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Have you ever been on a website and felt stranded?
Maybe you were placing an order, and maybe you were looking for contact information – whatever the reason, the website left you hanging. The lesson here? Design, navigation and usability are a big deal regarding website design.
Your website is the first impression your company will make on potential customers online. Gaining the trust of your users goes hand in hand with how you design your site. If done well, your website will convert visitors into your most valuable, profitable customers. If it is lacking critical elements, however, you may be missing out on a significant amount of website traffic and potential clients. That's why it's vital to consider the most important website elements when working on the initial design and setup process.
Your web design elements matter more than you think
If you sell anything online, you need a website, especially if you run a small business. However, this is only the first step. You also need to make sure your website is designed well.
Not only does your website design play a vital role in its ranking within search engines, but it’s also significant in gaining the trust of potential customers, and ultimately – converting leads into sales.
HubSpot breaks down the top reasons customers leave a website:
- 88.5% Slow loading
- 73.1% Non-responsive website
- 61.5% Bad navigation
- 38.5% Outdated design
- 34.6% Poor content structure
- 3.8% Obtrusive use of audio/video
The takeaway: Your credibility is at stake when you’re not prioritizing the speed, layout, visuals and functionality for your website.
The solution: A focus on design and functionality could lead to more eyes and more “add-to-carts” for your company's products or services.
BBB pro tip: BBB Accredited Businesses have access to the BBB Dynamic Seal, designed with features like your rating and date of Accreditation, as well as a link to your business profile, customer reviews, and Get-A-Quote on BBB.org. Add this to your website so visitors can learn about your accomplishments and your commitment to trust.
Below are some of the most important elements of a successful company website:
5 important elements your company website needs
Your website is the face of your business and your online marketing strategy. You need a clean, professional, easy-to-navigate site that will help customers find you and drive sales in order to compete with bigger companies that have much larger budgets and more resources.
Below are some of the most important elements of a successful company website:
1. Design easy-to-use navigation
You want to steer your customers in the right direction. That’s why simple navigation is essential for your website. No one wants to be overwhelmed by complicated menus, pop-ups or link volumes. According to a survey by Clutch, 94% of consumers say that easy navigation is the most useful website feature because it allows them to find what they are looking for in a timely manner.
2. Craft easy-to-read content
Another important element of a good company website is quality content. Your written content should be easy to read and understand, and it should be targeted toward your customers’ interests.
BBB pro tip: Blogs can have a huge impact on your ROI.
Your content should also focus on answering consumers’ questions and helping them find a solution to specific problems. Big picture: This focus on transparency and responsiveness can have a huge impact on forging stronger customer relationships.
3. Optimize for mobile devices
This comes down to knowing how your customers shop and how to best accommodate them. Mobile phones and tablets account for almost 60% of traffic (Statista) for users accessing the internet. Therefore, it’s more important than ever to ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices. This means your content must be responsive, must load quickly, and the form elements must look correct on mobile screens.
4. Cut down page loading speeds
According to Lighthouse, a web app optimization tool, a mobile speed index score of 0-3.4 seconds is the sweet spot. This translates to how quickly a mobile page displays content to your users. (The lower, the better!) Having a low speed index means your users can experience your content without suffering from long load times.
The quicker your users can get the information they need, the better their user experience. This lays the groundwork for consumer confidence as you increase the likelihood for return visits and future sales.
5. Prioritize SEO
Upgrading your website should always involve an audit of your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. SEO is the process of improving your website’s visibility within search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.
To optimize your website for search engines, you need to use the right keywords and ensure that your site is correctly structured. That means understanding the importance of both on-page and off-page SEO, as well as technical SEO.
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BBB of Southern Piedmont and Western N.C. and BBB Great West + Pacific contributed to this article.