In collaboration with our friends at Team XYZ
More people are going online today than ever before. In fact, current usage statistics say 62% of the world’s population is now online.1
Your website is one of the best ways to tap into this growing market. It is a key tool for generating new customers for your business by promoting your product or service.
The right design on your website can lend credibility and professionalism to your company, be fully customized to meet your business’s needs, and help you reach potential customers all over the world.
But what features are most important to unlocking your website’s full potential and driving more customers to your business?
We’ll share seven successful business websites that are prime examples of the key features that make a successful company website.
1. Make your business website easy to find
Visibility is crucial for your business’ website. Choosing a short, memorable domain name is a great first step in making your website easy for your target audience to find.
Keyword domain names can also offer a great opportunity to rank in relevant searches for your product.
An example of this idea in practice is all-in-one property management platform Property.xyz.
Property.xyz is a free-to-use property listing platform designed by property investors, for property investors.
The company’s long term aim is to become the world’s leading property management platform.
That’s why they chose a keyword domain name in “property” which exactly matches the main keyword search term for their industry. They also wisely branded with a global domain extension – .xyz.
Using the .xyz extension shows they are a worldwide platform built as a solution for all aspects of the property industry.
“We’re creating a property platform that works for everyone,” says Property.xyz co-founder Robert Jones. “All buyers.
All sellers. All agents and suppliers. Covers all geographic areas. All property types.
All property categories from residential to commercial. All steps of the property process. All available data in one place. A centralized platform. ‘Building the world’s most intelligent property platform.’ We felt (the name) Property.xyz achieves this perfectly.”
Visibility is essential for your business’ website to attract customers. Increasing that visibility for your website online starts with your domain name.
Choose a short, memorable URL to help increase your chances of getting your website to reach your target audience.
2. Tell your story
Many of today’s customers seek out companies with values close to their own when deciding where to place their business.
Telling the story behind your product or service helps customers get to know your values and creates that deeper connection with your audience.
You could share how your business began, create a page introducing your team, or share photos and videos from inside your office to promote your company’s values to potential customers. One example website that accomplishes this very well is Moxie.xyz.
Moxie.xyz is a platform that helps health and wellness professionals bring their services online.
The website was created by a team of developers previously working on building software for large companies.
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut their projects down, the team responded by putting their resources into something they recognized people needed during the “new normal.”
With gyms and fitness studios closed, Moxie.xyz saw instructors needed tools to continue their services online.
Moxie.xyz shares the story of this inspiration to create their platform, along with the history of their service, in a section titled “Our Story.”
Moxie.xyz’s origin story proves they have earned their name, showing the company’s resilience, resourcefulness, and the genuine caring that went into creating their platform.
Sharing that story with website visitors helps them get to know Moxie.xyz’s business on a human level, which creates a stronger positive association with the company.
Highlight the values and mission that your company stands behind on your website.
This will help you attract customers that share those values and builds a deeper connection between them and your brand.
3. Make your website user-friendly
Your site needs to be easy for customers to navigate and read through in order to maximize their experience.
Good user experience helps generate more leads and sales by making your website easy to navigate and use.
If your site is confusing or difficult to get around on first visit, you could see a large number of potential customers quickly exit your page.
When users “bounce” from your page like this, you lose potential conversions.
To build the best possible experience for your visitors, consider things like your top-level navigation.
What pages do you want to incentivize visitors to click?
How well does your site guide visitors toward the actions you want visitors to take? A site that answers these questions well is Amaz.xyz.
Amaz.xyz is an employee benefits platform that helps businesses who use their service offer unique perks and experiences for employees.
The company creates an easy and enjoyable website experience for users starting right from their homepage.
They clearly explain what the service does “above the fold” – meaning users don’t need to scroll or click anything to learn this information.
They introduce their service with a short, elevator-style pitch and feature a picture of the service in use.
Overall this adds up to a quick and effective introduction of their service to new site visitors.
Amaz.xyz clearly labels the navigation links atop their page to provide tailored experiences for both employers and businesses.
When users scroll down the site’s main page, they’re given more information about how Amaz.xyz’s service works and its benefits.
Designing your website with the user’s goals in mind helps optimize their experience, which will keep them on your page longer and create a more positive association with your brand.
Many of the most successful products and services are created with the user in mind first, and this same principle holds true when it comes to your website.
4. Generate trust through customer testimonials, awards, and notable press
If you want to promote your product or service online successfully, generating trust in the quality of your business is a key.
You need to show potential customers they can depend on you in order to win them over. This is especially true for brand new products and services, or businesses working in emerging industries.
One of the longest-standing and most effective ways to create this trust is by featuring testimonials on your website from customers who have had a positive experience with your business.
In addition, you may also showcase awards or notable media coverage you have received.
This gives “social proof” that others trust your company’s product or service and that it meets good quality standards.
A great example to follow when adding this element to your website is Argent.xyz.
Argent.xyz is a cryptocurrency wallet service that aims to simplify the overall crypto trading experience by adding custom naming and other helpful services for users’ wallets.
The company’s product is an example of emerging tech that is not yet familiar to mainstream customers.
So, in order to generate trust and transparency with new users, they’ve dedicated a section of their homepage to a wall of tweets praising the Argent.xyz service.
