Never underestimate the potential of a great website. Businesses can increase leads and sales, media publications can increase readership and non-profit organizations can increase exposure to their cause if their website is picked up in search engines and keeps readers on the page with engaging content, eye-catching images and features to boot. There are many important aspects to developing any website, but here are the 10 most important features and functionality you should consider including upon development to help boost your cause:
Mobile Website: Nearly everyone has a smart phone these days, and many people spend more time on their smart phones, as they’re on the go, than they do in front of their computer. So consider developing a mobile website in addition to your regular one. This way, it’s easier for people to navigate your site from the small screens of their phones and tablets, without having to zoom in on small wording, which could be a turn off to your services.
App: Piggybacking off the previous point, many people have smart phones, so consider developing a mobile app that your customers and clients can download to stay up to speed with everything your site has to offer. Considering including special features on your mobile app that they can’t get by accessing the website as a further means of enticing them to download your app.
Log In: To get an accurate estimate of exactly who is checking out your website, consider making people log in, or share simple information about them selves before they can access your site. This can be a turn off for some people, but if your site is good enough and worth checking out, people will still come and won’t mind revealing some of their information to log on. This could also be a great way to increase revenue with your website by selling advertising based on the types of readers that are visiting your site.
Members Only: Similar to logging on, consider developing your website so that you have to be a registered member in order to access certain content. Again, doing so allows you to gauge just how many people and what types of people are checking out your site, which gives you a better idea of what markets to go after. Membership can be free or paid, though if it’s paid, there needs to be a good incentive for doing so.
Free: Why pay for something that you can get elsewhere for free? Consider that question when developing your site, because chances are if you’re charging people to access certain content on your website, they’re just going to go somewhere else where it’s either free to access the same content, or cheaper to do so. Keeping content cost-free will help keep customers coming back. Note: You can still require people to log in to your site or become members without charging them a cost.
Social Media Integration: Everybody is on Facebook and Twitter these days, so make sure that your site integrates with such social media platforms. Consider developing your site so that it can be accessed via Facebook and so that people can opt to share certain content on your site via Facebook simply and easily. The additional exposure and ease could help you get more business leads.
Easy to Navigate: This one is self-explanatory. If people aren’t able to easily find what they’re looking for, they’re going to look elsewhere for it.
Videos: Engaging content is key to a good website. And one way to spice up what’s on a website is by adding different things than just text. Videos are an example of things that developers can embed in websites and allow people a different way to attain valuable information.
Attractive: Develop the website to be naturally engaging. This means making it stand out. Don’t strive to make your website appear bland and boring. Add in colorful graphics, pictures, special text and other things that separate your website from your competition. This will help build up a clientele and help your website gain credibility. Just think, when people recognize your brand by “the guys with cool website,” it’s a good thing.
User-Centric: Perhaps the most important aspect of your website is making it user-friendly. In other words, you don’t want potential clients to feel like it’s a chore being on your website – you want to give them more than that, so you’re creating a fun virtual environment. If your website isn’t user friendly, you’ll lose business. People don’t want to waste their time on something difficult; they want an easy, user friendly experience.
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