When creating websites, many people place their focus on superficial elements only. They include design and visuals in general. But great websites are not only aesthetically pleasing. They also follow practices for SEO, usability, conversion, optimization, and technical development.
Never overlook important elements, as that can have disastrous effects in the long run if you exclude them from your website. Instead, you need to invest extra time and effort to boost website performance.
That way, you won’t have to revamp your whole website every now and then and spend even more money on various fixes and forced upgrades. Rather, you should implement the often overlooked website elements you are about to see and dominate your niche in the long run.
Knowledge base
You might be wondering how a knowledge base can have a positive impact on a website. However, a knowledge base, or user documentation, can really work wonders for you. User documentation is one of the most important parts of product development. Visitors need a reference point if they want to understand how your products work.
When it comes to digital products, user documentation is one of the best ways to explain all aspects of a given product. On top of that, user documentation can be very beneficial to a business in the long run.
First of all, user documentation boosts customer satisfaction. If there is easy access to documentation that can guide your prospects through the most basic to the most complex features of a product, they no longer need support agents. Instead, they can help themselves.
In addition, having a consistent reference point can alleviate some of the stress and pressure on your team. As many problems can be fixed this way. If you are still unsure about this issue, keep in mind that there are some very successful companies that have already implemented knowledge bases and can serve as great user documentation examples that you can look up to. These companies include Slack, KnowAll, Google, DigitalOcean, and so on.
Live chat
Live chat has become huge, and no one can see when its popularity will stop growing. If this is not convincing enough, there are more than enough live chat stats that should point you in the right direction.
You should definitely consider installing a live chat functionality on your website. This feature will not only benefit your customers but will also benefit your business in many different ways.
First of all, a good live chat functionality can improve the support experience for customers. With it, a business can give customers a way to reach support in the exact moment when they have questions or problems they can’t solve. Moreover, live chat functionality is a great tool that can help you connect with prospective customers and give them confidence in your product. According to Forrester, customers who use chat are 2.8 times more likely to convert than those who don’t.
Finally, live chat enables your agents to build better rapport with customers. When there is an ongoing chat, agents can track a customer’s tone and sentiment and adjust their style to best fit the situation.
When an agent is mirroring style or adjusting formality to match that of a customer, they can quickly build better rapport and establish a friendly connection.
Website security
Seeing that WordPress is powering more than one-third of all websites today, it might be wise to shed some light on the WordPress website security issue. WordPress security is a serious topic. We have seen too often how one infected WordPress website can compromise a large number of other websites through cross-site scripting.
As with any CMS, the more popular it gets, the more security issues appear, but that only means that you should do whatever you can to boost your website’s security. Implement proven security measures and hire expert WordPress malware removal services every now and then. Also, make sure that all payment details are protected with numerous security layers on your website.
However, before you get on with some more sophisticated methods to protect your website, start with these simple tips:
- Make sure that your log-in details are solid (the password needs to be strong).
- Ensure that there is proper system administration.
- Check the quality of hosting and servers.
- Have a systematic approach to troubleshooting.
Take some time to educate yourself on WordPress and what you can do as the main administrator of your own website.
If you’d like to learn other ways of securing your WordPress website, you might want to check out some security plugins such as Wordfence, Sucuri, or iThemes security. This blog, Wordfence vs sucuri, is an excellent comparison between the two most popular options.
Social sharing buttons
Social sharing is one of the more important reasons why many people use the internet. People will share anything they deem entertaining or valuable. For this reason, you should always place social sharing buttons next to content like blog posts, news, events, images, and videos.
Social sharing should be encouraged because Google and other search engines have made social engagement a part of their algorithms that determine search rankings and page authority. Of course, the more shares your business gets, the higher are the chances that more people will visit your website and do business with you.
Website messaging
The most common questions visitors might have when they land on your website can be effectively answered with well-placed and well-written messaging.
Website copy should work to form a narrative that tells the story of your business.
- Who are you?
- What makes you special, and what value do you offer?
If you can answer these questions for users straight from the website content, your conversion rates may improve drastically. Also, it’s important to mention the recent trend towards a more simple and clean layout. People refuse to read big paragraphs of text, so give them succinct and hard-hitting phrases and calls-to-action that both drive home your value proposition and boost engagement.
Customer email templates
You should definitely enable automatic email notifications on your website.
They can be triggered for a number of different reasons:
- New user sign-up
- Newsletter subscription
- Online purchase
- Lost password
- Technical support inquiry
These are the more common triggers that result in users receiving an auto-reply. So, spend some time creating email templates that provide users with exactly what they need to feel confident doing business with your company. For instance, place your logo and make sure that your visuals are matching your brand image.
Also, stay professional and keep one unique tone throughout all your copy. This is the only way to remain reputable in the eyes of your customers.
Final words
Take all of these tips seriously, and make sure you implement whatever you can to boost your chances of success. Remember, these elements are often overlooked by a lot of businesses. Hence, making sure that you are the one that implements them might just set you apart from your rivals.
This difference, a few elements or tricks, is what usually makes one business different from the rest. And that can greatly help with conversion rates and growth in the long run.