Six things you absolutely have to have on your website

What makes a good website?  Great graphics?  Great content?

The answer is yes. . . . .and, not necessarily.

How about having flash?  Again, not necessarily.

Often, when I am looking over websites, I find that these six things are missing!

Analytics

Analytics are your website metrics.  You know, how many people came, how many views you have, how long they were on your website, those kind of things.  These are absolutely essential if you want to know if it is worth the effort and expense you have made.

It also helps you know where to improve or what needs to improve.

Google Analytics is the top program, but you may also be interested in Quantcast and Omniture.  They are paid options, however Quantcast has a free version which will help you with demographics.

Keywords

You need to research your keywords.  If you have keywords that are not heavily searched, you may not find much traffic.  Therefore, you need to really decipher what keywords you want to use.  They are the cornerstone of search engine optimization.  Figure out the best keywords for your business, and add them to your website in the meta tags.

Pretty Permalinks

Pretty permalinks are the internal links to pages on your website, and a string of code is not attractive to Google and her search engine friends.  Make sure the permalinks include the keywords of your article or page.  Add those keywords to the page and you get a nice keyword density that will help that article or page be found more easily in the search engines.

HTML

HTML is the code in which the world of the web runs on.  Sure there are other types of code such as java, php and jquery which may be included in your website, but it is html that the search engines really pay attention too.  This is why so many website designers are ditching flash based websites.

For instance, headers in your page that are surrounded by the header tags (<h1> or <h2>) magnify the keyword and tell the search engine that this is an important word on the page.

Updated articles/blog

With shear number of websites that are online today, a static, brochure-type website falls short of what is needed to receive the kind of traffic to help meet online goals for your business.  It takes an updated website to keep track with other websites.

A frequently updated blog or blogging platform on your website can help achieve this.  Add a blog to your website and publish articles, news, etc.

Points of Contact/Social Media/Email Newsletter

This is completely a “no brainer.”  Your website must include contact information, and, I believe, multiple forms of contact.  Include your mailing address, a business phone number, a contact form and any social media channels you have.

Also, have an email newsletter.  It can be simple, but you can build an email list (not spamming or selling/renting information of course!), and send emails reminding readers of new posts, products, etc.  There are plenty of email newsletter programs out there such as MailChimp.

If I can help you address any of these problems, let me know!

Photo source: practicalowl