How is your website performing? When did you last update it? Many people I speak with are in the same boat, they know their website is outdated and not performing how they want it to, but they simply don’t have the budget right now to revamp it or start again.
Fear not! Below is a list of the key things that every website should have and how to ensure these are on your current website yourself. Each item is linked to a section with further explanation for you. Have a look over these, how many can you tick off?
Clear Business Description / About us Section
Have a read through your home page and about us section, or even better, get somebody who doesn’t know your business well to read it. Can they easily understand what you do just from reading these?
When people are looking on your website the key things they want to know are “can you offer what they’re looking for?”, “do you offer this in their area?” and “how can they get it?” Make sure that your home page and about us section answers these questions.
Now there are other questions, more specific to your ideal client, that may need to be answered in this section. For example, if your ideal client is typically a 36 year old mum who is eco conscious, then mentioning your businesses values of being eco-friendly, is something that you should include.
Adding your brand personality and information that is important to your ideal client will help them to recognise that this is the place for them.
Easy to Navigate / User Friendly
Think about your visitors’ journey on your website, can they easily navigate around to any different section no matter what page they are currently on.
Don’t forget that your visitors won’t always land on your home page first, it could be a blog post or a case study, so it’s really important that they can navigate easily from all of those pages to other parts of your website.
By making sure your website is user friendly and easy to navigate will make it simply easier for them to stick around and explore. Don’t forget to check links and buttons are functioning correctly, if you have dead links or buttons that don’t work your visitors will get frustrated and simply leave for a different website that does work better.
Clear Call to Actions
What actions do you want your visitors to take when on your website? This will differ depending on what page your visitor is on.
For example, if a visitor is on a page that is all about how the fitness industry is changing and outdoor training is more popular, you may want a button that directs them to your outdoor sessions info page and from that you might want a book now button that enables them to email you or book via an online app. Or if you have a page that describes your latest how to guide, you would want a call to action that will enable your visitors to download that guide.
A call to action doesn’t have to be a buy now link or button, it just has to be an action that you would like them to take next, which in turn will help them to navigate around your website and then ultimately contact you or buy through your website.
Customer Testimonials/Reviews
This is a biggy! People trust other people; word of mouth will always be your best tool when it comes to sales.
Service or product, B2B or B2C, it doesn’t matter, displaying genuine reviews or testimonials will always help to build trust with your visitors.
There are a number of ways you can do this, you can integrate third party review sites like Google or Facebook Reviews. You can ask clients to provide you with a couple of sentences and add it to you review page alongside their name and/or company. If you’re a visual business include a picture, ask your customers to send you a picture with their review/testimonial.
There are so many different ways you can display your reviews, you can be as creative as you want, or you can keep it simple, as long as you include them on your website. Also think about where to display them logically based on the page your visitor is on.
Fresh Good Quality Content
Keep updating your website, so many businesses fall into the trap of getting a website that works well, but then they don’t do anything with it. All websites are work-in-progresses, they need constant monitoring, updating and tweaking.
This will help with your rankings on search engines, as regular updated content that is good quality, will get better reactions and therefore trigger search engines to recognise it as that and start moving you up the search ranks.
Simple URL/Web Address
This is pretty self-explanatory, the url to your website needs to have your business name in it and it needs to be short and simple to use. Nobody is going to remember a web address that is really long and complex. Keep it as short and straight forward as possible.
Easy to Find Contact Info
This is another straightforward one. Where are your contact details displayed on your website? Are they hidden within a menu or within specific pages on your website?
A general rule of thumb is to always include contact details in your header or footer, that way a visitor can always contact you from every page on your website. You can still also include contact buttons and other contact details on specific pages as well.
Don’t fall into the trap of only offering one way to communicate with you as well. Make sure you have multiple ways of contacting you including phone number, email address, contact form and an address (if you are a business that can be physically visited).
The main focus is to make it as easy as possible for a visitor to contact you from wherever they are on your website on their terms.
A Secure Hosting Platform
Data protection and hacking are hot topics at the moment and extremely important for your business to stay on top of. Using a secure and trustworthy hosting platform is vital, not only from a data protection perspective but also to ensure that your content stays secure and your website stays up and running.
Basic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
You can have a great website but if no-one can find it then it will never perform well. SEO doesn’t have to be a mystery, stick to the basics for now to ensure you start to build your websites reputation up in the search engines eyes.
Use relevant keywords in your content
Use links correctly both internal and external
Make sure your pages have appropriate Title Names and URLs
Include alternative text for photos and videos
I hope you find these tips useful for your website. Why not drop me a comment below and let me know if it helped you. Or if you have any other things you have found instrumental to your website please feel free to share them in the comments.