5 Crucial Elements that all Business Websites Must Have

How many times have you heard the phrase, “Check out our website for more information?” I’m going to suggest that the answer is on an almost daily basis. That’s because our business websites have become such a crucial part of our success and we want people to utilise them. After all, they champion our brands, promote our products and give useful information to our visitors.

However, no matter how elaborate or how simple your website, there are certain elements that it absolutely must incorporate. This checklist is obviously open to interpretation and there will undoubtedly be other aspects that you want to include, but I would definitely start with these five as a bare minimum.

A Logical Design

Stunning graphics, a plethora of multimedia wizardry and all manner of bells and whistles are great, but if your website is difficult to navigate your visitors will soon get fed up. They might even go to one of your competitor’s websites to find what they want! That’s why a logical design is an absolute must.

Websites are often designed on paper first and the layout finalised before anything else. Logically-designed websites feature easy-to-navigate menus and intuitive signposts. For example, when was the last time you visited a website that didn’t have a familiar-looking navigation bar running across the top?

Clear Contact Information

This is particularly important if your website is in addition to a bricks and mortar business. A lot of the time people visit your website with the sole purpose of finding your contact information. Therefore, it needs to be clearly displayed – even on the homepage – and not be hidden away out of sight.

You may run the risk of losing potential sales if you neglect to display your business’s contact details and offering them openly helps to build trust and stronger relationships with your customers. It’s also important to provide a range of contact options like email, telephone and physical address (if appropriate).

A Blog

A business blog (like this one) is a great way to reach out to your clients and prospects. Not only does it give you a platform on which to provide useful information, but it also gives your business a voice. And the beauty of a voice is that it helps to build an online reputation and, more importantly, a loyal following.

Moreover, your blog can even help boost your search engine rankings and by providing useful, original and engaging content, your visitors will keep coming back again and again. At the end of the day, the more followers your blog attracts the stronger your brand will become.

Social Media Integration

You will have probably lost count of the amount of times you’ve visited a website and been presented with a range of social media buttons. That’s because businesses want to boost their social media following and if you’ve visited their website then chances are you’ll like their Facebook page, start following them on Twitter or add them to your Google Plus circles.

Social media activity sends strong signals to search engines and so business websites incorporate it wherever possible. After all, by ‘liking’ a company’s Facebook page you are basically signing yourself up to receive further updates from them. It’s kind of like building a mailing list.

Mobile Compatibility

Now more than ever, people are using their smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices to access your business’s website. Therefore, it absolutely has to be mobile compatible. At the very least you need to have a bespoke mobile version of your site or a responsive design that adapts to mobile devices.

Your customers and prospects will be very disappointed if they try to use your website on their mobile devices only to find out that it’s a horrible experience. If your competitors have fully mobile compatible websites then you need to ensure that yours is at least as good, if not better.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net