Let me let you in on a secret: every business needs a website. Maybe (hopefully) that’s not a big secret to you, but if it is, allow me to explain.
Here at The Modern Connection, we don’t like to make blanket statements like this all willy nilly. We understand that every business is different, and in the digital marketing world, there is no such thing as a one-strategy-fits-all kind of deal.
But when it comes to websites, there’s one thing we’re sure of. Every business needs a website.
Let’s talk statistics, because you can’t argue with cold, hard, facts:
- 91% of consumers enter a store after an online experience with them
- More than half of all consumers want to go to your website first when learning about your business or product
- 81% of consumers do online research before making a purchase
And if your business doesn’t have an online presence, you’re missing out on all of these consumers.
Just being on social media isn’t enough. You need a domain that you own, an online space that you can do what you choose with. After all, we could easily wake up one day and Facebook is gone, along with your Facebook Page and your only online footprint.
So now that we’re on the same page, and you understand why it’s so essential for your business to have a website, let’s talk about the six things that every single website should have.
1. SEO Copy
Optimized for search means that your copy includes keywords that you’ve found your customers tend to use when searching for businesses like yours. So your home page copy, about page copy, service page copy, and contact page copy should all be strategically created so that it contains search terms, but isn’t stuffed with them.
In fact, your home page should have between 100 and 1,000 words of copy alone that introduces your business to new website visitors. Each of your services should have between 1,000 to 1,500 words of keyword-optimized copy that thoroughly describes what you offer to your clients/customers.
Good news for you? We specialize in SEO copywriting. So we can write those 1,500+ words for you.
2. A Blog
In 2018, people are wondering if blogs are still necessary. Literally every single business website has a blog now. Does it really help anymore? And do people even read them?
Let’s start with the short answer: yes.
Blogging has so many benefits for your business that it very much still makes sense to create one on your website.
- Updating your blog regularly shows search engines that your website has fresh content.
- Search engines like seeing unique content on websites, and writing new blog content gives you plenty of that.
- A blog helps people who are deciding between you and a competitor to see who is more knowledgeable on the subject.
And there are more, but we’ve got other things to talk about right now.
3. Social Media Links
Sure, we do social media marketing here, so of course we’re going to say that you need social media links on your website.
But let’s actually think about this.
Your website is typically going to be the first stop for most of your potential or first-time customers.
What if they want to follow you so they remember your business later? But you have no social media links on your website, so they assume you’re not on social media (big mistake in 2018). So they don’t follow you and five months later when they need your product/service again, they can’t remember you, so they move on to a competitor.
So sad, friend!
Do the right thing. Include social media links on your website. Make it easy for people to find you and follow you in as many places as possible.
4. Secure Hosting & SSL
You want to make sure your website doesn’t go down or disappear randomly, right? And that your website doesn’t get hacked and destroyed and you’re left without an online presence?
(Yes, I said you want to own your domain so that nothing happens to your online footprint, but you also need to take the necessary precautions.)
Ensuring that your website is on a secure server and an SSL certificate is installed is essential for many reasons. As I mentioned, it helps against hacking and shared servers going down on you.
It can also improve your website speed, keeping website visitors on your site longer and reducing bounce rate.
If you’re unsure about how secure or reliable your host is, talk to us! We offer two different hosting packages and would be happy to install an SSL certificate.
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and is what turns your URL from http:// to https:// and highlights your website as secure in the URL taskbar. SSL is required if you will be receiving customer information through your website, but the search engines have also started to penalize websites in results if they don’t have SSL.
5. Mobile-Responsive Design
Search engines will also penalize your website if your mobile site is messy or hard to navigate. In fact, with Google’s mobile-first indexing, they look at your mobile site before even taking a look at your desktop site when deciding where to rank you in results.
So mobile-responsiveness is not an option.
Most WordPress themes these days come with responsive design, but you need to ensure that your website designer is testing your design and its capabilities on every type of device and browser so there are no issues.
6. CTAs On Every Page
CTA stands for call to action, and is what you are telling your website visitor to do next. So they’ve made it to your home page. Now what? Or they’re on your about page. What’s next?
You should have a call to action that leads to your contact form on every single page of your website to maximize leads and conversions.
What is the goal that you want all website traffic to get to? Include a CTA for that everywhere. Make it as easy as possible for your website visitors to make it to your end goal.
If you’re in the market for a new website, look no further. We’re a full-service digital marketing agency, so pretty much anything digital that you need, we’ve got you. Let’s talk about your website needs and more. Fill out this form for a FREE one-hour consultation with us all about you and your business and how we can help you grow.
