7 Useful Things You Should Consider Putting on Your Website

We know you want a website that delivers a fully satisfying experience. You’re keen on going against the grain and beyond having the usual site features and pages. After all, having a website is more than just putting your business online; it’s about being there for your audience anytime and anywhere they want.

If your business is new to the technicalities of the digital world, then conceptualising on how you can maximise your potential will be a real challenge. In some ways, thinking about the things you want to put on your website revolves around questions on the user journey you want to have, the impression you want to leave, and the purpose you want to convey in the industry.

In this article, we discuss the things you probably didn’t know are beneficial to your website’s success. They might sound ordinary at first glance, but with a smart and creative vision, they’ll be the key to having a functional and helpful website.

Let’s get started.

1. Referrals Page

“People influence people. A trusted referral is the holy grail of advertising.” – Mark Zuckerberg

There are many ways on how you can drive website traffic and increase sales for your business. You can invest in a good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy, engage pay-per-click campaigns, or consider Search Engine Marketing (SEM) services. However, if none of them appeals to you, then you might want to consider a referrals page to drive in referral traffic.
In essence, referral traffic leverages on the power of word of mouth. It refers to visitors or leads that are referred by customers, employees, and so on. Having a web page that openly asks customers for a referral is a proven strategy to reach out to the same target market. People in such target group trust the recommendations of people they know, making referrals a vital tool for your company.

To create a great referrals page, you must give a customer a good reason why they should refer someone to engage you. Put yourselves in their shoes and come up with ideas or rewards that you can give in exchange for a referral.

2. Customer Feedback

“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” – Ken Blanchard

Have you ever realised how people always check reviews about a restaurant before booking one of their tables? How about when a waiter visits your table to ask for some feedback about your meal?

These scenarios prove that people pay attention to other people’s thoughts about the business. It allows others to have clear expectations before buying a product or a service. Likewise, there are clients who are eager to give their own feedback in order to shape other people’s expectations. These things make it critical to have a testimonial page where customers can submit and view opinions about your business. With this dedicated webpage, your brand’s credibility will improve as you insinuate that you value public opinion.

However, take note that most people only have a few moments to spare in submitting a testimonial or feedback on your website. Never waste their time by having an unresponsive or slow-loading webpage. Like any other parts of your website, consider its overall user experience (UX) for them to preserve what they think and feel about your company.

That said, this webpage can be intuitive by having a text box or fields that already suggest possible compliments they can give. Think about Grab’s User Interface (UI) when it comes to giving feedback. It consists of the stars you want to give, the tip you’re willing to shell out, and the suggested compliments (in icons) that you can say to your driver. These include “Punctual Driver,” “Clean Car,” “Nice Music,” and more. Such an approach in both UI and UX Design allows people to submit feedback or a testimonial seamlessly in seconds.

Here’s a tip: once you finish a project with a client, send them the link to your testimonials page for quick feedback.

Verz Design’s Share an Umbrella Campaign microsite features a testimonials section that focuses on how a person received an umbrella and their thoughts about it.

3. Employees’ Login Portal

“Your number one customers are your people.” – Ian Hutchinson

If your website were about your company, then it would be sound to have a webpage that’s dedicated to your employees. After all, employees are the most valuable, intangible assets of a business. A webpage that they can utilise for anything Human Resources-related gives them convenience, eventually giving out better productivity in the workplace.

Corporate websites with this kind of webpage would often be a one-stop platform for employee news, events, awards, or any other information that the staff should read. If you compare it to giving out letters via email, this approach gives off a better value for the staff and a good impression for the employer as well.

4. Quick Surveys

“Data always trumps theory.”

Earlier, we mentioned that a waiter asking for feedback is a way of putting importance to a customer’s opinion.

Now, picture a restaurant staff handing out a small piece of paper with survey questions. The questions revolve around how you discovered the place, which aspect of the restaurant appealed to you the most and other questions. Scenarios like this allow the restaurant owner to know which part of their business requires improvement. This makes quick surveys important because they provide solid audience data that will be essential in growing your company.

