6 Things A Modern Website Needs
Having a website for your business in 2021 is pretty critical. Online and digital marketing is big business, and if you don’t have an online presence, you can forget about being seen. Just having a website, though, isn’t enough. You need to have a good website that actually performs in the way you want it to.
To get a website that is functional and works for your business, you’ll need to be prepared for some upfront costs. A site that looks great and is user-friendly is not free. Then again, neither are rent, electricity, and other business expenses!
Does your website have everything it needs?
While the old saying “You can’t judge a book by its cover” still holds true for websites, it’s important to have an appealing design that improves a user’s experience. Without all that, you can’t expect people to stick around for long. It’s not just the design of your site that counts either; here are six things your 2021 website really needs in order to make a big impact!
Make It Engaging
How do you engage with customers on your website? Do you have a blog? Do you use social media? If so, how often do you update your social media and blog? You should be updating these continually, at least once per week, if not every day.
Not only does it help to keep your target audience engaged with your business, but it also adds extra layers of information for the search engines. They will see more and more fresh content that will help to boost your rankings!
Having added features like blogs, forums, or other interactive tools like a live chat feature can really make a difference in how people perceive your site. It might take some extra work on your part to find the time for these things, but they are well worth it in the long run. In fact, having a live chat client is increasingly more important for websites and customers if you want to close a sale. You can answer questions quickly, even if there is no team member directly available to help them at the time, which means you have more chance of making a sale. Therefore, it is an important feature to include, and you should learn how to include this. This article from JivoChat goes into detail on the two simple methods for adding live chat to your website.
Mobile Responsive Design
Do people still use desktop computers? Yes. Will they continue to do so in the future? Probably. While desktop is still important, mobile is where it’s at these days, and having a site that looks good on a small screen can help to make or break your brand online.
One of the worst things you can do is compromise your website’s design on someone’s phone, expecting them to view it on their computer when they get home. Not only does this mess up the intended design, but it also means there are fewer pages that rank for you!
If your site is not mobile-responsive right now, consider getting a new designer or developer to redesign the look and feel of your website from scratch.
Responsible Digital ProvacyPolicy
Due to the increasingly important role of customer feedback and reviews, having an easily accessible policy in place is crucial. Not only does this make sure that you are following regulations that might affect your business, but it also lets you continue to provide good customer service.
If there are any changes to your content policy, bring it to your customers’ attention as soon as possible. People don’t like surprises, and it shows that you are willing to take feedback into account.
A FAQ section is a good idea, just in case people have questions about your terms or policies that might not have been answered in the main body of the text. Be sure to keep the information up-to-date when needed!
Responsible content review practices can include a link to your site’s policy on the home page/front page of your website. This makes it very easy for people to find. If they don’t find it, add a link in a tag on every single page – there should be no excuse for anyone not seeing it.
Connection With Social Media Networks
Industry-specific sites can help you reach people in your niche, but you should also be reaching out to other industries that may be related to yours. This takes the guesswork out of targeting, and it shows that you are willing to do business and help other businesses succeed.
Being connected with other digital marketers is also important. There will always be another company out there that has a slightly better strategy than you, so staying connected within the industry will make sure your site has the best chance of ranking.
Moreover, having a few quality connections publicly available on your social media accounts will give you a good amount of free traffic each month.
Organized Search Engine Optimization Strategy
Social media and good content will get you a long way in the eyes of Google, but there is still a very important factor to consider: SEO.
Having an optimized site with an SEO strategy to match will give you the upper edge when it comes to digital marketing. Having precise information about what your target audience wants is key to being successful, and SEO can do that for your business.
Be sure that your site is set up in a way that makes it easy for search engine spiders and crawlers to determine what pages are most relevant to any given topic.
User Interface That Exceeds Expectations (UX/UI Design)
It isn’t always easy to keep up with the ever-changing direction of design software nowadays, but it’s imperative your website looks good and functions properly on all platforms. With so many websites struggling for rankings, user experience has become a top priority when developing a site. People won’t care what your site looks like if they can’t figure out how to use it.
Finding a good web designer or UI developer that is up to date on all the latest design trends and best practices will help you tremendously in this area.
In Summary
These are some things that you can do right now to help your business move forward in the future. You may already have some of these things covered, but it’s important to make sure you’re not leaving anything out when you’re planning for the future. It may seem like a daunting task at first, but once you get into a rhythm and start seeing the results, there’s no stopping!
