I’m  glad that you were able to tick ‘having a website’ off your business need bucket list. Now you can boldly say that your business has a website.

However, just having a website is no longer the real deal(sorry to crash the party so soon).

The digital world has evolved over the years. Users now call the shot. So, if they say, your website isn’t good enough, best believe that it isn’t. In case you’re wondering how they can reach such a conclusion, the answer is simple; User Experience.  It goes a long way to determine customer satisfaction, return on investment, conversion rates, and customer loyalty.

Without further ado, here is a list of elements your website must have to drive traffic and convert visitors to paying customers.

A Powerful Homepage

Except your goal is to turn visitors into investigators, the about us page must be concise. You have no business beating around the bush. With the current attention span of 3 seconds, it is advisable to tell your visitors who you are, why your business exists, who it serves, and why they should care.

Your website’s homepage is the first impression that you give the online world about your business. Ensuring that you effectively communicate your business’ brand image through appealing visuals, and copy should be a priority.

Great Content

No one would love to live in an empty apartment. How then do you expect visitors to spend a long time on your website? Quality content does not only keep visitors informed and interested in your business, but it also gives you an edge over your competitors on search engines when optimized.

Whatever content you serve your visitors; textual, visual or aural, it must be captivating, engaging, easy to understand, informative, convincing, and actionable. Anything short of these will keep visitors far away from your website.

“Great content is the best sales tool in the world” – Marcus Sheridan

“Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” ~Andrew Davis

“No matter what your content is about, if someone clicks through to see your content, they’re looking for an answer to something. Rather than giving them the runaround, give them what they’re looking for. Answer their question simply and clearly and with as little jargon as possible.” ~Kevin Ho

User-Friendly Website NavigationAlways remember that your website is not a maze. Turning visitors into maze runners will not only cost you traffic, but show potential customers the way out. You may be offering the best products or services in the market. If visitors or potential customers cannot locate them, they would be of no use. So to ensure that visitors have easy, and smooth website navigation, your website layout must be simple, and reasonably organized.Social ProofsSo you can do X, Y and Z? Awesome! Well, guess what? Your visitors will want to see proofs for trust sake. How can you make this possible? Share testimonials from past customers or clients. Everyone loves a little assurance. If testimonials are too much to ask for, share a list of companies that are using your service; the bottom line is to show them how credible, and trustworthy your business is.

“Testimonials describe what has been, and are a promise of what is to come“. ~Ron Kaufman

Mobile-Friendly LayoutMobile accounts for approximately half of the web traffic worldwide. In the fourth quarter of 2019, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 52.6 per cent of global website traffic, consistently hovering around the 50 per cent mark since the beginning of 2017. (Statista).

If your website is not mobile-friendly by now, you are ushering potential customers into the arms of ready competitors. No business wants such setback.

Gone are the days when you treat your website like your old textbook. You can afford to leave it on the shelf for years without dusting or reading. Doing this with your website will result in all the things you never want to experience in the business; from losing potential clients to losing money within a short period.

To avoid crying over spilled milk, assess your website to see if you have these elements in place. If no, contact the experts for a redesign. You can thank me later 🙂

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Charisol is a User Experience(UX) Focused Design & Dev Agency with a team of Software Designers & Developers based in Africa