Beneath this “wall of love,” Argent.xyz also lists the industry leaders who have backed their service, which includes venture capital firms like Hummingbird and Index Ventures.
This further shows Argent.xyz’s legitimacy and success in their industry to potential customers and partners.
Adding testimonials, notable press, and awards you’ve received helps establish trust and show legitimacy with your website visitors from the first time they arrive on your page.
This trust is crucial if you are asking them to try your business for the first time.
It also gives you a more professional image online by showing that your product or service has others’ support behind it.
5. Stay in touch with your customers
From sending newsletters to posting regularly on social media, there are many ways businesses aim to stay in touch with their customers.
The goal of these methods is to help make sure businesses remain on customers’ minds and drive them back to their website to generate sales and product usage.
It’s crucial that you give your customers a way to stay in touch with you so that you can communicate with them once they leave your website.
One simple yet highly effective way to do this is by adding a feature that asks for customer contact information in exchange for a valuable resource.
An example of this strategy that you can follow for your business’ website is that of TheLushLife.xyz founder Sarah Tracey.
Sarah Tracey is a certified sommelier who has shared wine advice for MarthaStewart.com and served as wine director at a Michelin-starred restaurant.
On her website, TheLushLife.xyz, she offers her expert wine advice for everything from pairings to gift ideas and even style guides.
Her website includes a dedicated section for website visitors to sign up for her wine advice newsletter.
Sending valuable information via this newsletter is one of the main ways Sarah stays in touch with potential customers and brings them back to her website.
Sarah also trades fun for contact information from her website visitors through features like the “What kind of wine should you ‘actually’ be drinking” quiz at the top of her page.
As visitors fill out the quiz, it concludes by asking for an email before it can be completed.
Collecting customer information through fun and engaging methods creates a perfect avenue to bring them back to your site.
When you provide value to customers through newsletters and similar outreach methods, you establish a stronger relationship with customers and keep them engaged with your business.
6. Include clear calls to action
The first goal in mind when you set out to build your website should be to prioritize what action you want website visitors to take on your page.
It could be to sign up for your service, buy your products, or contact you to work with you, among many other things. It’s vital that you guide your visitors to completing this action, whatever it might be, through your website design.
The most visible and effective way to close the deal with website visitors is by using clear calls to action.
Calls to action tell website visitors what to do in order to get something (i.e. add to cart or sign up for service). The best calls to action will catch website visitors’ eyes and inspire them to complete something that further engages them with your business.
Without clear calls to action, your website visitors will not be sure of what action to take while on your website.
Without clear direction, potential customers may leave without purchasing your product or service.
To see a website that has calls to action done right, look to TheHop.xyz.
Created by 114-year-old Spanish brewery and beverage company Hijos de Rivera, TheHop.xyz gives startups the opportunity to develop new tools and technologies.
The company program integrates the tools created by participants in their program into the promotion methods for it’s popular Estrella Galicia premium beer.
To bring startups on board, TheHop.xyz’s website features clear calls to action starting right from the homepage.
TheHop.xyz strategically placed calls to action beneath their main elevator pitch and every program description section.
These call to action buttons direct visitors to get to know their program, see projects created by program participants, and submit projects to be a part of the program.
They also direct website visitors to engage more with the company’s mission and brand, which is TheHop.xyz’s main goal.
Using clear call to action buttons on your website guides visitors toward the sections of your website you want them to engage with.
They also help you capitalize on every website visit by funneling users toward taking the actions you want them to, like buying a product or learning more about your services.
7. Make your website “mobile first”
Smartphones have been the main way we access the internet since 2016, when usage surpassed desktop computers.2
The number of mobile internet users only continues to rise as smartphones become more powerful and affordable.
Your website needs to be designed to appeal to mobile users first, because they will likely make up the majority of your website’s visitors.
Having a mobile version of your website that loads slowly, doesn’t look good, or is difficult to navigate could result in visitors leaving your page.
This means lost sales and less visibility for your brand.
Fortunately, you can build your website to be optimized for mobile no matter whether you are designing your website yourself or using a website builder like Olitt.
An example of a very well-designed mobile website is Comuzi.xyz. The London-based design studio creates forward-thinking, “radically creative” product designs.
Their mobile website is designed to be easy to navigate and view as a mobile user.
The three-button layout at the top of the page leads visitors to relevant information about their studio, blog, and work.
Comuzi.xyz also employs large text and short sentences in their site design to describe each project.
These design choices work to keep the page’s main focus on the eye-catching images they use for each project page link and simplify overall visuals presented to mobile users.
Comuzi.xyz’s mobile website design allows visitors to easily scroll through the website to learn more about their work.
A mobile-first design helps to communicate their message clearly and draw in potential collaborators and clients.
Using this kind of simple and strategic mobile design on your website can help you to make a positive impression on your potential customers.
Conclusion
An effective company website is a crucial part of your business’ success. Making it easy to find and navigate your website will help you attract and retain potential customers.
Authentically sharing your story, customer testimonials, and notable coverage of your business helps to create a stronger connection with website visitors.
Utilizing clear calls to action helps you convert them into customers or users.
Whether you’re building a brand new website for your latest business or tweaking your existing website, these elements will build the backbone of your successful business website.
Get started on building your new website on Olitt here.
Sources:
1. https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
2. https://bgr.com/2016/11/02/internet-usage-desktop-vs-mobile/