These days it’s hard to imagine how to run a business without having a website. We all use Google or other Search Engines (Yahoo, Bing) to find a service or product. Laundry service, car repair, tax advisor are examples of how people find providers. You may rely on being found by potential customers through catalogs like Yellow pages or being recommended, so-called “word of mouth”, but still the majority uses the internet to find what they need. As we see, having a website is crucial. But what features should a website have to be competitive?  Here are 5 the most important.

1. Speed

It can be a super fancy website, very modern, very creative…but if it is loading too slow, your visitor may leave it until it shows its full content. Research shows that most people close a page if it takes more than 10 seconds to load. Of course, the faster the website loads the better, but for a different conceptual website, it can be a different speed threshold. For example, a simple website with several pages shouldn’t load more than 2-3 seconds, as there is no heavy content. E-commerce websites with 1000 items or websites with tons of media may not load so fast, but 5-6 seconds is pretty a good result. Always try to optimize your website, make it as fast as you reasonably can. Relying on your estimation, if you are not personally satisfied with a website speed, most likely your visitors won’t be either, so you need to discuss all possible options for optimization with your webmaster, like Web Design Agency BereshkaWeb. Also, the speed factor is very important for Google’s ranking. Google wants to list first the best platforms where users may find what they are looking for. So Google algorithms take into account not only what content you have, but how fast it loads, how quickly people leave your site or not (is called bounce rate).

2. Responsive design

Today to have a responsive website is a standard. We do internet surfing not only on our laptops or PCs but also using other different devices like tablets and mobile phones. Don’t you hate it when you open a website and it doesn’t correspond to your smartphone screen and you have to enlarge it with fingers to read the text? It’s horrible and in 2021 it should not exist anymore, especially when it’s so easy to follow modern standards.

3. User-friendly

I feel dizzy when I go to a website that has too many blocks of information on a homepage. I just can’t decide where I should go first and your goal is to help me, as a user. You may lead where your visitor should go first. The color scheme is a very good helper for this too. For example, elements marked by red attract more attention, and blue is associated with trust. Place important information like contacts or addresses at the top bar or at least have an easy way to navigate through your website’s menu.

4. Modern

A modern website is fast, responsive, and user-friendly? Today the most popular trend is those that have many sections on a homepage with a slider at the top. Usually images or video. The new trend is to place the animation, but it requires more time, code knowledge, and creative ideas from a creator. Modern websites have contact forms, it offers subscriptions to news, sometimes even functionality to log in, quizzes, and other interactive features. Check your competitors and stay oriented on their style choice or be even more creative.

5. Content

A website should provide clear information about what you offer. Search engines also appreciate good content, it has to be unique with some relative keywords. There is a rule regarding content. It has to be useful and/or interesting. It’s important to pay attention to its structure, nobody wants to scroll down an article of 10 pages. Just add pagination numbers and it will be easier for people to read to the end. People have no time to read “water”, try to write on substance. Add pictures or videos, it can be boring to read just text. Images can be very eye-catching. Also, it’s nice to use lists or name articles like “Top 10 something”, “Best 20 of”…but this theme is for another article about copywriting.