10 Essential Website Elements

The design of your website can make or break the success of your business. You want to make sure that your website is functional and visually appealing, but what are the essential elements you should include?

Here are 10 important elements every website should contain:

  1. Call to Action: A call to action (CTA) is a button or link inviting visitors to take an immediate action, such as signing up for a newsletter or downloading a PDF. It’s important to use clear, concise language and place them prominently on each page of your website so that visitors can easily find them. 
  2. Responsive Design: Responsive design ensures that content will be displayed correctly regardless of the device used by the visitor. Whether it’s a laptop, tablet, or smartphone, all visitors should have a good experience when they visit your website. 
  3. Contact Information: Visitors should be able to easily find contact information on your website, whether it’s an email address or phone number. This will help build trust with potential customers and let them know who they can reach out to if they have questions or concerns about your products or services. 
  4. Social Media Icons: Social media icons are an easy way to link visitors directly from your website to any active social media accounts you may have, such as Facebook or Twitter. This also helps build brand awareness and can encourage visitors to follow you on social media for updates about new products or services you may offer in the future. 
  5. Quality Images & Graphics: Quality images and graphics are key components in making sure that your website stands out from the competition; no one wants to look at generic stock photos! Make sure that all images are high-resolution and relevant to the content of each page on your website.  
  6. Search Bar & Navigation Menu: A search bar allows visitors who know exactly what they’re looking for quickly find what they need without having to navigate through multiple pages of content; this is especially helpful if you have a large site with lots of content! A navigation menu should also be included so that visitors can easily browse through different sections of your site without getting lost in the process.
  7. Easy Checkout Process: If you’re selling products on your website, then it needs an easy checkout process so customers don’t get frustrated during their purchase process. An efficient checkout system allows customers complete their transactions as quickly as possible , which leads to better customer satisfaction overall
  8. Testimonials & Reviews: Testimonials and reviews provide customers with peace of mind when considering making purchases from new companies they haven’t dealt with before. Make sure these are visible either on product pages, checkout pages, or even landing pages.
  9. Copyright Notice, Privacy Policy, & Cookie Notice: Having clear copyright notices and privacy policies reassures customers their information is safe when visiting and shopping on your site. Customers should feel confident knowing their data won't be used inappropriately, which builds trust between both parties involved in the transaction process. You’ll need to research what your region legally requires for “Allowing Cookies” and what kind of notice needs to be posted for your particular website.  
  10. Good Quality Content: Last but not least , make sure all content included on each page is well written, informative, engaging, and relevant. Quality content will keep visitors interested in learning more about what you offer while also increasing chances for higher search engine rankings due to positive user experience metrics like time spent on page and bounce rate. 

Conclusion

Having all these elements present throughout your website helps create a cohesive user experience which ultimately results in higher conversion rates. An effective web presence requires careful planning combined with purposeful execution – make sure not to leave these elements out of your website! 

Does your website need a redesign or reorganization? Sidekick would love to help – let’s talk.