Basic features for a professional website

What are the key features that make a business website stand out? The internet offers plenty of opportunities to build websites easily and quickly. Unfortunately, this convenience is the reason why we see thousands of amateurs and scammers rise every day trying to extract personal information such as bank accounts and credit cards. This phenomenon has made many people reluctant to use the internet, especially for online shopping.

Unfortunately, these scammers also hurt others who try to use the internet to earn money.

So how can you gain visitors’ trust?

Most scammers’ websites have a short lifespan, are pre-made, and have an amateurish look. So, it would be best if you took every opportunity you can to show your professionalism. Your website’s design, products and services, and customer support are crucial elements to show your professional level.

You don’t have a second chance to make a first impression.

The visitor of your website should face a modern professional website with an elegant design and a clear goal. If the website is pre-made and looks amateurish, visitors will find it suspicious and will probably leave.

A good web design company with experience in building professional websites can help you get a stylish website. In addition to the elegant design, the website should have the following essential elements.

Name and Hosting (Domain & Hosting)

How do you think the average visitor will react if your website is hosted for free on blogger.com under mycompany.blogger.com?

Avoid cheap domains with strange .to or similar endings. If you choose free hosting, your website will be slow, with few features and ads from other companies. The cost of names and hosting has dropped to such low levels that there’s no reason to choose free solutions.

Logo

The logo is a representative element of your company. An elegant corporate logo is a must. You will need an experienced graphic designer to create a beautiful logo for you. If your company is known offline, visitors to your site will immediately recognize you by your logo. The most common place for the logo is on the top left. If you have a nicely-recognized logo, don’t hide it!

Content

The content of your website should be specific to the nature of your business. However, you can include a lot of relevant content that you think might be of interest to your visitors. If you update the content often and it’s useful and interesting for your visitors, be sure that this will greatly help your traffic and reputation. If you don’t know what to write, then you can outsource professionals for content writing.

Creating a List of Potential Customers

You should collect the data of the visitors coming to your website. Rarely is anyone convinced on the first visit. It would help if you had an easy way to get their contact details and to be able to contact them again until the purchase is complete (or whatever you want). Otherwise, you might lose some of your potential customers. Internet technology is ideal for creating a lead acquisition list. All you need is a form where the visitor can enter their name and email.

Why give personal details?

You need to offer something in return. For example, an ebook with free tips or a free training seminar or a discount or subscription to an emagazine of interest to the visitor or participation in a competition or put your imagination to work. There are over 100 ways to entice your visitors.

To convince the visitor to give their contact details more easily, they should trust you. If your website is well designed, if you offer valuable content, if you clearly state that you aren’t going to sell or share this personal information, then the chances of being trusted are significantly increased.

Privacy

With all these scammers circulating and the “companies” selling personal information, personal data protection has become one of the most critical issues. To create a page on your website that clearly explains to your visitors how you use the personal information you collect:

How will the data be used?
Do they share data with third parties?
Are they sold to third parties?
Are you responsible for the websites you link to?
If you collect credit card information, what happens to it after purchase?
What steps do you take to secure this information?
How can they contact you for questions?
How can someone stop receiving promotional emails from you?

Who we are – About Us

This page is an essential element of a professional website. Your potential customers are not in direct contact with you face to face. They want to know who they are dealing with.

On this page, you can include:

A short CV (of the company or yours)
Photo (s)
Description of key features and activities
The purpose of the website or company
Contact info
Possible credentials, for example, testimonials of famous clients, press reviews, interviews, certificates

Testimonials – Customer Reviews

These testimonials further increase your credibility and the value of what you offer. The best testimonials are those that include complete customer information (must give permission).

The most convincing testimonies are videos, the slightly fewer ones with audio and the less convincing (which unfortunately can be easily created by a scammer) plain text. So try to persuade your customers to offer such testimony with video or at least audio. The more satisfied they are, the easier it will be to convince them.

Feedback

You can show in practice that you are doing what is possible for your customers and you are really interested in their opinion by having a specific way of receiving feedback. You can do this in at least three ways:

feedback form on a separate page
script on each page where a simple click displays a feedback form
polls where you do mini polls for your customers’ opinion on a topic

Security

If you make purchases on your website (e.g., online store), you must do everything to ensure a secure website. For example, in the area where users put their personal information and credit card details, you should use SSL technology with 128bit or 256bit encryption.

All modern browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer show if the page has an SSL security certificate. Most users are familiar with this, and when they do not see the well-known “padlock” of SSL, they hesitate to give their personal details, and the sale can be lost.

Many large companies and resellers sell SSL Security Certificates. Well-known companies are Verisign, Comodo, Geotrust, and others.

Copyright

You should display copyright information on every page of your website. You can put the copyright at the bottom (footer) of the website. To make it more distinct, it’s good to write the word copyright and the © symbol, because in some countries, one or the other is not recognized. For example:

Ensuring the existence of these key elements in your website will boost your credibility and increase your chances of success and profits.