Having a website in 2018 is more than advisable, it’s an imperative. Whether you’re a small business owner, a musician, an artist or even a gamer looking to make money from streaming, owning a website is a priority if you have any hopes of engaging with an audience over the internet.
The game has changed, too.
Running a website in 2010 was a very different experience to running one now. Often it meant more work in terms of design and initial building but less efficacy when it came to user experience. Currently, building a website is easier than ever and because of that, or perhaps in spite of it, customers and internet users expect vastly more functionality.
Therefore, as a website owner, you should be aware of a number of absolutes that every website should have in 2018:
Dedicated support
Since businesses rely on websites for so much of their revenue, having a website fail for whatever reason is usually a costly mistake. Therefore, as a website owner, it’s important that you always have support in the event of something going wrong.
When designing a website, it’s often a good idea to host with a reputable service provider, one that offers 24-hour service in the event of an eventuality that would take your website offline. And while you could choose not to have support, it’s much like the proverbial parachute: you’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
Chatbots
For customers that demand evermore punctual service, chatbots are a solution for continuing support even if you aren’t available. This is especially helpful if you have customers who reside in different time zones all over the world.
Chatbots can also provide up-front information to your visitors without them having to dig for it all over your website. They can sell services and products as well as make appointments. And while their use might seem futuristic and advanced, they’re remarkably cheap to implement as well as easy to use.
SEO content
If you’re to have any hope of reaching as many people as possible, then having your content optimized for search engines is a must. This means tailoring content – your images, written sections as well as videos – to work naturally and seamlessly with your overall content strategy. This means created keyword-based page titles, relevant meta tags, utilizing responsive web design and ensuring that your site links to other sites, as well as having a decent number of sites linking back to it. This can be an intricate process and often requires a fairly in-depth knowledge of SEO to achieve the right balance. It’s for this reason that a lot of SEO is outsourced.
Mobile-friendly design
The time of the PC is in the past; the time of the mobile device is now – and it’s growing. This isn’t surprising when, according to OuterBox, over 125 million US consumers own smartphones, 62% have made a purchase on a smartphone within the last month, and 80% used a mobile device inside a physical store to look up product information and compare prices.
It’s a well-documented trend that shows no sign of slowing down – especially when considering how ubiquitous smartphones are and how many more are introduced into the market every year. And with so much business occurring through mobile devices, ensuring that your site is optimized for mobiles is a no-brainer.