Notice how we put an emphasis on quick, and not just a regular survey. Since you’re putting this online, answering it must be intuitive and seamless because respondents are less likely to complete long and faulty surveys. Keep your questions specific, necessary, and if possible, provide the user with multiple choices so that you can easily determine the average answer in each question. Some of the usual but insightful questions you can have are:

• How did you arrive at our website?
• Why did you choose our service?
• Which part of the project should we focus on improving?

Questions like these will have your users think that you’re committed to being better in your craft. Read this article by Qualtrics to know how you can get started in building effective surveys.

5. Whitepapers

“Content is anything that adds value to the reader’s life.” – Avinash Kaushik

Whitepapers originated from politics where it was referred to as legislative documents (white-coloured papers) that discussed a specific political solution.

In the technology industry, a whitepaper pertains to a persuasive and authoritative content about a specific topic. Some describe it as a simple yet detailed problem-solving guide on a website for users to access them anytime they want. Companies use a whitepaper when there’s a common problem that can be solved by their product or service, hence using it as a platform to promote what they can offer.

Having a whitepaper lets companies improve their brand, as they can insert their company’s position to a problem that affects a certain market.

That said, never mistake whitepapers as a product pitch. As HubSpot discussed, the goal of a whitepaper is to come up with facts that inform and persuade, and not to tell your readers to buy your product immediately. They are different from your typical blog post because they are usually in PDF form, have a more serious tone and they require heavy research that would take months. Having a page for whitepapers would also have you ask a user’s email address so that they can download your content. When done right, it will be an effective tool in capturing leads.

6. Resources Page

“Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” – Andrew Davis

Similar to whitepapers, a resources page is a page on your site that lists down helpful content and tools for your target market. What makes it different from whitepapers is its all-encompassing nature — tackling a wide range of relevant topics as plenty as possible. If you’re a software or a product company, you can create guides on how customers can maximise your product. If you’re a tech company, you can put up demos that teach how your solutions can be of help, like how Microsoft does it. Because contents on this page can vary from articles to explainer videos and business templates, your business can also take this as an opportunity to drive revenue by selling quality resources that other people can use.

Having a credible resources page requires a dedicated team of seasoned writers, researchers, and experts who help your site build a brand and gain authority in the digital world. Aside from bringing value to your audience, it also poses a strong potential for email conversions, provided your viewers can subscribe to your content via email. Done right, it will become the most visited page in your website, which will soon become the go-to resource for helpful content in your industry.

7. Careers Page

“Hire great people and give them the freedom to be awesome.” – Andrew Mason

In order to attract the right talent from your website, your Careers Page must have a hand in shaping potential employees’ perception of your company. A good Careers Page is engaging, displaying the company’s culture, benefits, employee testimonials, and of course, a list of job openings — everything a candidate should know.

The right candidate knows what they can provide to your business. Not only they have exceptional skills, but they are also keen on thinking if a company is a good fit for them. Hence, for your business’ part, you must be able to show what your company can offer to capture their interest and eventually seal the deal.

Nowadays, job seekers are critical about workplace culture and benefits because they want to know if your company is a safe haven for their mental health, work-life balance, productivity, among other aspects. These elements are even more important for companies who think they don’t have enough brand recognition. When you put helpful features on your site’s Careers Page, you will leave the impression that your company takes good care of its people by providing the best practices that could help them stay happy and productive at work.

More than these, it’s also important to invest in good UX when candidates are applying through the page. This can be done by simply having a dedicated space where they can drop a resume, by having a thank you page after applying, and by getting in touch with them as soon as possible. As we always say, investing in good UX reflects how you understand and cater to one’s needs.

Coming up with ideas for your website to fully serve its purpose can be pretty exhausting and can even result in a creative drought. That’s why here at Verz, we’re always up to the task in providing clients with a clear direction that could maximise the potential of their business online.

Allow us to guide your journey to web excellence. Contact us now at 6841 1680 or email us at [email protected] for a free consultation!