Is Your Website Missing These Elements?

As a firm, we design and develop websites in-house. Primarily, we build out custom websites for our clients on WordPress, however, we can also use platforms such as Shopify and Squarespace.

No matter what platform your website is developed on, all website development Franklin should be focused on ensuring that some crucial elements are included. Here’s a quick checklist of things we want to make sure you have.

Compelling Header Copy

Studies have shown that users spend three seconds or less on a site before they decide whether or not they want to stay. In those three seconds, you have to capture their attention, show them what you do, and convince them that they should care.

Your header is the first thing a user’s eye catches and scans across. Your header is your first impression, your first chance to say something to your viewer. Therefore, you need your header to show the user what you do and compel them to get involved with your business.

Header Navigation

During website development Franklin, the header is one of the first things we organize in our wireframe. The header is tricky to organize because we really focus on narrowing it down to as few links as possible: the most important, most compelling links only. The rest of your index is put into your footer.

Calls to Action Throughout

Calls to action are elements of your site (usually buttons or links) that guide your viewer toward your goal. Depending on the goal for your site and what you are trying to get as a conversion, your calls to action might encourage the viewer to make a call, click a link, sign up for your email marketing, start a free trial, or do just about anything else.

So, once you pick out your “goal,” your site needs to be set up to guide users toward that action throughout your site. Don’t just put your call to action in your header or at the bottom of your page! You have more than one opportunity to create conversions with well-placed calls to action.

Footer Menu

Sometimes we think of a footer menu like a kitchen junk drawer because the footer menu is the solution to all of the difficulties of organizing your header menu. Like we said before, your header should feature only the most important pages on your site. All of the pages that don’t make it into your header, then, have a home in your footer. Kind of like how miscellaneous kitchen utensils can live in the junk drawer.

Sometimes we see sites without footer menus, which usually means that there are pages on your site that aren’t indexed on your homepage. Don’t do that! Make sure all of the informational pages on your site you spent time creating are easily accessible in either your header or footer.

The last element your footer needs is a final call to action. If someone scrolled all the way to the bottom, make sure to capture that last bit of their curiosity! You don’t want them to have to scroll all the way back up to the top to contact you.

Landing Pages

Landing pages are standalone web pages that visitors “land” on when they click on a link to your site. Your homepage is a landing page, but other landing pages can be created for traffic to arrive on from ads or other campaigns.

Landing pages help increase your conversion rates; they are focused on a specific objective that matches the reason that the user clicked onto the page.

Your homepage was designed with a specific intention, so if you ever have a campaign that needs a different kind of conversion, you can (and should!) use landing pages to focus on that motive. Linking a specific campaign to a general page, like your homepage, will be confusing for users who click. The message of your link should match the message of your page.

So, how does your site measure up? Is your website missing any of these elements? Unsure how to implement them?

Our website development Franklin firm would love to help you add them in and get your site up to speed. Send us a shout! We’re happy to help.