People are getting more choosy about how much time they spend on the internet. People are becoming more concerned about the internet's impact on their life, with the average adult spending about 6 hours each day on digital media.
Companies are now competing for consumers who wish to limit their internet time. This means that companies must implement user-requested website features without sacrificing functionality.
People value content availability over current designs and features, according to our findings. People favor design features and website features that assist users in finding relevant content in general.
People desire easy navigation, beautiful design, and relevant content when they visit a website. Businesses must capitalize on the website elements that users value the most to keep audiences' interest as they spend less time online.
Essential Website Features
It can be challenging to plan new website features for your company. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but you should include a few essential website features and content categories to make it a successful marketing tool.
1. Availability of Contact Information
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Although this appears to be a basic concept, it is one of the good website features that many businesses overlook. Include the phone number you want customers to call for sales inquiries somewhere on each page, preferably at the top. Include a clickable CTA that directs visitors to your contact form or opens an email client. When it comes to forms, make sure you have easy-to-use contact and inquiry forms all around your site. You don't want visitors to have to work to contact you.
2. Create a Blog
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This is one of the most important website features. Quality content is required for all forms of digital, social, and other internet marketing. So, if you're thinking about doing any internet marketing, start with a blog. To get the most out of SEO, your blog should be listed under your domain (something like www.yourcompany/blog) rather than off-site through a service like Blogger.com. A blog may benefit your business in so many ways that you may be insane if you aren't thinking about starting one.
Benefits of these essential website features include:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- A communications channel for your business that provides content that can be shared on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter
- A means to promote your business as an industry specialist and engage with your customers.
3. Case Studies and Testimonials
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Before opting to collaborate with you, potential clients must have faith in you. Customer testimonials have the greatest effectiveness rate for content marketing, according to WebDAM Solutions, at 89 percent.
Use your website to establish credibility with clients and customers by presenting your knowledge and track record of success. A testimonials page is frequently one of the good website features of a website we build for our clients. When you do acquire testimonials, be sure you get permission to use your clients' true identities. Genuine endorsements from well-known companies and organizations are far more valuable than an anonymous comment.
If your site includes case studies, create a consistent, clear framework for explaining what problem your organization solved and the steps you took to get there. Case studies are a terrific method to show off what you've done well. Potential consumers like to see real-life instances of your work.
4. Search Engine Optimization Strategy
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Customers who are familiar with your brand can locate your website, but what about others who aren't? For website traffic and lead generation, using relevant keywords that match a searcher's intent is critical. These important website features are a part of a well-thought-out search engine optimization SEO plan.
There are some recommended practices you can use when creating these features of a website to aid your SEO strategy.
- Keep SEO in mind when writing your titles and meta descriptions, and be sure to include important keywords in both.
- Keep your URL structure simple, easy to understand, and keyword-rich.
Of course, you should include your company name on your website and in the metadata, but your company name is so prominent on your website that you'll almost certainly be found for it on Google. Instead, concentrate on broad terms that clients who are unfamiliar with your company are looking for.
5. Geographical Data
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Customers in a certain geographic area are the lifeblood of most brick-and-mortar businesses. Fortunately, most individuals specify a location while searching for a product or service. Include your location information in your SEO plan to aid in your campaign’s success and help those unfamiliar with your area find your business. For example, if you need a plumber, you might type in “plumber in Portsmouth, NH.” This is why you should provide your location in your page names, other information, and the text on your website. If you service two or three major cities, you might consider developing landing pages for each one on your website.
6. Interactive Chat
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Many individuals are lazy, and they don't want to spend time scouring a website or FAQ page for the information they require. Install a live chat option as your essential website feature to meet customers where they are and deliver the immediate feedback they require. These website features are now much more accessible to businesses of all sizes thanks to artificial intelligence. Many organizations, in fact, provide live chat as a simple CMS platform plugin. Live chat is quite useful. Kissmetrics published a paper outlining the untapped potential of live chat and why firms should use it on their websites as one of the important features of a website.
- One of the most significant benefits a website can provide, according to 44% of online shoppers, is having questions answered by a live person while making an online purchase
- 63 percent of respondents indicated they are more inclined to return to a website with live chat
- 38% told they made their purchase as a result of the conversation session
- 62 percent said they were more likely to shop on the site again
7. Photographs and Video of Your Team and Work
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Customers enjoy seeing photos. They also like it when you show that you know what you're doing. Show before and after photographs of your work if your organization offers services like landscape design, custom cabinetry, or IT cable clean-ups. If you don't have a portfolio (take some photos), you might show off your well-maintained fleet of trucks and equipment in the interim. Show images of your friendly personnel and your clean, cozy office if your service is something less tangible, such as insurance or life coaching. Include video if possible. If you don't have any of these kinds of photos, consider incorporating images of local landmarks to demonstrate your connection to the community.
8. Offer for Subscription
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Giving your site visitors the option to subscribe to your blog articles or emails is one of the terrific website features to stay updated with customers. We don't mean like a magazine or monthly gift box – giving your site visitors the option to subscribe to your blog articles or emails is a terrific approach to stay top-of-mind with customers. A subscription will allow you to communicate information about your business via email marketing while growing your email list. Add it to this list when you have information that your clients and prospects will find useful.
9. "About Us" Section
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People care about who they do business with, which is why telling your narrative and explaining why you do what you do can help you attract new clients. Your website's "About Us" section is a fantastic place to convey your company's story, discuss your objective, and layout your future goals. Consider providing information about your founders, current business leaders, and other members of your staff.
10. Social Media
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Include a part on the contact page, such as this, with icons, a website, or a section listing which social networking platforms you use as one of the important website features. Directly link to your pages so that visitors to your website can discover you fast and effortlessly.
Introducing Strikingly
Strikingly is one of the most excellent free blog platforms in the business to simplify website creation. It comes with a simple website editor and a built-in blogging platform that allows you to set up your site in as little as 30 minutes. This website builder includes a large selection of modern, mobile-responsive designs that can be customized to fit almost any topic or industry niche. The text editor is incredibly user-friendly. Simply start typing your text, add images and other graphics, and the platform will cover the formatting and heavy lifting for you. It's an excellent solution for corporate websites that want to blog for content marketing and personal portfolio websites.
Conclusion
People's preferences should be taken into account by companies considering a new website design. Companies must develop websites that offer potential website visitors’ most useful aspects because people want to spend less time online. When establishing a new design, businesses should prioritize website features that make navigation simple. Companies can build an intuitive user experience by integrating simple, responsive navigation toolbars and menus.
Businesses should combine current trends with timeless website features for an evergreen design that customers will still find trendy.
The importance of website content in engaging consumers and converting them online is undeniable. People want photos and written product descriptions, so businesses should employ design strategies to present content in a non-overwhelming manner. Although individuals aren't spending as much time online reading blogs as they once were, websites still require intelligent, relevant blog content to rank in search engine results.
Companies can enhance web traffic and conversions by prioritizing the requirements of website visitors. Listening to what people genuinely desire is all it takes.
