Your website is often the first place people go to learn about your business – and first impressions matter. These days, it’s more than just a digital brochure. It’s your hardest-working salesperson, your primary communication hub, and a critical tool for growth. But are you truly making the most of this powerful asset? If you’re wondering how to make a good website or what vital elements might be missing from your current setup, you’re in the right place. Knowing what to put on your website—plus what to avoid—can be the difference between a site that struggles and one that thrives.
Many businesses invest in a website but then struggle to see tangible results. Perhaps the design feels outdated, leads are scarce, or it’s simply not ranking on search engines. This is where a thorough website audit comes in – a deep dive into what’s working, what’s not, and what crucial components are missing. Let’s explore the must-haves that can help improve your website and ensure it stands out.
Is Your Website Missing These Key Elements?
A high-performing website is a carefully constructed ecosystem where design, functionality, and content work harmoniously. If you’re looking at how to develop a website strategy or revamp an existing one, start by checking for these critical components. These are the essential things to put on a website to make it truly effective.
Clear & Easy-To-Find Contact Information
It sounds basic, but you’d be surprised how many websites make it difficult for users to get in touch. If a potential customer can’t easily find your phone number, email address, or a contact form, they’ll likely move on to a competitor.
- What to include: Prominently display your phone number and a contact link in the header, as well as your email address, phone number, and physical address (if applicable) in the website footer and on a dedicated contact page.
- Why it matters: It makes it effortless for potential leads to take the next step, showing you’re available and ready to engage. This is fundamental when considering how to effectively communicate information on a website to users.
Strong Call to Actions That Drive Leads
What do you want visitors to do on your site? Whether it’s “Request a Quote,” “Download Our Guide,” “Sign Up for a Demo,” or “Contact Us Today,” your calls to action (CTAs) need to be clear, compelling, and strategically placed.
- What makes a good CTA: Use consistent, action-oriented language. Make CTAs visually distinct (e.g., contrasting buttons). Place them logically where users are likely to take the next step.
- Why it matters: CTAs guide your visitors through the conversion funnel, turning passive browsers into active leads. Without them, even the most interested prospect might not know what to do next.
Technical SEO That Supports Visibility & User Experience
Behind every great-looking website is a foundation of solid technical search engine optimization (SEO). This ensures search engines can crawl and index your site efficiently, and that users have a smooth, fast experience. If you want to improve your website’s ranking, technical SEO is non-negotiable. At FSM, we leverage a suite of powerful tools like Semrush, Screaming Frog, Google Search Console, and WebPageTest to conduct in-depth technical audits. These tools help us analyze everything from site speed and Core Web Vitals – like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – to mobile-friendliness, crawlability, and accessibility. Additionally, we can identify any issues on the site, such as broken links and images.
- Key technical considerations our audits cover:
- Mobile-friendliness: Ensuring your site performs flawlessly on all devices.
- Page speed & Core Web Vitals: Optimizing for fast loading times and a stable user experience.
- Clean code & site architecture: Making it easy for search engines to understand your site.
- Security (HTTPS): Essential for user trust and SEO.
- Crawlability & indexability: Ensuring search engines can find and rank your content.
- WordPress advantage: For businesses using WordPress (like many of our clients), many powerful plugins and themes are built with SEO best practices in mind. However, they still require expert configuration and ongoing management to maximize their potential. Our teams are adept at fine-tuning WordPress sites, addressing everything from plugin configurations to ensuring robust security and performance. Learn more about our website services.
- Why it matters: Great technical SEO directly impacts your search engine rankings and user satisfaction. It’s critical to making your website stand out in a crowded online space by ensuring it’s not just visually appealing but also technically sound.
High-Quality Content That Builds Trust
Content is king for a reason. If you’re wondering what to put on your website, creating informative, engaging, and valuable content establishes your authority, answers your audience’s questions, and keeps them coming back for more.
- Types of quality content: Blog posts, articles, case studies, testimonials, videos, infographics, detailed service and product pages.
- What it should do: Address user pain points, provide solutions, showcase your expertise, and be optimized for relevant keywords.
- Why it matters: Builds trust, improves SEO, drives organic traffic, and positions you as a thought leader. For more on content and SEO, see our post on why your organic SEO efforts might be failing.
Social Proof to Build Credibility
People trust other people. Showcasing positive reviews, testimonials, case studies, client logos, or awards can significantly boost your credibility and persuade potential customers that you’re the right choice.
- How to display it: Showcase reviews or testimonials on your homepage or add case studies to your portfolio. Check out our work to see how we showcase our client’s success.
- Why it matters: Alleviates doubt, builds trust, and provides third-party validation of your products or services.
What to Remove From Your Website Immediately
Just as important as knowing what to add is knowing what to remove from your website. Certain elements can actively harm your website’s performance, user experience, and SEO rankings.
Irrelevant & Invaluable Content That Confuses Users
Outdated blog posts, expired offers, or pages that no longer align with your business goals can confuse visitors and dilute your core message.
- Why remove it: Keeps your site focused, improves user navigation, and ensures visitors find current, relevant information quickly. This helps in crafting a great website that users appreciate.
- Best practice & benefit: Regularly audit your content to ensure every piece serves a distinct purpose and aligns with your current business goals. This sharpens your messaging, enhances user engagement by providing only valuable information, and prevents overwhelming visitors.
Duplicate Content That Hurts Rankings
Having identical or very similar content on multiple pages of your site (or copied from other sites) can confuse search engines and lead to penalties, negatively impacting your efforts to improve your website’s visibility.
- Why remove/fix it: Ensures search engines can identify the primary version of your content, consolidating ranking power and avoiding penalties.
- Best practice & benefit: Implement canonical tags (rel=“canonical”) to clearly indicate to search engines the preferred URL for content that might appear in multiple places. Focus on creating original, high-quality content for each page to build unique authority and avoid keyword cannibalization.
Poor Site Structure That Users Get Lost In
A confusing navigation menu, too many clicks to reach important information, or an illogical page hierarchy can frustrate users and cause them to abandon your site.
- Why fix it: A clear, intuitive site structure improves user experience, encourages exploration, and helps search engines crawl and index your site more effectively. This is key to making a nice-looking website that’s also functional.
- Best practice & benefit: Aim for a logical site hierarchy where users can find any key piece of information ideally within three clicks from the homepage (the “3-click rule”). Utilize clear navigation labels, breadcrumbs, and a well-organized internal linking strategy to enhance usability and search engine understanding.
Ready to Improve Your Website? Let Full Spectrum Marketing Help
Understanding what makes a great website is the first step. The next step is taking action. Conducting a comprehensive website audit can feel overwhelming, but you don’t have to do it alone.
At Full Spectrum Marketing, an experienced Akron marketing agency, we specialize in transforming underperforming websites into powerful lead-generation tools. We know what to put on your website for maximum impact, especially for WordPress platforms. From deep technical SEO audits to crafting compelling content and ensuring a seamless user experience, we help businesses like yours improve their websites and achieve their online goals. We are committed to being the most valuable marketing partner you’ll ever have, helping you chase that “afterglow” of success.
If you’re ready to stop guessing and start seeing real results from your online presence, it’s time to talk.
Contact Full Spectrum Marketing today for a comprehensive website audit and discover how we can help you stand out online!
