If you have a website for your business, well done. That’s a great start – a business without a website is already fighting a losing battle. Yet, the majority of other businesses will also have a website, which means it’s not enough to simply have a domain name and post some pieces of information up there. You need to make sure that your website stands out, and brings you business. Here are some extra features to include that will help you do just that.
Splash Header
The splash header is a great way to really make an impact on customers as soon as they arrive on your site. It’s a way of pointing them in the direction you want them to go in (such as towards a particular item that is for sale, for example) without having to take up a lot of room on your homepage (which, ideally, should be kept nice and simple). Having a splash header means that you can easier switch it up for something else if you need to, changing the look of you website effortlessly, but without confusing regular visitors.
Use The Footer
If you’re making the most of the header section of your website, why not do the same with the footer? Don’t assume that no one looks there – many people will scroll right down there to find contact details or other navigational items. So spruce it up and make it interesting for those who do go there to check it out. You can add some images, animation, even some more information about special offers and codes that only the very wisest and curious of customers will be able to find…
Related Posts Feature
If you have a blog (hint: you should have a blog) then leading people to it is a good idea – it keeps people on your site for longer when they read the information (which boosts your SEO rankings) and it gives them information, so they can make an informed choice about using your business or not. To really optimize your blog, however, you should have a related posts feature. This will show your visitors what other people read after they looked at the current post. It will show which posts are connected to that one in some way too. By offering visitors more details about something, they will stay for even longer, and become even better informed.
Popular, Breaking & Featured
It’s easy for a blog – or website in general – to become cluttered, and that’s not a good thing if you want people to enjoy being there. To keep it clean and simple, you may have to reduce the number of blog posts that you’re able to show at one time. This is where a widget in your side bar that offers visitors the chance to check out the most popular blogs, breaking news, or featured articles in just one click is a good idea. It helps them get to where you want them to go much faster, and prevent them from leaving in frustration!
Sliders
Sliders at the top of the page can do a similar job. Pick three of your best posts and have their main image and link slide across the page. As long as it doesn’t get in the way of the main body of the page, this can be a useful tool, giving you more space to play with and more room to add more blogs later on. It also points out which articles are the most important.
Bios
If your blog posts are written by a few different contributors, it’s a nice idea to add a bio to each one, letting readers know who wrote it. This gives a human face to the site, and that is an important element in any sales and business transaction. You can even add a small avatar so that people really get an idea of who they are interacting with. The more human elements you can give your website the better – it makes for better sales and a happier customer.
Calculator
If you are selling a product or service of some kind – which most websites will be doing – having a custom, embedded calculator like the ones from Calc2Web can be extremely useful for your potential customers. They can see how much your services are, or even how much you could save them, by inputting the right data into your own, specially designed calculator. Having this kind of information directly to hand is a bonus feature that not many websites take advantage of, and it will certainly make you stand out from the crowd.
Custom Font
Rather than being the same as so many other websites, you could use an online service to create your own custom font. Not only will this make your site more memorable, but you can also use the font on the rest of your marketing, giving you a clear, cohesive brand and message which will make people trust your company, and feel happy to use you.
Social Media
Many people forget that their websites are not a solo concern, and that they need to connect them to their social media account for the business. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the three most popular, but it’s important to choose the one (or ones) that work best for your business. Of course, you also need to be able to run and maintain those accounts, so bear that in mind too. Having the linked icons on your website will allow customers to instantly like and follow you, increasing the reach of your business online.
Background Collage
Something that will really stand out as people browse online, something that should cause them to pause on your site for long enough to want to purchase something or contact you, is your background – if you get it right. Having a collage background can do this job particularly well, as long as you keep it relatively concise; a hugely busy background will distract from the content, which isn’t the idea.
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