Essential Features of Every Good Business Website.
A Logical Roadmap
A website should be aesthetically pleasing, but it's more important for it to be useful. Before you even pick a server or type an HTML tag, you should map out how you'd like the website to work. This is important both for user experience and for SEO, since Google considers the content and structure of a site when it ranks for search.
Crucial Business Information"The biggest failure that people have is that they try to build the website they want, not necessarily the website they need," says designer Josh Frankel. Take a restaurant, for example Frankel says "everyone wants music and this giant 'about' page," but they neglect the basic things like the menu, contact information and directions.
Depending on your business, you should have a few things on your website that fall into the realm of "information." We know restaurants need a menu and a list of locations (ideally with directions or a map), but every industry has its necessary items. If you're an etailer, you need product images.
Contact InformationWe can't stress enough that most crucial business detail is contact informations which is why it has its own section. Have a number, email, address and a contact form easily accessible and visible. It makes a difference because there's nothing more frustrating than being unable to get in touch with a needed business or service.
Clear NavigationA map is useless without a legend and a website is useless without clear navigation. Make sure you use easy-to-understand and logical names for the various pages of your site contact, about, FAQ, etc
Pepper the site with action items to help customer easily do what you want them to do. Birchbox has done a good job of this, encouraging users to "learn more" and directing them to claim a gifted Birchbox, since it's a popular gift item and giftees are likely to be first-time visitors.
Security
If you're selling anything online, you need to put some effort into securing your site with an SSL certificate. The SSL will encrypt communications between you and your clients (i.e. a credit card number, Social Security number), which will allay their fears of providing such information, since there's so much identity theft on the web. VeriSign, TrustE, Entrust and GeoTrust are good options to explore.
Social Media IntegrationTwitter. Facebook. Tumblr. YouTube. Pinterest. Google+. LinkedIn. Instagram. Foursquare. There are a lot of social platforms out there, and you should promote your presence on them on your website, because social media is critical part of marketing your business.Integrating these platforms into your website will help boost your SEO, improve your business' footprint on the social web and build your following across numerous social platforms.
A Mobile-Ready VersionSmartphones and tablets are driving an increasing amount of web traffic, and the numbers are only going to grow as mobile devices become cheaper and more mainstream. Responsive website design enables you to use fluid widths, so that your website layout will adapt to the screen on which it's being browsed.
FAQ
People have a lot of questions. As you hear concerns from customers and receive feedback via email, gather up the most frequently asked questions into a list and offer clear, concise answers.
Good Hosting
Not having good hosting can cost you in many ways. A slow site is frustrating, one that fails to load is obnoxious and both could turn off customers. But beyond annoying your users and increasing your bounce rate, poor hosting can also affect your rank in search engines
Courtesy : www.mashable.com
Photo Credit: www.cartoonstock.com
Honeycomb Creative Support is a communication design agency based in Bangalore. We help companies for making their marketing communication materials like, Web-design & Development, Digital Marketing, Product & Corporate Video, Print collaterals, News Paper Proofing, Fine-art (Giclee) printing for photo/painting exhibitions. It also provide gallery space to showcase Artist's works at Honeycomb Art Gallery.
