A website vs. an AWESOME website. What is the difference? Turns out, a lot. Join me as I discuss 8 MUST-HAVE components your website needs to have in order to be competitive in 2022.
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Here you have it: 8 components your website NEEDS to have to keep up in today’s world and remain competitive.
This isn’t a simple checklist: and of course, there are more essential website components than just 8 — but I’m picking these to focus on because I find they are the things that a lot of website owners miss out on.
Let’s dive right in, shall we?
Website Component #1: Headings
Your website’s copy needs to make use of headlines.
From a technical standpoint, there are 6 different levels of headline or heading tags in HTML: H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and, you guessed it, H6.
There is a scale here: H1 is usually the most important headline on the page, and H6 headlines are the least important.
Visually, the tags are USUALLY formatted largest to smallest.
While you can have more than one H2, H3, H4, H5, or H6 headings on a page — the H1 heading is a special case because you should only have ONE on the page.
This H1 heading is usually reserved for the title of the page — so if you are writing a blog article and the title is “8 Website Components for An Awesome Website in 2022” – the H1 heading will match that. It’s perfect because it’s giving people a very good idea of the content that is going to follow on the page.
H2, H3 tags and beyond can be used for subheadings within an article.
Using these headline tags is vital for SEO, and it’s also super important for our users to best understand our content, too.
When people are consuming information online, most of them skim. There’s a percentage of people who read every written word on the page, but this is a very small percentage.
Most people take in information by scanning links, reading bulleted items, focusing on bolded or highlighted text, and — you guessed it — reading headings.
So give the people what they want! Break long chunks of copy up with headlines.
We often hear about the “attention-grabbing headline” and I know there can be pressure around creating the perfect ones.
But, honestly, don’t worry about this too much. You’re writing website copy, not the next great American novel.
Have you ever read a headline on someone’s website and you’re like….”Wait, what? What the heck is this person actually talking about?” For example, recently I saw an exit-intent popup that used a headline akin to:
“Farewell, m’lady, parting is such sweet sorrow. Kindly remember your goodie bag” and then they had a list of resources you could grab.
Now, maybe y’all think this sounds bougie and/or clever but like …. It’s too much. It’s confusing.
I’m not saying you have to totally strip down the personality and just say “RESOURCES” here, but like. Tone it down a notch so people actually know what you’re talking about.
You want your headlines to provide INFORMATION. They should be short, snappy, and USEABLE. Keep the fluff to a minimum. You can add personality without sacrificing straightforwardness. Err on the side of being straightforward with your audience, rather than being cheeky.
The takeaway here is use headlines. Use them often. And don’t sweat about making them sound too cute, because they really don’t need to be!
Website Component #2: The Big Five – Pages Your Website NEEDS
Really – you need more than these. But these are ESSENTIAL. I call them the big five.
The big five are the homepage, the about page, the contact page, the services or offerings page, maybe you call this “work with me” page, and the privacy policy.
Seems pretty straightforward, right?
Well, I have worked with people who have wanted to skip some of these pages and it’s just never a good idea. You NEED these.
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The homepage
When you type in yoursite.com. What pops up? The homepage! This page should give people a good introduction to you and what you’re all about, while directing them to various places to find out more information and support them with wherever they are at on their journey.
Keep in mind that all the people who land on your home page are going to be at various stages. Some will be completely new to you and your niche, while others are closer to pulling the trigger on paying you money for whatever it is that you do. You need to design your homepage for multiple scenarios.
The About Page
The about page. What is this page about? You may think it’s about you, and it is…but honestly, it’s more about your audience and giving them the type of information they are looking for.
When you visit someone’s website and click into the about page, what type of information are you looking for?
Are you looking for a stuffy bio written in third person? Do you care that they organize their sock drawer by length and color and play the ukulele?
Here’s a novel concept: bridge the gap between boring bio and random facts by telling a story about WHY you created your brand. Make it meaningful and be something the reader can connect and relate to.
I’m not saying DON’T include a bio or some personal facts about you to inject some personality, but if that’s all you got? Get out of here because no one cares!
The Contact Page
The contact page. You need a contact page. It’s how people contact you. This one is pretty simple!
Even if you have your email address and other contact information located in the footer, so at the bottom of every page on your website, you still should have a contact page because people are trained to look for contact pages.
Pro tip: if you’re looking to really design an awesome contact page, we go over all the important elements of this bad boy in episode 5: Contact Page Mistakes & Must-Haves! So certainly check that out!
The Services/Offerings Page
Moving on to the services or offerings page. You have something you offer people, right? Something you do, or something you give them in exchange for money?
You should have a page about it.
