When it comes to your online presence, your website is the ultimate signature of your company. Since you have complete control over every element of your website, this is the perfect way to illustrate what sets you apart from your competitors and sometimes show a bit of your company’s personality, too. However, there are certain elements that should be present on every single website, regardless of the company that it represents.
- A memorable URL
No matter what your business, your URL should be short, sweet and easy to remember. Your URL should relate closely to your business and separate you from competitors without being overly complicated. For example, our domain name is simply our business name – movingtargets.com. Even though movingtargetsmarketingperkasie.com would also be an accurate URL for our business, it is significantly longer, harder to remember and could potentially cause spelling issues for users (is it Perkasie or Perksie?).Check out GoDaddy’s list of 10 tips for choosing the perfect domain name for more tips on how to get the perfect URL for your website.
- Clear navigation
Once visitors have made it to your website, where do they go? Make sure there is a clear user journey that will funnel your traffic through relevant pages to convert them into leads. Your menu should be easy to move through no matter what device your user is on – desktop, tablet or mobile device.You should also be wary of including too many items in your navigation. A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is 7 total links in your navigation – although the less you have, the more attention that each link will get. If you have more than 7 pages, you should group subpages into relevant categories to make it easy for your users to find the information that they’re looking for.
- A clear call to action
Along the same lines – once you’ve got a visitor, what do you want them to do? This answer will inform every decision you make about your website. You may want your users to download a tips sheet, call your business or fill out a form for more information. This may even change depending on the page the user is looking at, the device they are using to visit your site or countless other factors.No matter what your goal is, it is absolutely critical that the corresponding call to action stands out. If it’s a button, make sure that it doesn’t blend in too closely with the other colors on your website and that it is big enough to notice and click on easily.
- SEO-friendly copy and images
One of the most important things you can do for your website is to optimize every page for search engines. This means having content (text and images) that can easily be read by bots to determine how relevant they are to various keywords related to your business.But wait – you might say – how can a bot “read” an image?
Every image on your site should be tagged with something called an alt tag – a short description of the image that is about 125 characters. Without this, search engines and visitors using screen readers won’t be able to tell what the image is of, a problem that could have larger consequences than just bad ranking.
We could write a whole article about writing copy for SEO – keep an eye out for one coming soon – but at the end of the day, the most important thing is to have relevant engaging content. When it comes to word count, there isn’t a hard and fast number of words that need to be on the page to get a high ranking on search engines. Some sources say 600-700 words per page, some insist that you have to have over 1,000 to make a difference. At the very least you should have a minimum of 300 words per page.
- Something to keep visitors coming back
It’s always a good idea to keep updating the content on your site to have fresh, new things that will keep users coming back. Depending on your business, this may be a blog, coupons/special offers, or new products. Whatever you choose, make sure that this is updated on a regular basis to keep your visitors coming back (this will also help with your SEO!). - Ways to contact the business
Good job! Your website did a great job explaining why your business is the perfect fit for your user! They’re ready to contact you to make a purchase – but wait, how are they going to get in touch with you? Make sure your business’s contact information (phone number, email address, contact form, submit a quote form, etc.) is easy to find and use to turn those visits in to real leads.
Does your business website check off all of these boxes? If not, contact us today and ask about our quick website options that can get your business online in as little as 3-5 business days.
