Must-Have Website Features | Overt Digital Media Tips

5 Must Have Features for your Website

Jon Richardson • Sep 11, 2021

Make your website stand out with these widgets

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When I tell people that I am a web designer I often get asked what the latest trends are or how do you make a website stand out from the other millions of websites in existence. At the risk of stating the obvious they are very open ended questions and the answer always depends on a number of factors such as the industry of the client and the purpose of the website. A website for a builder in the centre of Bournemouth will need to look and feel very different to a website for rural pub in the heart of the New Forest.

However there are some common elements and themes that will help any website stand out from the crowd, rank higher in search results and convert more leads. Below are my five of my favourite features (or widgets as they're known) that are appropriate for most new websites.

Video for your Website

Video is a great way to communicate with your audience and it is by far the most effective way to engage website visitors. It will allow you to talk directly to your customers and tell your story in a much more engaging way than just text. There is something about video that captures our attention quickly and subconsciously so your customers will listen to your message before they have made a conscious decision whether to interact with your website.

If you are unconvinced that video is right for your product or services then it’s worth considering YouTube, where more than half a billion hours of video are watched every day. I challenge you to do a quick search on YouTube and I guarantee you’ll find videos discussing your product or service. If you don’t get in touch as I would love to know what you do!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Having FAQs on your website has several benefits for your website.

Firstly, it will allow you to qualify in (or out) many leads before they pick up the phone. If you are a plumber and only service customers in the New Forest then you can have an FAQ of “where do you work” and you can answer that with the areas that you work such as Christchurch, Lymington, Brockenhurst etc. This should reduce the number of people from outside those areas calling you.

Secondly, If allows you to demonstrate credibility by answering all of those issues that are playing on the mind of your customers. You will also often find that you will include questions that your potential customer hasn’t thought of yet.

Thirdly it will help with your Search Engine Optimisation. People do not type answers in to Google they type in questions. If you can match these questions in your FAQs then you will stand a good chance of appearing in the search results.

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Countdowns

Having Countdown time on your website for a particular offer is a great way of instilling urgency within your customers. Fear of Missing Out or FOMO is a real phenomenon that marketers and sales people have been using since forever!

Having that countdown timer means that visitors to your website will see each second pass increasing the tension and desire much more effectively than just having a static date or timescale on your website.

Online Scheduling / Calendar Integration

Giving your website visitors (limited) access to your diary to schedule a meeting removes so many obstacles and will mean you will get more meetings than doing it manually.

Consider allowing your customers to access your diary to schedule a meeting with you directly and how much easier that is than having them email you, then you responding with a two or three dates, which they can’t make and them proposing different times and so on….

There are many tools that enable this, many of which offer a free version such as Calendly and they are easy to integrate with your website.

Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)

I have deliberately saved the best to last.

The concept behind A.I. Websites is straightforward: it’s all about creating a website experience that directly relates to a visitor’s unique situation. This is accomplished by changing the messaging and content of a site based on things like time of day, the number of previous visits to the site, visitor’s physical location and more.

A.I Websites deliver a unique personal experience based on a website visitors situation making it much more engaging. A.I websites generate more traffic and enable small businesses to convert approximately 19% more leads meaning more sales for your business!

A.I. works automatically which leaves you with more time to focus on your business, or maybe even take more time for yourself, imagine that!

Find out more about Artificial Intelligence for websites

About Overt Digital Media

Overt Digital Media are a digital marketing agency based in Christchurch on the edge of the New Forest. We help small businesses generate more sales from their online presence. Our inhouse team of web designers build affordable websites for small businesses. We also work with our customers to increase the amount of traffic websites receive with a range of affordable search engine optimisation (SEO) packages and solutions.