A website acts as the online headquarters for any business. It is the central hub of which online business is conducted and where traffic is directed to. During the beginning of the ‘online era’, websites were simple. Their aesthetics were plain and focused on content, SEO was a lot easier and there were no modern complexities as there are with websites today. Fast forward a few decades, and there are hundreds, in some cases, thousands of optimizations to make to a website to give it chances of success and attract attention.
It can be difficult to know what will benefit a website and what will not. That is why in this blog post, we are going to be discussing 3 must-have essentials for your website that you need going into 2021.
How Have Websites Changed Over The Years?
Before we dive straight into the essentials, it is important to know how websites have changed over the years.
The very first website was published by Tim Berners-Lee (the co-inventor of the world wide web) This website was incredibly simple and thus, did not include any specific layout design and only contained text with a few internal links to other pages within the site. The inside pages were basically the same as the homepage with just headings and body text and the intent of the first website was to inform and educate people about the World Wide Web. We have included a screenshot below, so you can see just how far websites have come since 1991.
Now, as time went on, and businesses started to realise they can use the internet as a marketing tool to reach wide audiences of people, websites started to become more advanced, incorporating things such as design, usability, user experience etc. This was also around the time when CSS (cascading style sheets) was created- A way of styling and formatting the contents of web pages to make them more visually appealing.
Fast forward to today, and we are seeing websites with the increasing use of technology, software use, aesthetics and huge focuses on testing and optimization. Websites have been commercialised and they are now a staple piece for most businesses.
If you are reading this blog post, then the chances are, your business already has a website and you are looking at how to improve it. In the next part of this blog post, we are going to discuss the 3 must-have essentials that your website must include going into 2021.
3 Must-Have Essentials On Your Website Going Into 2021
There are many things that can be included within a website to help it operate better or increase its conversions, but that list can go on forever. That is why we have chosen just 3, that you will be able to easily incorporate into your website today.
Facebook Pixel
The Facebook pixel is often overlooked by businesses. If you are unaware of what this is, it is a tiny piece of code that you place within your website, which will allow you to not only monitor, but apply a tracking cookie to every single visitor that lands on your site. Now, what does that mean you can do? Well, you can take all that data and collect it into a custom audience and then use Facebook retargeting adverts to encourage the visitors that came to your website but did not take any actions, to return and complete one. This action could be something as simple as filling out an email newsletter sign up or completing a purchase.
By integrating the Facebook Pixel within your website, you will be able to better understand your audience and the actions they are taking on your website. You will also be able to run more targeted marketing campaigns, allowing you to stretch your marketing budget further.
You can find a tutorial on how to install the Facebook Pixel here. Also, if you are interested to know more about advertising on Facebook, click here.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is one of the most popular digital analytics software and is used by many businesses globally to collect data and information for their website. It is able to provide very valuable insights and information that you can use to your advantage and create a successful online strategy for your business.
This software is free to use and is integrating into your website just like the Facebook pixel- with a simple line of code. Since the software is free, it also means that you can have access to great reporting software at no additional cost, allowing you to invest your budget into say, advertising.
With Google Analytics, you can track many different metrics, such as:
- Sessions
- Users
- Average time spent on page
- Pageviews
- Bounce rate
- Page Value (for eCommerce stores)
- And much more!
All these metrics are going to be incredibly valuable when looking at what areas need improvement. Knowing that a certain web page has a high bounce rate, will allow you to make the necessary adjustments to reduce it. Seeing how many people visit your website on a monthly basis, and cross-referencing it with the average monthly conversion rate, will allow you to predict sales and manage stock effectively.
There are all sorts of ways that Google Analytics will help your business. You can find a setup tutorial by clicking here.
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Google Search Console
Have you ever wondered what web pages on your website are actually being crawled by Google? Or what your website's average position is within the search engine results pages? Well, with Google Search Console, you are able to check just that. You will also be able to check over your website's site speed to make sure it is performing at its very best.
Alongside the benefits above, you can easily monitor and resolve server errors, site load issues, and security issues like hacking and malware.
By using the data and features supplied within the Search Console, you can adapt your websites SEO strategy to make sure it is given the best chances of success, and by looking at certain data such as ‘queries’ you can see what search terms are giving you the most impressions and clicks, so you can double down on them.
To get started with Google Search Console, click here.
(the data supplied is example data)
Conclusion
So, armed with those 3 essential website tools/software, you will now be able to track a lot more data and actions taken on your website. Couple all that data and insight with a great marketing medium, and you are well on your way to a winning strategy.
Interested to know how you can promote your website for free and increase your website traffic? Click here!
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