5 Essential Elements for an Effective Website

Web design is the foundation of a great website. Without high-quality content, you can forget about SEO. First impressions are everything in business, especially online. In fact, many visitors start forming opinions about your site within 50 milliseconds. Visual content is often more exciting and helps to make the message clearer.

For example, viewers can retain 95% of the information in a video compared to 10% of the text. You don't need to overload pages with videos and images, but high-quality content will have a big impact. Page rankings are determined by 200+ metrics, but top metrics include backlinks, keywords, and Google My Business information. However, it is equally important to consider changes in user habits, so mobile SEO and voice search should now play a central role. And while it's best to leave some of the SEO tactics to the pros, here are 5 foolproof SEO tips that anyone can do.

Users are the ultimate determining factor in determining whether your site is successful or not.

A User-Centric Site Must Be Functional and Accessible

Often, designers or website owners are distracted by their own wants and needs of the website, and sometimes they forget about the wants and needs of the user or visitor. My job as a designer is to do everything possible to keep everyone satisfied and happy. Sometimes, this involves offering an expert opinion that reminds customers that they are going out of the way of what your website should achieve.

Design Should Attract Your Target Audience

One of the obvious key components of your site is its appearance. Design should attract your target audience and professionally present your company.

Having a design that uses modern trends and proper functionality will appeal to users.

Website Security Is Essential

Website security includes encryption using an SSL certificate, PCI DSS compliance if you are accepting credit cards, and possibly additional anti-fraud measures to protect you and your customers. Not all of these features are easy to implement if you're building a website from scratch, so it's best to opt for a secure website platform that has built-in SSL and PCI compliance.

Mobile Optimization Is Crucial

Nowadays, more business is done on mobile devices and tablets than on traditional desktops. This is because more than 70% of today's industrial buyers are millennials. They are tech-savvy and expect the same B2B shopping experience as in their personal life (think Amazon).

That means that your website must work on mobile phones and tablets and have fast loading pages. Corrugated Metals partnered with Thomas to create a responsive and lead-generating website, as seen in the charts above, and this changed the way they market their business. We set a record for quotations in the first quarter, increasing them by 197% over the previous year and the average value of contributions has grown. “The sales team can't believe the amount of good opportunities they have now,” said Ken Carlton, vice president of Corrugated Metals. A responsive website keeps people on your site longer and the longer they're on your website, the more likely they are to do business with you.

Presentations Are Important

Presentations are important for a couple of reasons.

They help the reader to enter your content, ultimately making it more readable and readable. Content is content that people stop. If someone who accesses one of your web pages can't figure out what the page is about quickly, usually in about 30 seconds, the likelihood that they will leave the page increases dramatically.

Landing Pages Should Be Short

This way, landing pages work much more like an email than a web page, and they can be much more marketing-focused than standard web pages. They should also be about the length of an email; about 150 short, pleasant words, instead of the roughly 500 words that are generally recommended for a web page.

Know Your Website's Purpose

There is a lot to do to create a website that meets your business objectives.

We should know; we've created over 5000 manufacturing and industrial websites for our customers, so we understand what works and what doesn't.Many manufacturers try to tackle their digital marketing efforts on their own, and while that's okay, there are some components that can turn into an oversight. Connect with the most active and qualified network of B2B buyers on the world's leading platform for product discovery and supplier selection. Over the years, Intervision has created hundreds of websites for businesses, large and small, and the list of key elements for a successful website continues to evolve as Google's technology, design and algorithms change. Right now, these are the “must-haves”; essential ingredients in terms of design and functionality for a successful website.

Communicate Your Purpose Clearly

An essential element of a good website is to know its purpose and communicate it. Make it clear in advance, preferably on your homepage who you are and what you do.

Other factors also come into play when you think about the purpose of your site. Knowing the purpose of your site is essential for a successful website.

Design Your Navigation Carefully

Designing the navigation of your website is like laying the foundations of your home. So even if your website looks good it will be undermined if navigation is not properly designed. Therefore it's imperative that you spend time planning how your audience will interact with your content and how it should be organized.

Inconsistent page-by-page browsing will only frustrate users.

High Quality Content Is Essential

Good navigation is essential for success on any website. Your content must be high quality but what does high quality content mean? It's content that both users want to read as well as search engines love too; content that is original and useful as well as classifies well.

New Content Is Important Too

In addition to relevant high quality content another key element of any website is new content. Your ABOUT page or SERVICE page etc., are difficult to update with new content but having a blog or news section on your site makes adding new content easier.

Social Media Presence Is Important

Make sure you have social media presence too; this will help you reach out to potential customers as well as build relationships with existing ones too! Get a free digital status check of your website to see what you need to generate more qualified leads online. There is a lot involved in creating an effective website but these five elements are essential for success: design should attract target audience; security must be taken into account; mobile optimization must be considered; presentations should be used; navigation must be designed carefully; high quality content must be provided; new content should be added regularly; social media presence should be established.

Gloria Foulke
Gloria Foulke

Wannabe twitter lover. Freelance social media maven. Friendly twitter nerd. Hipster-friendly zombie advocate. Avid zombie practitioner. Amateur baconaholic.