When designing your website, you need to have several key elements integrated into the design. While it’s important to have a site that looks nice (a cluttered website will quickly force potential customers to go elsewhere,) it’s equally as important to design the site in a way that allows visitors to easily navigate your website, find what they are looking for and learn exactly what your company is all about.
1. “About” Page
One of the most important elements of your website is the “About” page. This page tells prospective customers who you are, what you do and how your company can help them. This page also allows you to form a personal connection with site visitors, so you should make sure to include a professional photograph of you and even a short biography detailing what made you get started in your field.
Don’t be afraid to share a few personal details, such as your outside interests or hobbies, on the “About” page, either. This will help accomplish your goal of connecting with your customers and allowing them to feel like they can trust you and admire you enough to want to do business with you.
Bottom line: you don’t want to skimp on this page, as it is likely one of the first places site visitors will come to when they want to know more about you and your company.
2. Testimonials
If you want to convince potential customers to do business with you, a “Testimonials” page can help immensely. Encourage satisfied customers to post testimonials of their experiences with your company, and make sure they feature prominently on your website. This element can help attract new customers, because they will see how happy you’ve made other people with the services and/or products you provide.
Testimonials are an important element of any website, especially when you have several success stories to show potential customers. If you already have a proven track record of success and happy, satisfied customers, you are well on your way to gaining even more business.
3. Contact Information
This seems like an obvious element to include in your site design, but there are still many site owners who either fail to include this information or make it ridiculously hard to find. If you make it difficult for a customer to find your contact information, they’re going to give up and go to your competition.
When designing your site, make sure to include a simple contact page with all of the relevant information a customer would need to get in touch with you. Ideally, you’ll want to include not only your e-mail address but a phone number and address as well. Giving customers multiple ways to contact you only helps you retain those customers for the long-term.
4. Search Feature
A simple search feature is an element of your website that makes a huge difference, and is especially helpful for those who own large websites with a lot of information. There are many tools available that enable you to incorporate a functional search bar into your website design, so it’s not difficult to do.
The reason a search bar feature is so important is because you want your customers to be able to find what they are looking for quickly and efficiently. If they have to spend a lot of time searching for the information they’re looking for, they will eventually give up and go to your competitor, who makes it easy for them to search the site.
5. Subscription Options
If you maintain a website that offers frequent content, such as a weekly e-mail newsletter or blog updates, it’s important to include a sign up/subscribe feature into your design. This can make a huge difference because it allows you to not only track the number of people subscribing, but enables your customers to easily sign up for updates that are important to them.
If you operate a WordPress blog, you can very easily include a feed into your site design. Even if you don’t have a WordPress blog, however, there are a number of programs that will allow you to set up and maintain a mailing list.
There are several elements that make a difference when you’re designing a website, but aside from clean visual design, these are the five elements that are arguably the most important. If you take the time to include them, you will likely have better customer retention and grow your customer base instead of allowing them to run to the competition.
looks like i need to add a search to my blog page… when my website gets bigger!!
great advice — will be sure to pass it on!
Even the smallest websites should have a search box. It’s important for visitors to have this familiar website feature available.
I agree with you Aimee, I have not adding that search feature because I think that there won’t be a possibility of user getting lost in my blog. (currently it still less than 50 post
)
Looks like I better create an about page.
Thanks Brian.
Brian, these are my top five also. Although they are all so critical, I cannot believe how many times I have had to search for a way to contact someone. Only to find it in 4 point font in the footer : (
Brian,
Thanks for the post!
Let me tell ya (and I’m sure you already know), if you’ve ever seen a heat map of a popular site, the About page almost always comes off “hot.” People want to know who they are dealing with.
Thanks again!
Dean
I completely agree that the About page is one of the most clicked links in a navigation. I’d be curious to know how many people who click that want to see a real photo of the person/team as well.
Brian,
Does an e-junkie shopping cart work with the Woo Commerce plugin for Agency 2.0? Thanks man. Site looks great too!
Josh
Hey Josh, sorry for the delay in response as your comment was marked as spam. I don’t know if E-Junkie is supported with Woo Commerce, but what I will say is that Agency should display anything that Woo Commerce supports. (if that makes sense.)
I am not sure how how many people are still subscribe by email. I find most people are using RSS Feed reader like Google reader.
I personally also like to add Resource page too.
You’ll be surprised how many people still subscribe via email. I have over 5000 people on my list as a matter of fact.
we moved our “about” to the first tab in our nav bar — we want people to buy from US, our stories, our intention for our shop. it works!
It is also very surprising to me how many sites lack a search feature! If I know it’s a WordPress site, I just do it manually. http://domain.com/?s=my+search+string
I agree with the search feature! Can you recommend any _decent_ search plugin for wordpress? I really could use some truly relevant search results at the top!
I’m partial to the native WordPress search feature, but if you’re looking to monetize your site – then something like the Google search feature would work.
5 great points.
I might also suggest a 6th one, which is one I am trying to work on getting better at myself, since I am terrible at it currently. The 6th is, “What’s In It For me?”
In other words, people visit your blog/website not because of “you” but because of what they can get out of it. It’s not so much selfish or self-serving as it is expected. But I have missed this and am trying to fix it.
One way to do this is offer something free, like an ebook of a manifesto of sorts. Or like what Studio Press does by offering free themes. It gets people coming back.
Hello Charles that’s so true, people have always love things that are FREE, great tip it surely give them a reason to come back.
“Give them a reason to come back”.
Nice one.
Look like I will have to create some new things for all my website that are missing
Well but if we speak about the search widget, I strongly recommend not to use WP default search widget as it shows completely irrelevant results due to specific of it algorithm. Instead I recommend to stick with good old Google.
Thanks Brian for suggestions!
Hi Brian
You’ve got a great “About” Page – it actually tells us something about you.
I need to follow your example and share a few personal details with my visitors.
Good to see that you’ve had a break from releasing themes and found time for a post.
A search function can if used right be a huge help to increase business. Track what people search for and you will be able to see trends, what you maybe should be sellling etc. etc. A must have…
Hi Brian,
As you point out, search is clearly a very important part of my blog, and I have had a rather poor experience with WP native search.
What do you use to power Copyblogger or Studiopress’ search? Is it truly the WP native search alone? How can it be enhanced?
Any and all help would be most appreciated!
We use the standard WordPress search function which works just fine for us. Some folks want to monetize their sites, so they use something like Google’s custom search.
Brian, the tenents of website content mentioned in your article are excellent. It felt good to know that my advice to customers match those in your article as basic elements that make a difference. THANK YOU for the great post!
I’m working on these on my new site. Lots of work to do.
Thanks Brian. It is also very surprising to me how many sites lack a search feature!
Hey Brian,
I’m currently working (and improving) on these aspects on my marketing blog.
However I was missing out on the testimonials feature for a site that focuses on developing microsites for small companies.
I’m definitely asking for those and including them on the site. Thank you!
Sergio
Great tips to making your website better. I agree with subscription options. Giving your readers a way to subscribe and stay connected will definitely increase a blog or website exposure and lead to more user interaction and ultimately higher traffic. By the way, your newsletter box is great!
Looks like I better create an about page.
Thanks Brian.