Essential Features of a Quality Website

By Brendan Byrne   Monday, April 8, 2019

A business that doesn’t have a strong website is likely not a very strong business. From major corporations to small local businesses, having a solid digital presence is important not only to show that the business exists, but to present its best foot forward to potential customers and clients.

The core of this digital presence is a website, whether it’s the main purchasing platform (e-commerce), or simply an informational tool. In many cases, where people go wrong with their websites is missing out on key features that users have come to expect and need.

Here are some of those necessary features.

Call to action

Perhaps the best way to start this conversation is with a call to action. Every website is made with a purpose, which is generally a conversion of some kind. For e-commerce websites, the conversion is obviously a sale. For some businesses, like a retail location, the conversion may be someone coming in and making a purchase. Other conversions may include calling the business over the phone, signing up to an email list, or downloading a whitepaper.

What all of these things have in common is that they need a call to action to get the user to actually make that conversion. Whether it’s a link to the webstore or a big “Contact Us” button, make sure that your CTA is always front and center.

Proper navigation

The more pages your site has, the more difficult it can be to navigate. This is something every business needs to think about when putting a website together.

• How many categories are you going to need for all the pages you want to have?
• Where are you going to put a menu to show all of these different pages?
• Is it worth it to implement a search bar?

All of these are questions you ideally want to answer while your website is still being made, but you can still make changes later on.

Strong web copy

So far, we’ve been mainly talking about structural pieces, but what makes that structure more powerful is strong web copy. Ideally, you want web copy to be straight to the point, while explaining what sets apart your services or product. If needed, you can put together a supplemental page with additional information. Remember not to make your web copy too long, as people may lose interest.

In addition, your web copy will be your primary opportunity to optimise for SEO.

Mobile-friendly design

Smartphones have changed the game when it comes to website designs. Smaller screens and the technical demands of these devices mean that every single website should invest in mobile-optimized or responsive design. Some of the key elements of this type of design include making sure that text is easy to read on a smaller mobile screen, as well as images and other media can properly load on all devices.

Right now, the mobile audience represents almost 50% of all web browsing, even more than that in some categories. The last thing you want to do is alienate this audience.

Companies struggle with their websites because they don’t have a professional eye to help point out areas where they can improve. To make sure your website has all the elements it needs to succeed, contact One Orange Cow. We can look through your website to determine if any of the features we’ve covered are either missing or not doing their job, then give you the guidance and support to turn your site into a key pillar of success for your business.