Five Rockstar Website Must Haves

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Rockstar

The internet is getting filled with new websites and web applications everyday, making your ability to stand out amongst the crowd more difficult and exceedingly more important.

However, competition can be good. Competition can help us not only stay equal in any market, but can allow our own creative instincts to be pushed and prodded into giving something extraordinary to our customers rather than simply giving the same old regurgitated content that the next website has.

So how exactly do we do that? Well, have a rockstar website of course! When you consider that your website is your main marketing vehicle, sometimes you simply need to take a step back and really see this vehicle from your potential customer’s perspective. Every rockstar website has strong elements of the following:

User Friendliness

Do not reinvent the wheel, and while you’re at it, don’t make it difficult to find the wheel. A website should be easy to read, easy to navigate, and easy for potential customers to find common information about you, including:

  • Products or services you offer
  • Detailed information about you
  • Recent blog posts
  • Contact information

Keep in mind that different people surf websites differently, so having main and secondary navigation menus is important, as is having search functionality for database driven websites, and always including a sitemap. Likewise, do not use font and colors that are hard to read, and always bear in mind that older populations and those with disabilities sometimes require screen readers and font resizing to enjoy your website, and therefore include basic ADA compliance throughout your website.

Content Clarity

A website derives it’s foundation from its content. If your content is not engaging, cohesive, and well thought out, well my friend, it might be time to return to the proverbial drawing board. The content of your website should be clear and easy to understand, and your potential customer should know what you want them to ultimately do on your website. This is true for every single page of your website.

Every rockstar knows that they must connect with their audience, otherwise they will be just as lonely as singing in the shower. Your readers are no different. Readers of your website who do not understand you will simply click away, most likely to never return.

Personal Style

Personal style is a double entendre of sorts, because your website must be personal and personable.

On the personal side of things, the very look of your website should be unique and showcase the best your brand, product, and service have to offer. Sometimes this means to ignore flashy gimmicks (think 80’s hair bands) like fancy Javascript and Flash and stick to a more minimal approach (jeans and tees never go out of style), while making sure that you differentiate yourself from other businesses in the market.

On the personable side of things, remember that every single person that interacts with your website has their own expectations for the products and services you offer. Potential customers have the ability to purchase something from you under the assumption that you can connect with them on some personal level and provide them good feelings and a reason to buy from you. This can easily be achieved by remembering that people like personal touches. No one likes to be referred to as “Dear Customer” in an e-mail, and everyone likes offers and products about subjects that are of special interest to them! So get to know your customers, collect and store their individual information they share with you and use it to build personal and lasting advocates for your business.

Engagement

There once was a time when websites served to merely provide information for people “browsing the web”, as if in a dream, you simply floated along admiring all the images and words while you surfed. Those nostalgic days of the internet are sadly gone. Websites of today need interaction. Simply put, you want to engage your potential customers while they are on your website.

The important part of this engagement is to determine what exactly you want them to do while they are on your website. Some typical engagements include the ability to:

  • Find a phone number and call for more information about a product or service
  • Fill out a contact form to request more information about a product or service
  • Connect with you on their favorite social media application like Twitter
  • Read and make comments to blog posts
  • Sign up for an account and do wonderful things like post in forums, post blog articles, and receive personal customer service via chat or electronic ticket system

Remember, customers that can not easily reach you and interact with you will be less likely to trust and be loyal to you. Be open. Be available. Be engaging.

Security

Website visitors want to be sure that your site hasn’t been hacked, and that by visiting your website they are not vulnerable to downloading some horrific piece of computer code that will harm their computer. Be sure to periodically scan your website files to keep worms and spyware off your server, especially in cases of shared hosting, when one computer virus can affect an entire server full of 3000 different websites.

Likewise, your visitors want to make sure that any information that they share with you remains confidential and is not sold to third parties. You should make your privacy and security policies easily accessible to visitors, especially if they are signing up for something on your website.

Finally, if you are selling products and receiving credit card information, the need for a SSL (secure sockets layer) connection is a must have. This will ensure that all information sent and received between you and your customer carries an encryption that will keep this private information secure.

Conclusion

In conclusion, keeping an eye to these five website must haves will help raise your website from mediocre to rockstar status.

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2 Comments

Tom

Love that you noted personal style. This is what ultimately separates sites that become brands opposed to those that never make any real headway. After all, most everyone is ultimately selling the same widgets or services and the only thing that really separates you from the competition is your style.

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