Today, I'm keeping it short, and I am keeping it quality-rich.  Here are some things your business website absolutely must include if you are looking to have a successful, traffic-driving, site.

1. Overall Design - Firstly and most obviously, your website's design sets the tone for the site-users experience.  I could talk at length about what your design needs to do in order to successfully connect with your user, but you can read about that in a previous post here: 7 Simple Strategies for Web Design

2. Simple Language - Think about who is actually going to be searching for your products. In many circumstances, explaining complex products in terms only industry-experts will understand will do nothing for your everyday site visitor.  To help mold the language of your content, see how users are finding your site by looking up the search traffic in your Google Analytics account. Are they using primarily layman's terms? In that case, save the industry jargon for highly targeted pages that only industry experts would be interested in reading.

3. Contact - Nothing is worse than becoming more interested in a particular business and then not being able to find the contact information.  Not only should your website have an entire page dedicated to providing specified contact information, it should also provide general contact information on every single page in the site. This way, first time users who are not familiar with your site, will always have access to your contact information.

4. Working Links - This may sound obvious, but you would be surprised how many broken links I have come across throughout the web.  This is prevalent in sites that are undergoing consistent construction and updates. If you change the name of pages or file names, broken links are more than possible. Take some time periodically to evaluate the state of the links on your site.

5. Staff Information - Who are you guys? Believe it or not, visitors will feel instantly more connected to your site if they know who your staff is and even what they look like. Think about including a staff page with short bios and pictures to help further your brand's personality and transparency.

6. Quality Images - If possible, avoid cheesy Istock photos and trade them in for some authentic pictures of your own employees, the office, your products, or portfolio.

7. Testimonials- Include personal testimonials from past or present clients. People want to know from other people how great you are, not just yourself. Be sure to include the company they represent or work for as well as their position.

8. Maintain Blog - Well, this is awkward given the last 3 weeks. Forgive me for my absence and do not follow in my recent footsteps. A well kept blog that is consistently updated with rich content will provide resources for your frequent visitors and an image of reliability for your first-timers.

9. Social Media Buttons - In order to successfully integrate your brand image in a cohesive and consistent way, make your social media channels prominent on your site. Don't just add them to your homepage, but rather a template where they will be seen on every page.

10. High Speed - A good way to disengage your readers is by having pages with a load time of 30 seconds. Avoid this mistake by checking your site speed with a tool such as iwebtool

There you have it. A quick list of some fundamental and crucial elements to a successful site. For more information on improving your existing site, contact a professional at Blue Archer.