Essential Website Elements: How Not To Miss a Single Thing
One of the most important things to consider when creating your website is what features you need to include. Although you can put or not put everything you wish, there are certain essential elements you cannot go further without. To make it easier for you, we have put together a list.
(See also: How to create your own website in three easy steps.)
A distinguishable headline
A headline is perhaps one of the first elements to put on your website. It gives your visitors a clear idea of who you are, what is your website about and what you offer. Like in a book or a news story, nobody will read the full content if the headline is not compelling. So make those 6 to 12 words count!
An easy to use navigation menu
Nowadays, websites usually consist of multiple pages and subpages. To guarantee that all of them are easily findable by your visitors, you need to make sure that you have an easy to use navigation menu. The best practice is to put it in your webpage header so everybody could see it easily. Another important thing to consider is the order of the items in your menu. Think of the most logical way to order your pages. For example, if you have a page named “Products” and a separate page named “Services”, put them next to each other.
“Call-to-action” (CTA)
Every website needs an effective “call-to-action”. A CTA is a objective you want your visitors to complete when they land on your page. CTAs have a lot of different forms. For example, it can be a button named “Sign up”, “Learn more” or “Get started”. One of the most important tasks is to pick the right CTA that will be most effective in converting your traffic into sales. Simply think of what you can offer your visitors that they cannot find anywhere else and make it as appealing as possible.
Contact and “About us” information
No matter if you are creating a personal or a business website, it is strongly recommended that you include information about yourself and/or your business, as well as to provide contact details. The most obvious reason to that is to give your customers and visitors an opportunity to get in touch with you. But the other big reason to include such information is trust. For example, telling your story to your visitors will create a human face of your business and will make them less reluctant to become your customers.
Social media buttons
Social media is a big deal nowadays and everybody knows it. Make sure your business have a good presence in social media and include links to your profiles on your website. There is no strict place on your page where to put those buttons, but if you want to make them more visible, you can place them on your header or your left or right sidebar. Obviously, the least visible part is the footer of your webpage. Putting links to your social media profiles is not the only thing to do in order to optimize the social presence of your business. You can also include social sharing buttons that will allow visitors to share your content from their profiles.
Quality images
You will most certainly agree that a website without images just does not look finished. It’s essential to include images that are relevant to the topic of your website. This way you will guarantee that your content is more visually appealing. Another important thing is to optimize your images as larger the larger their size is, the slower your pages will load.
Quality content
OK, let’s assume that you have created a stunning website in terms of design. Now you will want to make it as popular as possible. The best and the cheapest way to do it is by producing quality content that will be appreciated by your visitors and they will spread the word. “Content is King” – this is one of the modern phrases among SEO enthusiasts and internet marketers. The better the content of your website, the higher you will rank.
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