If you have multiple offers — for example, maybe you work one on one with clients, and you also have a course, and then you just published a really awesome ebook — you should have individual pages for ALL of those offers.
And then also have a main offerings page that lists those all out, but in a nice looking way. Think of it kind of like a digital train station, and then the individual offer pages are the actual trains taking your people to the destination of their choice.
The PRIVACY POLICY PAGE
Last but definitely not least: it’s (almost) 2022. You need a privacy policy.
Privacy polices aren’t fun. They aren’t sexy. I’m a nerd who loves technical writing, and even I get bored thinking about writing a privacy policy. But, drafting one up is a necessary evil of owning a website these days. So don’t forget it!
Website Component #3: Content
Sounds…kinda obvious, right?
But you’d be surprised how many people launch their websites with just THE BIG FIVE we just talked about and then call it a day.
And trust me, I get it.
When you have 1000 other things to do: you’re connecting with people on social media, maybe you’re trying to build your email list, you’re doing admin work behind the scenes, you’re working with clients, you’re trying to hold your life together…the last thing you want to do is sit down and write a blog post or a video or something like that.
But your website NEEDS content for several purposes.
Our audience goes through 4 main stages:
- Discovery, when they become aware of you and what you have to offer
- Interest, when they like what they see and are interested in learning more
- Consideration, when they’re on board even more and are seriously considering working with you or buying your thing
- Conversion, when they pull the trigger and become a customer or client
The issue that a lot of websites have today is they don’t support their audience properly throughout the first three stages, and so most of their visitors fall off before they can ever even dream of reaching the conversion stage.
CONTENT is a great way to support your audience on their journey toward conversion. It can help them discover you via search engines or even off of social media, and if you provide them with the right kind of content, you can keep them on your website long enough to get them interested in your offer.
Content builds trust, helps your audience, AND gives them something to do ON your website — meaning they don’t have to leave and look elsewhere to find it, which could of course lead them to a competitor’s website.
If you have neglected creating content for your website the past year — or longer — don’t be too hard on yourself! Again, I know it’s not easy to fit into our schedules sometimes. But do make it a priority from here on out.
Website Component #4: Calls To Action (CTA)…But Not Too Many
These usually take the shape and form of buttons that stand out and look noticeably different than the other links on our pages.
Calls to action are a great way to bring importance to a particular THING you want your audience to do.
You’re probably used to seeing calls to action like “buy now!” and “shop now” and “get this thing now!”
It’s usually about directing people to the next logical step in their journey.
Now, let me just say that some people — not all, but some — tend to go a bit overboard on their calls to action. We actually discuss this in Choice Paralysis: The Dangers of Too Many Options.
Contrary to what some people believe — less can sometimes be more when it comes to calls to action. If you have too many, they start to compete for attention and confuse people.
I would suggest reviewing each page that you have for calls to action. If you have have a page or two that doesn’t have one — add one in! When you’re deciding what particular action you want to call to, think “where would I like to direct the user to at this point? What is a logical step?” A lot of people will put “work with me” and “buy my product” CTAs everywhere, but these aren’t always appropriate. And this can even look a little desperate. So don’t just phone this in: plan it out!
If you find you have TOO many calls to action — like more than 2 or three in any given section on your website — you probably need to dial it back a bit. There are exceptions, of course, but generally more than 2-3 displayed in close proximity is going to confuse people. And we know that a lot of times, when people have too many choices, they don’t pick any of them.
Website Component #5: Easy To Find Contact Info
Make sure your contact information is easy to find on your website.
Studies have found that people, when they visit websites, are trained to look for certain things in certain areas because MOST websites put them there. An example of this is a logo in the top left corner of the page and contact information in the FOOTER, which shows up at the bottom of every page.
Now, it may seem fun to be unique and do something different — trust me, I get the appeal — but changing it up can slow our website visitors down.
Picture it this way:
Someone is on your website and they’re really interested in working with you, but they have a couple of questions. They decide to reach out to you via email. They scroll to the bottom of the page, looking for your contact information, and they assume it’s going to be there because that’s where it is located on most websites.
But, because you wanted to be UNIQUE, you DON’T have your contact information in the footer. Instead, your contact information runs vertically alongside the page, and it’s kinda small and hard to read without cranking your head. The *~aesthetic*~* is on point though.
Even though this may not seem like a huge deal — maybe the person finds the contact information a couple seconds later — it does indeed slow people down and impede them.
Give people what they want! And what they want is CONTACT INFORMATION where they expect it, like in the FOOTER on every page and on a dedicated contact page.
Website Component #6: Consistency
Consistency is so, so important in EVERYTHING that you do online, from, you know, regularly publishing content to posting on social media. It’s also important that your website show consistency in terms of branding.
