Good web design and user experience are some of the most important things in a website but these are not the only things that matter as there are many other things you need to consider. Most businesses or startups naturally want to get traffic to their website and to generate this traffic, they spend a lot of money on marketing campaigns on social networks and search engines in addition to sending emails and sharing their website at various events and a whole lot of other things. However, all these efforts are useless in case visitors to your website do not make a purchase or sign up for your service or subscribe to the mailing list.

Another thing you need to know is that visitors who come to your website but go back without spending enough time increase the bounce rate of your website and that is not good for your website as it negatively affects the organic rankings. High bounce rate of a website is a negative mark in the eyes of search engines such as Google as it tells them that the website is not relevant to the queries for which it is ranked in the organic search results.

When you’re just starting your business, you don’t have the time or resources to pay heed to all the advice about the must haves in a good website. In this article, we are going to share 5 important things that are essential to a good website and you can always add to these with research of your own.

1 Clear value proposition

You need to have a clear value proposition for your visitors. As soon as they enter the website, they should know the product or service being offered by your business or start-up. It could be in the form of a short title followed by a subtitle in order to explain the details. You also have the option of using videos or pictures but it is important to make sure that the message is clear. An important thing you need to bear in mind is that value proposition is different from a slogan. It should be a concise message that should clearly explain to the visitor the problem you are solving for them, how you’re going to do it and why your business is the right choice.

2 Clear call to action

Call to action refers to the image, link or button that you want your website visitors to click to become customers. For example, call to action for e-commerce site is the add to cart or checkout button whereas for service websites such as Toky, the call to action button would be the sign up button for the service. The call to action for start-ups in early stages is different as it would be to subscribe to their mailing list. It should be clearly identifiable on the website and should be present in various parts of the website. If you take our example, we use green color for CTA that offers a good contrast to the blue color of our website.

3 Excellent web design and user experience

Your website needs to look beautiful but that’s not the only goal of building a website. The ultimate goal is to guide your visitors towards the value proposition you offer. Aesthetics are a big part of it but the site structure and navigation of your website is extremely important. It has been proven that 75% of a website’s visitors find a website credible and trustworthy due to its good design which makes the first impression extremely important.

4 Contact details

Research data suggests that around 86% of a website’s visitors want to check the contact details on visiting a website. You now know how important contact details are and therefore, you need to have a clearly visible contact page or your contact details should be there in the footer of the website. It should include your email address, phone numbers, addresses as well as social media profile links. You might also want to put a link to a press kit on your website. It will provide relevant information in case someone wants to say something about your start-up. Be aware of difficulties with confidentiality, find out more here.

5 Clear writing

Every single text on your website should have correct grammar and right wording. The written text on your website that is designed to sell your services or products is known as copy. The goal of this written information is to clearly explain the value proposition you are providing to your customers. Also, it needs to be written in a way to allow the visitors to get what you are offering. It will help visitors make a purchase decision quickly. A professional copywriter can help you create a detailed and well written copy for your website. They should use words that are just right for your target audience and related to your business.

While these are the top 5 things for you to get started, there are a number of other things you ought to consider. Having a well-researched SEO strategy is important but when your SEO strategy succeeds and you start getting that flood of traffic to your website, you need to make sure that your website is designed to engage visitors and is capable of turning them into potential customers.