10 Elements of a Professional Website For Small Businesses in Melbourne

The major reason why small businesses are skeptical about getting a website is that they think the entire process of website development is overwhelming. But, if you have the right people doing it for you, you certainly wouldn't feel that way!.

In this article, you will find the most important elements that a professional website should have, and hence, you would be able to reconstruct the image of your future website in the easiest way possible.

The 10 elements of web design are explained below:

1. Professional layout & Design

The layout & design of any website is the first impression for the users. The look and feel of the website is what instigates the users to stay longer on your website to browse through the same.

There are certain important aspects that come under a professional layout, which includes responsive and mobile-friendly web design & proper use of whitespaces. Having a responsive and mobile-friendly website ensures that your website is responsive to all the devices, enhancing the ranking results on the search engines, and increasing user retention.

Proper use of whitespace is also essential as it makes it look clean, readable, and properly oriented. Websites that do not have proper whitespace (not necessarily white in color, it is basically the empty space utilized to segregate information and design the layout of the website) are not liked by the user, as it might just decrease the readability of the text and graphics.

Thus, inculcating proper whitespaces in website designing is necessary, to make your web design Melbourne an effective one.

2. Call to Action Buttons

Call to action buttons like "Contact now", "download a free e-book", "Get in touch", and many more prompt the users to take action.

They not only benefit you as a business but also help your potential customers who are willing to get in touch with you. Having a call to action button on the different pages of your website has evidently enhanced the conversion rates as if it is placed right after an informative piece of information or a service that the users might be interested in, the call to action button is sure to be clicked.

These are beneficial for lead generation, and hence have the potential to attract more leads that could be your possible customers. A digital agency like Make My Website caters to all the important elements that are required for a stunning web design Melbourne.

3. Easy Navigation

This is the most obvious component of any website that aims to grab user attention. Users should be able to navigate through the website easily, without being confused about what happens next. The navigation bar on the top of the website, the one under the header where the different tabs can be located, should be hassle-free and must allow the user to navigate to whichever page they want.

For websites that have many pages, there should be dropdown menus (the sub-categories) to avoid putting in a lot of pages together on the header. This would help and organize the page efficiently.

There are many other things that need to be included like the navigation bar should have a logo that should be redirected to the homepage of the website. There are 5 major pages that must be included which are: Home, About Us, Our Services, Testimonials, and Contact Us, which are subject to change as per your line of business.

The navigation should be easy and effective on all devices, therefore, it must be aligned with the tablet and mobiles too. Your local digital agency would be able to do it for you.

4. Your Story

Your website markets you 24/7/365, it does not have any opening hours, which means you have an opportunity to tell your story to everyone who visits your website even after the close of business! Sounds exciting right?

This forms the major part of your "About Us" page which can be termed as "Our Story", "Brand Story", etc too.

The users would want to know how you started off, from where you started, and how genuine you are as a business. An effective piece of content in the About Us section allows the users to have insights about you as a company, and the kind of work you do, your work ethics, culture, and beliefs in providing your products and services.

For example, Make My Website, a digital agency based in Melbourne has showcased its story and testimonials that has maintained the good will throughout.

5. Be Transparent

Your website represents you on the world wide web which is not limited to your local area, but attracts users from across the globe. Be transparent about the services you offer, avoid any hidden costs or conditions associated with your services, and let people know what you have to offer.

Your "Our Services" or "Our Products" page endorses what you offer to your customers, therefore it is important that the users know about it as soon as they navigate through this page.

For instance, if you have an e-commerce website, list your products with the exact specifications and costs to make it a user-friendly purchase.

6. Contact Information

This is written separately to highlight the fact that the aim of building a website is to have an identity online and get people to contact you easily. Conversions only increase if you are able to be reached out easily. Your contact information should be easily accessible by the users. Make sure you do have a separate Contact us page in your navigation bar, from where the users can possibly contact you.

Not only this, but you also need to include this information on the header and the footer so that even if they are on the homepage or on the services page, they are able to contact you. This gives them a sense of satisfaction that the business they are dealing with is genuine and is ready to help them whenever needed.

7. Adding a Blog/News Section

Apart from the major pages that must be included in the website, adding a blog or news section generates credibility amongst the readers and also contributes to the search engine optimization. You can utilize this platform to educate your customers about how unique you are, the various things you do to provide customer satisfaction or to make them familiar with your work ethics and culture. This engages the audience and develops a sense of trust.

If you are regular in creating content for your customers as a business, you have the potential to stand out from the rest of your competitors.

There are several topics specific to your industry that you can write about and optimize your website. Digital agency like Make My Website offers content writing services too, along with offering web design Melbourne for you to have a professional website.

8. Links to the Socials

Linking your website to social media pages like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc is extremely important. Your company's social media accounts are a reflection of what you do on a daily basis as a business. This enhances your credibility as they know you would engage with them whenever they shoutout.

Having social proof on your website also encourages them to stay connected to you even if they are not availing of your services at that very moment. Once they connect with you on the socials and see your posts quite often, they would know who to reach out in case they need the kind of services/products that you offer.

This is like a win-win, as it also promotes search engine optimization, allows sharing on various platforms, develops links for SEO purposes and improves the overall visibility and ranking of the website.

9. Security on your website

In the era of technological advancements, when even if someone is not tech-savvy, he would know the basics of staying informed and secured on the internet, it is important to have a secured website.

It will not be right to say that we can avoid the vulnerability of the internet, but having an SSL certificate installed does decrease the chances and assures that the information on your website is safe.

It is an important element to have on your website if you are a customer-oriented business, and especially if you are selling products online which requires sharing of personal information too.

10. SEO plugins

Even If you do not opt for an expert to conduct search engine optimization for your website, your website should have at least the basic SEO done. If your website is developed on WordPress, Yoast SEO is a plugin that can be installed to give a kickstart to the SEO for your website.

There are many different things to consider while doing SEO, but basic SEO can be done with the help of plugins of limited information that you may have.

As mentioned before, adding fresh content to your website also optimizes your website. Social linking and bookmarking enhances backlinking, which is again a contributor towards SEO. Hence, if basic SEO is done, you are good to go with a live site.

These are the most important elements of a website, and if you choose an expert web designer like those at Make My Website- a digital agency based in Melbourne, to do the job for you, all these components would be covered.