Five Things Every Website Needs
Blue Jones
Your website really matters. It can grow your business, enhance your professionalism, and create trust with supporters and clients, so it’s important to make sure your website is as well put together as possible.
To help, here’s a list of 5 things every website needs:
1. A Strong About Page
It seems that one of the most difficult and daunting tasks for a website owner is writing a strong About page. Your About page gives you the opportunity to connect with website visitors and let them know what you and your services can do for them. If you mess this up, you can really miss out on gaining new viewers or clients.
Based on what I have researched on how to write an about us page that rocks[1], the most important thing to keep in mind when writing your About page is that it isn’t really about your story but your brand’s story. Let the viewers know who you can be while working with them, and show them why they should be your client.
However, even though your About page isn’t really about you, you’d still want to make that connection with your visitor and share your personality with them, so some ways you could do this is by including elements like personal pictures, a short story on why you started your business, and an explanation of your brand’s beliefs and values, etc.
By making sure that your About page is about your brand, writing it will become a lot easier, and in the end, it will, most likely, be better received by your website’s visitors.
If you want to go more into depth about it, I recommend watching any of these videos:
● About Us Page: How to Make the Perfect About Us Page
● About Us Page Examples — & How to Create Yours
● How to Share Your Brand’s Story On Your “About” Page
2. A Clear Call to Action
The main reason anyone would make a website is most likely so they can get their visitors to do something like purchase a service, contact you, or share posts on social media. When you set out to do this, you are calling your website’s visitors to action. However, not everyone has the same goals as you, so you have to make sure to be clear on what they are when making that call to action, so your target audience can identify with your content and be drawn in by your website’s goal. If you are not clear, no one will care for your website’s content.
While researching how to create the perfect call-to-action[2], I found that it is best to try and not confuse your visitors and make sure that they completely understand what your website is for. Also, tell them the reasons why they should follow your call to action, and altogether, again, just be clear on what that call to action is.
3. An Easy Navigation
One of the most important parts of creating a website is having easy navigation. If your website doesn’t have easy navigation, visitors might immediately leave due to frustration with not having a clear path to take while exploring your website. You want to make your website’s visitors feel like they can find what they want from your website with little to no effort.
After investigating why navigation is so important on your website[3], I came to the conclusion that in order to make your website’s navigation easy to use for visitors, you have to keep everything well-organized.
You can make your navigation well-organized by having:
- Simple menus
- Internal links
- A sidebar
Also, keep in mind that most people use mobile devices, so you should make sure that your navigation is most easy to use on your mobile site, and again, just make sure everything is well-organized.
4. Quality Content
Your content is what illustrates your services to your website’s visitors, so it’s important that this content is quality.
When writing content, you should try to make sure that it’s relevant and useful content, and you should always write with a clear purpose. Don’t just write for the sake of writing, or your viewers will probably get bored and forget about your website.
I’ve found that in order to write quality content for your website[4], you should make sure your content is well organized and aesthetically pleasing. You can keep your content organized with lists, good visuals, and bolded headings. These all also help with making it easier for visitors to skim and look over your content.
Altogether, if you keep all this information in mind, you will be able to create quality content.
5. An Easy Way To Find Your Contact Information
Making it so your website’s visitors can contact you is probably the simplest way to get people engaged with your website’s services, so of course, you want visitors to be able to find your contact information easily.
To avoid having your website’s visitors not be able to find your contact information, you should put it in multiple areas and not just in one section of your website. Having your contact information in multiple areas doesn’t just help your visitors find it, but it also shows your visitors that you are interested in starting a conversation.
However, when it comes to figuring out exactly where to put your contact information[5], I discovered, after researching, that the best places to have it would be:
- The main menu/The navigation
- The product page
- The details page
- The contact page
- The footer of the page
By having your contact information sprinkled throughout your website, visitors will be able to find your contact information easily, and visitors will most likely become more engaged with your website’s services.
To have your website be as well put together as possible you should have a clear call to action, an easy navigation, a strong about page, quality content, and an easy way to find your contact information. These are the 5 things every website needs.
Sources
[1] “How to Write An About Us Page That Rocks – Tips & Examples ….” 18 Jun. 2020, https://www.printful.com/blog/how-to-write-an-about-us-page/. Accessed 13 Nov. 2020.
[2] “How to Create The Perfect Call-to-Action – Neil Patel.” https://neilpatel.com/blog/how-to-create-the-perfect-call-to-action/. Accessed 13 Nov. 2020.
[3] “Why Navigation is So Important on Your Website – Solo Web ….” https://solowebsolutions.com/navigation-so-important/. Accessed 13 Nov. 2020.
[4] “How to Write Quality Content for Your Website – Websites 360.” https://www.websites360.com/blog/how-to-write-quality-content-for-your-website-website-content-101. Accessed 13 Nov. 2020.
[5] “Contact info: how, what and where? | AGConsult.” https://www.agconsult.com/en/usability-blog/contact-info-how-what-and-where/. Accessed 13 Nov. 2020.
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