In today’s fast-paced world, consumers want to find information quickly, easily and often on-the-go. A professional online presence is essential to being competitive in the marketplace. You may already realize the need for a business website. But the questions you have is, “What should our website have on it?” Some essential elements of great websites are outlined below.

Visual Design. A clean, eye catching and current design is important. We’ve all visited those websites, you know the ones that look like they haven’t been updated since 1994. What kind of message did that send to you? Did you wonder if the company was still in business? Did you wonder if they just didn’t really care? You don’t want your viewer to think you put no value or effort into your product or service, because you haven’t put any effort into your website.

Ease of Navigation. Having a website that is easy to navigate is of the utmost importance. There’s no point in spending time putting valuable information on your website, if the user can’t easily find it. People’s attention spans can be short lived. If they can’t immediately find what they’re looking for, they’ll head in another direction.

Clear Message and Content. Being consistent with your message and purpose is a must. Viewers don’t want to read several pages of your website and still be unsure of what you do and what you can offer them.

Informative, helpful content that provides value to your audience will go a long way. This includes an about page, so they can find out more about your company if they’re curious (because a lot of people will be curious.)

Contact Information. Nothing drives me more crazy than checking out a business website and not being able to find some contact information. Viewers want to know where your company is based. And they want to find a phone number and/or email address that they can use to contact someone directly.

This day and age people are on-the-go. They might hop on the internet just to look up your phone number. Make sure it’s there for them!

Of course different businesses and different types of audiences will have different needs. Your business website may need a subscriber or sign-up page. Or it might need a photo gallery, but the above elements are universal. It’s unlikely you’ll find a successful website out there that doesn’t have these essentials.

From your experience are there other elements you think are essential for a successful website?