6 Things Every Business Website Needs

There’s an online answer for just about everything in this technology-driven world of ours.   

We shop.  We look for solutions.  We find services.  We socialise and exercise online.  We educate and entertain ourselves online.  And that’s why it’s virtually unthinkable for a business not to have a website.

But there are websites…and then there are GREAT websites and I’m sure you want some insider tips on how to elevate yours to greatness.   

Of course, every website is unique.  They’re all built differently and all have a wide variety of capabilities and functionality but that doesn’t mean they need to be complex and high-budget to be awesome.  Be smart about what you do and how you do it – and your website can go from OK to Oh Yay!

Things Your Business Website Needs

Here are my six ‘must-haves’ which will help make your website great and which will encourage visitors to take action in some way whether it’s to make a purchase, share their details or interact with your website.

1. Make Sure Your Website Is Found!

Your number one priority is to give potential customers every opportunity to find you.  That means putting your website address on your marketing collateral in the traditional formats such as print (eg on your business cards or promotional material) as well as in your online channels (eg email signature) and social media.

Remember to include your business details on Facebook and include your website’s URL so that users come straight to you.   

But if you want people to find you when they’re searching online for your actual business, you also need to do some basic SEO.  You can start small and scale up to a more comprehensive strategy – but you must do something.

You can started with our SEO Checklist for Business Websites and then you’re ready for more, take a look at our SEO Course to help get your business ranking on Google.

2. Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile-Friendly.

See all those people looking at their smartphones?  The stats tell us that they’re likely to be searching online (80% of users used a mobile device to search the internet in 2019).  From September 2020, mobile-first indexing by Google will become their default way for Google to crawl all websites, so there’s absolutely no excuse not to make mobile optimisation a priority to make sure your website looks good on mobile both to Google and to anyone else looking for your business. 

And if your website is already mobile-friendly, I recommend you do the Google Mobile-Friendly test on a regular basis to iron out any issues.

3. Make Sure You Website Loads Quickly

Slow and steady won’t win any race in the competitive online space.  You need to make sure your website loads quickly, otherwise you’ll be eating your competitors’ dust.   Studies show that over half of all visits are abandoned if a website takes longer than three seconds to load – so you need to find ways to beat the clock wherever possible.

I always recommend that business check their website speed on a regular basis (especially if changes have been made to functionality or content) and I use a free tool called GTMetrix for this.  It’s a great resource for speed optimisation – simply log in and track the changes in your loading speeds over time. Of course, if you don’t want to go the DIY route, you can always ask your web developer or hosting company to help.

4. Content Is King

Turning the words on your webpages from boring to brilliant takes some effort but it can open up a world of opportunity.  It’s all about the quality of your content – and your words need to resonate with your target audience, meet their needs and expectations as well as enhance your brand’s personality. 

Think of your audience as real people, not market segments.  Put yourself in their shoes and have a conversation.  Is your copy chatty and easy to read?  Are you giving visitors solutions?  Engage and entertain them and don’t be tempted to go hard-sell upfront otherwise you run the risk of putting them off. 

Voice searches such as Siri and Google Home are on the rise so you need to consider the language that people use when they’re asking their virtual assistants for help.  Keep your content authentic and conversational.

Blogs are another excellent way of connecting with your audience and boosting your search engine rankings.  Sure they take a bit of effort, but if they’re done well, they add value to your readers and give you an opportunity to reinforce your brand message, differentiate yourself from your competitors and demonstrate your expertise.

5. Secure Your Site With HTTPS

If your website still hasn’t got the ‘S’ factor, you need to migrate to HTTPS sooner rather than later.  Apart from it being a small ranking factor, Google is encouraging all websites to be HTTPS in order to protect your users’ connections to your website, and it’s always a good idea to do as Google says! 

You don’t want to risk losing any organic traffic when migrating, so you will need to manage the process carefully.  If you need help, check out this great guide from Search Engine Watch with more information- https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2018/02/26/migrating-http-to-https-a-step-by-step-guide/

6. Fabulous Favicons

They say dynamite comes in small packages, and I recommend you check out just how powerful a little favicon can be.

Favicons are the small graphics which appear next to a website’s title in your browser bar or in the search engine results on your mobile device.  These images not only look good, but they also help people to instantly identify your website especially when they’re searching across multiple websites at one time – plus they’re a small ranking factor too.  What’s not to love?

You might also enjoy “A Beginner’s Guide To The Search Engine Results Page“. It explains all the different features of the various results pages.

Conclusion

Which of these six picks will you use to fast-forward your website?  It’s an ever-changing and competitive world out there and I hope I’ve given you some useful information which will help differentiate your website and fire up your business success online.

Check out my new online, self-managed course, The SEO School, which takes you through all the key tools and techniques of a successful SEO strategy.  The course is great for business owners, website managers and anyone who wants hands-on learning about all the essentials of SEO from an industry expert.  Find out more about The SEO School here.

Karen Dauncey

Karen Dauncey has been working in SEO since 2003. She specialises in helping businesses get found online through Google using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) She is the founder and creator of The SEO School an online SEO Course to help teach business owners how to do their own SEO. She regularly delivers educational programs for both Local, State and Federal Government and is an advisor for the ASBAS Digital Solutions Program. Karen’s passion and commitment to help small business owners get found online is the driving force behind her online school, making SEO advice accessible to all with free resources and online courses.

Karen's wealth of SEO knowledge and practical digital marketing experience comes from running her own SEO and Google Ads agency, Blue Cherry Online Marketing since 2008. Karen has optimised over 1000 websites, managed millions of dollars' worth of spend on Google Ads and has a solid understanding of the constantly shifting industry of digital marketing and SEO. This gives her a unique advantage when it comes to being able to recommend the right online marketing strategies for your business. This gives her a unique advantage when it comes to being able to recommend the right online marketing strategies for your business. She was recently recognised as an SEO Expert for the popular course creation platform, Kajabi as well as appearing on ABC Radio
for her expert opinion on the ACCC's investigation into search engines.

Karen has attended search engine conferences in London, Stockholm, Adelaide and Sydney, and was also invited to attend a pilot Business Coaching Course at Google’s Head Office. She has a Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK.

She is also the co-owner of the Digital Experts Directory, an online directory for female serviced-based businesses to promote their business (with a great backlink for SEO).

To keep up to date with the latest in SEO, join her Facebook group The SEO School Community or follow her on Facebook or LinkedIn.