While not every page has to be identical to one another — in fact, my approach to website design is kinda like a good meal: each bite should be similar, but slightly different from each other to make it exciting — certain elements SHOULD be consistent.
Think colors and fonts, look and feel, and also your brand words and tone of voice.
And of course, these things should extend beyond just the website. No matter where you show up online, you should always look and sound like you. That applies to social media captions, in our emails, and even in our greetings.
That’s why it’s so important to establish a strong brand voice right from the very start.
It is very weird when a brand uses matter-of-fact, polite language throughout most of their website, but then you go to the blog and the copy has a ton of exclamation points and is riddled with F-bombs.
It makes things feel not cohesive and weakens your brand.
And then of course, have consistency in the content that you put out. Because we now know that CONTENT is a major website must-have in 2022. And being consistent here is a hard one, I know, because we all have so much going on. Now, publishing a couple blog posts once a year is arguably better than publishing none — but where you really start to see the shift is when you commit to a much more often, regular posting schedule.
What I recommend doing is timing yourself to figure out how long it takes you to create one bit of content.
For example, I know that it takes me about 3 hours to write a blog post, 2 more hours to properly format that content, and 2 more to create graphics to accompany it.
That’s a total of 7 hours, which is nearly a full day’s work! That seems crazy BUT it’s realistic.
So then I take a look at my schedule and I think…where are these 7 hours going to fit in?
Is this something I can reasonably DO once a week? Maybe it’s once every 2 weeks, or as some would say, a fortnight. Maybe it’s only once a month.
And you can break those hours up too, or batch your work. For example, if it takes me 3 hours to write a blog post, maybe I’ll just set ONE Saturday aside each month and knock out 3 posts all in one day.
Whatever works for you is ok. Pick a reasonable schedule and then commit to sticking with it for at least 6 months, preferably longer, and see where consistency takes you!
Website Component #7: Show Your Purpose
You would be surprised at how many people don’t FULLY think this through, especially when they first begin. And this leads to empty, hollow feeling websites.
For most of us, the ultimate goal of our website is driving folks toward working with us or spending the big bucks on whatever we have to offer.
If you own a wedding venue, you may initially identify the goals of your website as “getting people more acquainted with the venue,” “getting them to contact me,” “getting them to book a tour.”
That’s all true and is fine. But think beyond this. WHY do you do what you do? Identify the PURPOSE you, and subsequently, your website, will serve with your audience.
Ask yourself questions like:
- “When you first dreamt up your brand or business idea, what change did you want to bring about?”
- “What do you want your brand to be KNOWN for?”
- “What makes what you have to offer UNIQUE, new, and exciting?” What sets you apart? Heck, the thing you offer may be so freakin awesome and different that you’ve got an entire list of unique things!
Website visitors should be able to SEE this purpose, READ this purpose, and really, FEEL this purpose.
If you’ve never thought about your purpose in any depth before, I highly encourage you to do so!
Website Component #8: Audience-Centric
Say it with me now: your website is not only about YOU, but about your target audience as well.
Give them what they are looking for.
Although, of course, as website owner you have the ultimate say in what content you publish on your website and how it is displayed and designed: your USERS are really the ones that make your little world go round.
Going back to something we talked about earlier – you may think having your contact info displayed in a small font, running alongside of the page vertically is the best move, and aesthetically? Sure, it may look nice too.
But if customers are having problems finding it because it’s in a place that they don’t expect it — that’s a problem.
I’m a website developer, but I’m also a designer too, so I totally get the pull to make things look fun and unique and innovative. And I try to do that – but without sacrificing usability. That’s why I’m always pulling from web usability studies and fall back on user experience best practices.
In terms of both your offers and your content — this is another area where what you’re putting out needs to be audience-centric. It’s not 2003 anymore; most of us aren’t building websites to just be able to blog and talk about what we ate for breakfast. We’re building websites FOR people, giving them content THEY want so that they SUPPORT us in HELPING them.
Now, in order to TRULY give people what they are looking for…you have to do a little foundational work to figure this out. Start building buyer or customer personas. Ask questions and get feedback from existing customers or clients. Start LISTENING. Sometimes this can be hard to do because sometimes, it can mean we have to realize we haven’t been serving our people in the best way.
LISTEN to what your audience is telling you. Commit to best serving them, and do not be afraid to change things up in the spirit of IMPROVING both your offer and their experience.
Wrapping It Up
Like mentioned earlier – this isn’t a simple checklist you’ll be able to breeze through in a couple of days.
Most of this stuff takes time.
Building a good website takes time because like Rome, it’s not built in a day!