What Are The Essential Features Your Website Needs?

What are the Essential Features your website needs? There are certainly some features that are more important than others for an online business. While website development companies might argue over other aspects of a site, we can all agree on the importance of the features on this list to the overall success of your website.

Does your site have them all?

Essential Features your Website Needs

These aren’t in any particular order as every item on this list has value and importance to the success of your online business:

• Domain Name – It all starts at the top with your domain name. You want something easy to remember, easy to spell and that is reflective of your business and brand. For some people the domain name is the business name however you need to consider if that name is memorable, already in use, or too long and cumbersome. If so then you should consider something short and sweet that customers won’t forget.
• Logo – A great logo is memorable and can showcase your brand. It should be prominently displayed on your website. The best brands have a logo that has spanned decades with minor adjustments as the years go past. If you don’t already have a great logo you can easily update yours to something that if more effective and resonates with customers.
• Tagline – A tagline represents what your business does and should be prominently displayed at the top of your website. When you go to the Coca-Cola website you see their logo along with “Taste the feeling,” which is their well-known tagline. Is your tagline displayed front and center? Does it resonate with visitors? Is it memorable?
• Clear Navigation – Navigation is a critical component of any website and easily one of the most essential features to your success. It starts with your navigation aspects at the top of your website that allows quick and easy movement with commonly used menu location and buttons. Including breadcrumb navigation for larger sites is highly recommended as that is a more common practice users have become accustom to. You should also have clear links to other pages and features within the body of pages so people can get where they want to go without unnecessary scrolling or movement. If people can’t easily figure out how to get where they want to be they tend to get frustrated and leave.
• Contact Information – People need to know how to get a hold of you! Often a phone number and perhaps address and office hours should be displayed near the top of your website, depending on the type of business. Certainly all of your contact information should be included below the fold (at the bottom) as well because that is a common place people know to look. This should include address, email, phone numbers and available business hours.
• CTAs – Calls to action should be prominent both at the top of the page and then within the page as needed to help funnel users towards the actions your site is built around whether that is for a newsletter signup, buying an item, or scheduling an appointment.
• Primary Features – This covers the products, services, etc that your business provides. The primary features need to be featured with design elements used to highlight them in an engaging manner. After all, typically the reason someone ends up at your site is because they are interested in your primary function.
• Great Content – There is no room for bad content on a site. You need engaging, interesting copy on every page that describes your products or services, answers questions, and provides useful information.
• Testimonials – Testimonials or reviews are another essential component to website success. Social proof is a powerful thing and when potential customers see feedback from current or previous customers it can help them make a decision about moving forward. You can use text or video reviews to help convey messages, just make sure the reviews are real.
• Social Media Buttons – You should always include links to the company’s social media pages to encourage multi-platform interaction with your customers.

Are there other features your website could have? Of course there are because every business is unique and certain industries will have items others won’t need.

However the bottom line is that these are the essential features your website needs if you want to ensure that it can properly do the job you expect it to with your customers. This list covers the who, what, where, when, why and how questions visitors will have about you and your business while also ensuring they know where to go and what to do next after landing on your virtual doorstep.

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