is Your Site Safe?

These days, no website is safe from cyberattacks. Secure yours so your data and visitors are safe. There are several ways to safeguard your website.

These include:

• Have an SSL certificate. This certificate provides a padlock icon that tells readers your site is secure. Ensure you only use ‘https://’ in your website address; this indicates your site is secure.
• Create a strong password and change it regularly to keep it secure. If possible use 2FA (two-factor authentication), which involves a second type of authentication required, like a pin code sent via SMS to your mobile.
• Always update your software to keep your website safe.
• If you have an online store, protect customer information. Privacy laws like GDPR also ensure your website protects itself.

Monitor Your Site’s Performance

One of the most important things to do is monitor its performance regarding how visitors behave when they visit the site. This involves finding out how many sign up for newsletters or other items you have on offer, or purchase items at your online store, read your blogs, etc. 

Various analytics tools like Google Analytics are available to monitor a site’s performance, e.g., how many views you have on a particular page, or the site; who leaves without buying or reading anything (that’s called a ‘bounce rate’); and how long people spend on your site. If you have a good idea of how people use your website, you can tell what you’re doing correctly, and what you need to work on.

Keep it Up!

You don’t only need to be careful when you create your website; it’s crucial to monitor and update it regularly. Ensure it’s secure and working correctly, and that content is always updated so that SEO is constantly updated, too. Watch out for any security issues, outdated links and content. Don’t just update existing content; add new, fresh blogs and articles so that readers have more to read, which will keep them returning.

Update software, plugins and themes regularly so your information is secure.

Conclusion

To be successful, a business website should be functional, well-designed and have excellent content. It’s crucial to make it attractive so that people enjoy visiting and want to return. Spend time perfecting it so that it stands head and shoulders above your competitors and meets your audience’s requirements. Make it secure, a joy to visit – and keep your users safe. That’s the secret to website success.

We Can Help Make Your Business Grow

One of our key focuses at maakeAcademy is to show other small businesses how to improve their sales and marketing strategies. To do this, you need to be able to identify and benchmark your company’s current performance. 

We have devised a questionnaire to help you improve your performance in Sales and Marketing while optimising your operations.

Take our 3-minute questionnaire and discover how to take your business to the next level.

Watch out for more innovative methods and blogs on how to grow your small business!