You’ll notice a similar pattern among the best websites. They’re not necessarily the prettiest, but they work. Let’s determine what a great website does. A great website is not about being aesthetically beautiful, but rather getting a person to take a specific action such as signing up for a free-trial.
Here’s a list of some of the common elements the best websites have.
- Contact info on top: Don’t make people search for your contact information. Make sure you have the contact information on top of the page so they easily contact you. Include your phone numbers, address and email address.
- Call-to-action: What do you want visitors to do? Most likely you want them to sign up for a free-trial. So tell them. Try to keep this closer the top of the page as well.
- Contact form above the fold: Do you have a contact form above the fold? Don’t just make a generic contact form, make it a form to specifically sign up for a free-trial. Take people by the hand and show them the way.
- Interactive map: A great way for people to know about your physical location is to put an interactive map on your page somewhere. You can find your location on Google Maps and then copy the code they give you. People will be able to see your location and the surrounding areas.
- Upload WOD's: This sounds like a no-brainer, but there are boxes I’ve seen that don’t do this. This is a super easy way to get people coming back to your site. I’d recommend you start blogging outside of WOD’s as well.
- Unique title tags: Don’t use the same title tag on each page. It won’t help your SEO. Also, try to include a keyword in your title tag.
- Killer about us page: This page is your chance to tell people about what makes you different from everyone else. If your about me page is empty, boring or fake, you might scare away some potential customers. You don’t want that, right?
- Social media icons: Again, don’t make people search for ways to connect with you. Make it as easy as possible. Make sure you have your social media icons on your page somewhere. It’s okay if you put them in your footer. Just don’t make people go to Google to search for your social media pages.
These are the major things that the best websites have in common. It’s rare to see one without most of the things in this list.