Having a website is of utmost importance for every business today and when it comes to designing it, there are many things involved. But the most crucial part to consider here is your users and you should keep them in mind when planning your web design. If you provide your visitors what they want, they will fall in love with your website and spend more time on it. 

However, still many businesses ignore this fact and thus have a low conversion and high bounce rate. To avoid this, our web design Jacksonville experts have compiled a list of 12 important things that people generally look for when interacting with a website. 

If you are someone, planning to get a new website or struggling to keep your users engaged then have a look at the following points.

The Unique Points of Your Business

There are probably many businesses like yours in this world, rather you would also find some near your area. So, it is important to differentiate yourself by highlighting the unique points of your business on your website. This can include writing about your management bios that mention your expertise, years of experience, or any unique points that set you apart from others. 

Here you actually need to address the question “Why should anyone buy from you?” Unfortunately, most business owners miss to address it in their website. But this is what most people indirectly look for in a website when they, especially the ones who are planning to do business with. So, think about your unique selling points and make sure to include a summary of about no more than two to three paragraphs long highlighting those points. Think about what would you like people to take away from this section when they read it. Just be concise while mentioning them. 

A Clear Explanation of What Your Company Offers

As soon as people visit your website, they want to know who you are, what do you do, and what do you provide. Just imagine a scenario where you scrolled through the whole website and do not yet know what does the company does. This is so frustrating. So, it is important that your visitors should instantly know what you do the moment they land on your website. 

Make it a priority to place general information about your services on your homepage where users can see it easily. Just be cautious that the information you provide is not incomplete or something that the users feel is missing. In such a case, they will not take even a second to move on to a competitor. You have to create a balance in providing information that would be enough for the customers to make a buying decision.

Contact Information including your phone number and location

This obviously seems like a common-sense thing, but still, many businesses do not clearly mention their location. They rather prefer to have a contact form on their websites. Yes, that is a pretty important thing too, but if it is the only way through which your visitors can contact you, then you are doing it wrong. Because nowadays people are too busy and cannot wait until you respond. They demand an immediate response. So, make sure to provide a phone number on your website through which they can directly reach you. 

Also, ensure to give people multiple options to contact that satisfies the personal preference of every individual user. Some may prefer to send you an email, while others may call you, or connect through social media. This will help you provide people with more reasons to reach out. 

Also, make sure to show your physical location on your website, even if no one is going to visit it. It will comfort your customers that your business is real and legitimate. 

This is a must and also a great way to build credibility and trust with your customers. Along with phone number and address, you can include some photos that go a long way toward building your credibility. 

Third-party Validation

As a matter of fact, your website will be the first stop for most of your first-time consumers and as there are already millions of other options offering the same product or service as yours, they need to know why should they choose you. 

One major factor that helps them in making their decision is your customer testimonials. We all know that when an individual want to purchase a product or service, he or she first looks for other people’s experience with it. Finding out what your customers have said about you, eases their task to choose the best one.

So, you should always consider providing a section where your customers can express their opinion about your service or product. You can speak to your current and former customers to share the experience they had while working with you. This will prove to be a great way for you to establish the credibility of your business and show your visitors that you are not only a real business but are also pretty good at what you do. Thus, helping your business look more trustworthy and impressive and putting people’s minds at ease. 

Additionally, positive and relevant reviews will bring in more customers to your business. So, make sure to encourage your customers to leave their feedback on your website. You can add your testimonial section throughout the pages of your site or link to the outside review sources to establish yourself as reputable. 

Consistently Updated Information

Imagine visiting the site of a company that you have heard of having a good reputation and landing on events that have taken place years ago. This will not only be frustrating but you will also not have a great impression of the company.

Customers need to see what the company is doing now, so providing the present updates of your business is a must. Also make sure to update information like your phone number, or address, in case if it is ever changed. 

Make sure to regularly conduct an audit of every page of your website in order to ensure that your website accurately reflects your business as it is today to your customers. 

Examples of Your Best Work

Many businesses today treat their website as their personal portfolio where they usually showcase their work in a way that makes it easy for consumers to choose them quickly. Even when visiting a particular website, people look for what the company has done so far. If you are a photographer or an artist, you can include a gallery showcasing your best work and you should be definitely doing it. While if you are an internet marketing kind of business then you should focus on incorporating the projects you have done so far and their case studies as well. Whereas, a sales or development business can talk about the companies they have sold to or display their sales number.

Do not ever be shy to show off your work, no matter what it is. Just make sure to be creative while doing so. 

Social Media Links

As we have already discussed above including various ways to contact your business, social media links are one of them. You must already have built your presence on multiple social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Now just make sure that you provide a link on your website that takes your audience directly to these platforms. This will help the people who have visited your website for the first time to follow and remember your business later. 

But if you do not mention your social media handles, people will assume that you are not present there and thus they won’t follow you. And in case if they need the same services as yours in the future, they will forget about you and turn to your competitors. You never know who would be keen to follow you, so integrating these platforms is a must. 

This will also help you to keep people interested and engaged with your brand, thus helping your boost your conversion rate.

A Professional Blog

If you are an expert in your industry, a blog is a great way to share your thoughts and philosophies related to your niche. However, it is not necessary for every site to include a blog section, but including it will go a long way to impress your potential and existing customers. 

However, before you dive into adding a blog section to your website, it is worth considering how much time will you be able to contribute here. If you think that you can keep up with it, then you should definitely make it a point to add such a section. You can also talk about projects you are working on, or give some tips to the new learners trying to break in. 

New to blog writing, refer to our article on “How to write a blog?”

Valuable Content

Content is king, in fact, good content is king. If your site is filled with pages that have poorly written content that offers nothing to the visitors, then speaking franking adding it was a complete waste of your time. When people visit a website, they are in search of information and your content should fulfill their requirements. So, think of what visitors will really want to see on your site, and then make sure that you that on your site. If your customers find it useful then will spend more time on your website and even approach you in case, they need something that your company offers. This will also help to build authority with Google and provide value to your customers. 

Thus, your customers will be more likely to trust you and keep coming back. 

Easy Navigation

Whenever a user visits a site, he is definitely in search of something and easy navigation can help him or her reach there without any difficulty. But if they get lost and could not find what they wanted, then they will definitely get frustrated and leave your site. So, we can say that this is the most important thing that the user desire to have on the website when going through it. 

Hence, make sure to create a layout that is easy to understand and will take the users where they want to go without any effort. Rather, you will end up driving away from a new customer away or leave them clicking through irrelevant pages. 

Security 

People are cautious about sharing their personal details, so they always check whether the website is secure or not before sharing their information. Even if it is an email address, they will insert it in a form of a site that is not secure. So make sure that you invest some time and effort into securing your site with an SSL certificate. It helps to protect the privacy of data that is exchanged between a customer and a website. This will thus ease their fear of providing personal information. 

It will also help you save your website from hackers, improve your website speed, as well as reduce your bounce rate. 

Awards, Certifications, Or Associations

When people think of purchasing a product or service online, they will obviously go for the best one, and displaying the awards or certifications you have received is one of the ways that prove you to be one of the bests. So, if have been awarded or recognized through the years you have been working, make sure to show it off. This helps you show your customers that you are an expert in your field as well as build the credibility of your business. 

Having a website is great in itself, but having a website that people want to see, increases your search engine rankings, website traffic, conversion rate, and thus your business revenue. So, any website design company will always advise you to consider what your audience is looking for when designing a website and all the above-mentioned points will help you achieve that.