Nowadays anyone with the most basic knowledge can set up a website about whatever they want.

Whether it’s a site to blog about your favorite restaurants and cafes, or an online store to promote your business’ products, at the drop of a hat, you can have your own website.

Even though creating a website might be quick and easy, it takes much more to develop a successful website than the basics. There are certain website features that every successful website includes.

Keep reading to find out more about the things every website needs.

1. A Catchy URL

You might think that your URL is simply an address for your website. After all, you don’t need a fancy home address to persuade people to come visit you – why would it be any different with a website?

You need a catchy URL that people can search easily. But it also has to make sense for your business. This means that it needs to reflect your brand name.

2. Essential Info

Everyone has visited a website that has an excellent design with beautiful and useful features. But there’s sometimes one thing missing – essential info.

If you’ve spent several seconds on a website and you still don’t know what the website is all about, it’s definitely lacking.

That’s why it’s important to include essential info about your website. The best info allows the reader to understand in just a couple of lines exactly what you’re all about.

However, the info you include really depends on what kind of website you want to have. For instance, if you’re a cafe, you’ll need to include your menu and location. Whereas, if you’re a consultancy firm, you’ll need to have a list of services you provide.

Having correct into on your site helps with your SEO efforts.  Getting links to your site can help boost your efforts.  It can be time consuming, and is sometimes worth it to hire a professional outreach company.  Check out our preferred partner and their service:

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3. Contact Us Section

Have you ever been frustrated trying to find contact information for a company on their website?

It’s important to have a “contact us” section. This includes an email address, location address, and telephone number.

You should allow users to click on your email address to immediately get in touch. Plus, you should also include a “click to call” button on your website to allow users to contact you with ease.

4. Easy-to-Navigate

You might be surprised to find out that an easy-to-navigate website is great for your SEO (search engine optimization) and rankings on Google’s results page.

But what are the ingredients of an easy-to-navigate website?

This includes everything from clear buttons, such as “Contact Us”, “About Us”, and “Online Store”. It’s best to keep things simple and clear.

A great way to judge whether you have an easy-to-navigate website is to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Imagining yourself as a visitor to your website allows you to identify any issues.

5. Secure Website

Making sure you have a secure website is important to ensure that you build trust with your visitors. However, it’s especially important if you’re looking to sell products and services on your website.

You need to make sure you get an SSL certificate to encrypt communications between you and your customers. This is because people will be transferring social security numbers, credit card details and other private information with you.

6. Social Media Presence

The days when social media was merely a way for teenagers to chat with their friends are long over. Today, having a social media presence is essential for any successful website and online business.

With so many social media networks out there from Twitter and Facebook to LinkedIn and Snapchat, it’s difficult to know which one to focus your efforts on.

This mostly depends on your target customers. For instance, if you’re targeting young people, Snapchat and Facebook are probably the best options. Whereas, if you’re targeting business people in your sector, you might find Twitter and LinkedIn is more effective at promoting your website.

7. Mobile Friendly Website

Did you know that the majority of Google searches come from smartphones?

With the increasing use of smartphones and tablets to surf the web, it’s important to make sure your website is mobile friendly.

If you don’t have a mobile-friendly website, users will quickly become frustrated and leave your site. You want users to stick around because this means they’re more likely make a purchase.

8. Great Content

Unless you have great content that people actually want to enjoy, what’s the point of your website?

SEO-optimized content is simply one of the things every website needs. But this is not the end of it.

The best content also engages your readers. This can be achieved by offering insightful and useful information, advice or providing entertaining and fun content.

Furthermore, you can produce content in many different ways. This includes everything from blog posts and video content to photos and infographics.

9. Good Hosting

Hosting is the mechanics of your website operation. It’s important to have your website on one of the mainstream top providers. This costs money but it’s certainly worthwhile.

Without good web hosting, your website will be slow and ugly. But it also damages your SEO-ranking on Google and other search engines. You simply can’t afford to not take hosting seriously.

10. Great Design

Of course, it’s important that style doesn’t trump substance. But this doesn’t mean that design doesn’t draw people to your website.

With so many great web design templates, there’s simply no excuse for not creating a website with an excellent design. If you aren’t comfortable with your design skills, you may need to consider hiring a professional.

The Essential Website Features

Many websites concentrate all of their efforts on certain features without giving any time to another important feature.

But it’s essential that you cover all your bases by including all the essential features that led to a successful website.

Now you know you the essential website features, you can get to work creating a website that puts you on the path towards success.