If you’re a business owner, then having a presence on the internet is a must if you want to make the most of it. We live in the information age, where people expect to be able to find businesses of all sorts on the internet. However, there are some business owners out there that have their own reasons for not establishing an online presence, but there’s no real way of justifying such an action.

Additionally, having a website is only one part of the puzzle, having a good website is what’s most important. Which brings me to the topic of this article, below I have outlined 5 features that every website should have, if it wants to make the most of itself on the internet.

1. A Domain Name

The very first thing you should acquire, for your website, is its own domain name. This name should represent the company, its service, its products, and its brand. You should also go for a .com domain, primarily because of popularity. There are many domain name providers out there, like GoDaddy and Dynadot that you can use to check the availability of a domain name. Take as much time as you need, to choose the right domain name. You don’t want something that is too long, you don’t want something that’s difficult to spell or is hyphenated. Your domain name should be short, memorable and represent your company, all-in-one.

2. Use Google Analytics

In order to get the most out of your website, you need all the appropriate metrics about your visitors while on your site. The best way for you to acquire this information is by integrating Google Analytics into your website. There are many of these analytics programs and services that you can choose from, but Google Analytics is one that is most recommended, this is because it’s very powerful and it’s free to use. With this service, you can track almost every statistic about your site, such as its number of visitors, where they are coming from, what they do when on your website, and how long they stay before moving on.

Integrating this analytics service into your website is very simple. All you need to do is create your own account, verify it, of course, and then add a tracking code to your site. They’ll usually provide you with instructions on how to do it, so there’s nothing to worry about.

3. Have a Call to Action

There is literally no substitute for a really great Call to Action (CTA) on your website. You’ll want to include this CTA on many different pages and many different times on a web page. It’s also important to give your visitors some kind of means of contacting you, whether on your posts or contact page.

There are some website developers that like to add an additional box to each web page that provides the visitor with their contact information, to increase its visibility and to get the best possible conversion rates. On the flip side, you want to try as hard as possible to ensure your site doesn’t look like a great big sales pitch, or it will put your visitors off. To get the best balance, you will have to play around with different elements on the site and test things.

4. Make Your Site Responsive

Visitors that arrive on your website will do so on many different devices, whether it be a laptop, a computer, a tablet or a smartphone. It’s for this reason that you want your website to be responsive. There are several ways that you can do this. The first is to create a separate website altogether, one that has a similar domain to your main site, such as m.sitename.com. These types of website are created solely for mobile users and run on a separate website, that has its own URL, domain, host, etc. The second option available to you is to use a responsive theme, one that will automatically adjust according to the device it’s being viewed on.

This option is definitely much cheaper and quicker to utilize. Having a mobile site is also important today because it’s now a ranking factor in all the major search engines.

5. Have an About Us Page

I’ve already touched briefly on having a page on your site that people, at the very least, can use to contact you. However, having an About Us page is a lot more than that. The reason why it’s so important you have such a page is because it builds trust between the company and the potential client. Your About Us page is where you get to tell your story, as it is one of the first pages that your visitors will visit when they arrive on your page. So you want to ensure that it’s solid and that it does a great job in building trust between you and your clients.

Below are some tips that you may want to use when attempting to create an effective About Us page:

• Use Visuals – you don’t just want to tell them your story, you also want to present your story, through illustrations.
• Mention the best things about your company – don’t just state that your company is the best. Tell your potential clients how using your service is beneficial to them.
• Be Sincere – don’t exaggerate, be honest. It’s not difficult to tell when someone is blowing their own trumpet, so keep it honest.

—AUTHOR INFO—

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is a former IT Manager who now runs his own computer support website where you writes extensively on computer related issues and topics.