The 12 Website MUST Haves

Here are 12 items a website MUST have if it is to be of use to your target market.

• A domain name people remember – Your website name has to be as short as possible and as easy to spell as possible. Make it easy for your visitors!
• Mobile capable – You might be shocked to find the majority of website viewers are using mobile devices. The 50% tipping point of mobile/desktop occurred late 2013 and since then the trend is the majority of website viewers are using some form of mobile/tablet device. Your site must be optimized for those devices!
• Have an email contact address that matches your website domain – Assure credibility by having a contact address that ties to your site (i.e. [email protected]) – it may be a forwarding address, as long as it works!
• Load quickly – People lead busy lives and won’t wait for your whizz-bang website to trickle download. Wow them with your content and load speed instead – they will reward you with their time viewing what you have to offer.
• Be secure – Have you ever tripped across a website that has been hacked? You’d never go back there right? So learn from the failings of others and never be that site!
• Backup regularly – This ties to your website security – so you have a copy of your site that can be reinstated to get you back up and running quickly – regardless of what happened. The second step is to also have your website backup located off site (away from your server) so if it all goes wrong you’ve still got all your data.
• Search Engine Optimized – Have you seen your website description and it doesn’t really outline who you are or what you do? Does your website ranking really stand out – compared to your opposition? That’s simply the by-product of your website content appearance to those all-important searching tools. Make the simple changes that will bring big results.
• Analytics – You must have statistics on the viewers to your website to understand your audience (is your site being promoted in the correct areas to justify the result?) Analytics are your key to making smart decisions on your website. It doesn’t really matter what type you use as long as it gives you what you need and you stick with it (so you are comparing apples with apples and not one type of statistic source against another).
• One click payment gateway – If you’re there to make money from your website you must have a one-click payment gateway. If your customer has to go through multiple steps to complete a purchase they will abandon the sale and look elsewhere – where it is easier.
• Hook your visitors – Offer some item of value to your target market in exchange for their contact details. It could be a free report on the top-ten reasons of a topic related to your industry. It has to be of value that the person reading it really feels as if you went above and beyond giving them something they can use. For that you will generate loyalty and be likely to sell to that person later or have them refer you to someone else.
• One click to any section of your site – You know how frustrating it is trawling through a website looking for that elusive page of information. Make sure all of your website can be accessed by one click from the home-page – even if it is an expanding menu.
• Be of value – Content is king and what people see on your homepage (or any page) has to leave them feeling they got something in return for their time visiting. They have to know exactly what you do as soon as they get to your homepage. Sharp clear content will be rewarded with visitors taking the time to digest what you offer. From that they are likely to remember who you are and what you do.