Essential Qualities Your Website Needs To Maximise Its Potential

August 28, 2017

Websites are every bit as important, if not more important than actual shop front in the modern day market. But, there are still. A surprisingly large amount of businesses that only put minimum effort into them. Making them at best basic and at work unworkable for the type and volume of clients that they are there to serve. Of course, this is a huge mistake because your website is the gate that most customers pass through at one time or another. Therefore it should be designed to both create a good impression and catch and convert as many visitors into actual customers as possible. To find out how to do this read on.
Interactive
The new watchword in website design is interactivity. This is all about giving the user a chance to not just look at the material that you provide but also get involved with it in some way. Why? Well, there are a lot of advantage to using interactivity in your website. These include better customer engagement, as well as the chance to ask questions, and get reassurance. Something that can help convert hits into clients.
A great way of including interactivity of your site includes chat boxes, where customers can speak to a member of staff, responsive design that allows users to access your site across a range of devices, and comment sections where customers have the chance to leave feedback. As these facilitate them feeling they have been heard, as well as providing a valuable resource for your company to learn from. Something that is a great way to maximize potential.  
Specialist
Your website will also need the quality of being specialist to maximize its potential. That means the style, the content, and type of information you provide will be specialist to the field that you are working in.
After all most law sites won't include interactive games because they are serious and people come to them for advice, information and contact details in a crisis. That is why you will need to use a company that knows what it takes for law firms to stand out online, without making things cheesy or incongruous with the tone that you are trying to set. As if you get the tone wrong you will be squandering the potential of your site.
User Friendly
One of the essential qualities of any website is that it needs to be user-friendly. As once you have a potential customer visiting it, you need to keep them engaged with your material and direct them where they need to go simply.
Otherwise, you run the risk of frustrating and confusing potential clients. Something that definitely won't go in your favor and can even lose your sales. After all, all they have to do is click away to your competitor's site to find someone else that can offer them a similar service or product without the confusion.
Stylish
Your website should not be seen as a separate entity from all of your other physical or marking products. In fact, it should be the flagship representation of what your company does and the ethos that you do it by.
That means the visuals on the site need to be spot on, as well as all the behind the scenes stuff. This will include your logo and the branding colors that you use. So make sure that any graphics are up to date, and display well online as well as on the printed page.
Photos are also a huge part of the style of your website, so where possible avoid stock photos and anything that seems a little twee or cheesy. Instead, have images prepared for you, as these will help customers get a better sense of how you work and what your company is truly about. Something that can help convince them to use you rather than your competitors.  
Clear
Lastly, above all else to maximize its full potential your website must have a certain clarity to it. There really is no excuse these days to have a page that is cluttered or badly laid out. Even if you have a ton of information and help to share with your potential clients, you can organize it in a way that is clear, and concise and prevent information overload.
Yes, some of this plays into being user-friendly, but it's also about appearing organized and professional. An image that all companies will want to convey. Albeit in a subtle way with the style of their sites. As this can help a potential customer from positive opinions and associations that can lead to a higher conversion to hit rate. Thus maximizing the potential of your presence online.

Mark Asquith

That British podcast guy, Mark is co-founder of Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast host. A Harvard, TEDx, Podcast Movement and Podfest speaker (amongst many more!), he's a wildly approachable Brit and Star Wars/DC Comics geek.

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