10 Things that Every Website Needs

Things a Good Website Should Have

Whether Webstix creates your website or not, there are several things that every website needs to have in order to be successful. There are many more actually but these are essential:

1. Summarize what you do.
   Your home page should have a 1-3 sentence paragraph explaining what your company or organization does. People need to know when they get to your site if they’ve found what they’re looking for. Doing this keeps them on your site.
2. Your address and phone number.
   This seems obvious but many sites forget this or don’t want to reveal where they are located. It looks suspicious if you do not include this information. It also helps to show a picture of your building so that you look like a legit company. Having a Google Map embedded in your site is even one step better. Make it easy for people to contact you – we’re all humans after all.
3. Your hours.
   One main reason people go to website is to find out hours and location. Don’t frustrate them by not providing this. It’ll also can cut down on repetitive phone calls that are just for this information – saving you time and money.
4. A search form.
   Some people go to websites, first look for the search box and do a search rather than try fiddling with the navigation. Make sure your site works for all kinds of site visitors.
5. A site map.
   This page is useful for search engines that come to “spider” your website. You want to make sure they find every page. Some site visitors also go to this page to find what they’re looking for.
6. Google Analytics.
   This is a useful tool for seeing how people use your site. You can tell where people are going, what’s the most important thing on the site (and least important) and from what page they leave your site – hopefully it’s not the home page!
7. Useful title tags.
   Does your home page’s title say “Untitled Document?” Do you know many people who go to search engines and search for “Untitled Document?” Well, they don’t of course. So make it something useful. Include your company name, some keywords of what you do (3-4 of them) and your geographic location.
8. Search engine friendly URLs.
   Your URL shouldn’t contain things like question marks unless it’s absolutely necessary. It should have the title of the page in the URL (if possible) and end with “.html”. Your site will rank much better.
9. Good copy.
   The text on your website should be professionally written so that it’s easy for people to scan (no long paragraphs), be in the same voice and contain the right keywords on the right pages. Don't have the same content on each page or any content duplicated anywhere. Make sure every page is unique.
10. An area on the home page to update.
    Your should plan your website so that there’s a place for you to update with new information. You should change it often (at least monthly) and you should provide something useful there. When people come to your site, they should see it change on a regular basis. Doing this also keeps search engines coming to your site to see what has changed. The more often you change it, the more often they come.

And there is a lot more that can be done but please make sure your site at least has these items.