6 Elements of a Successful Inbound Website

A successful inbound website is a well defined, well planned and well executed website. It's a website that invests in quality content that is useful and relevant for the visitors, keeping them interested and coming back for more.

In order to have return on investment, you need to bear in mind that the website must be easy to find online by the right people (your buyer personas), must be a lead generation machine, and must play a big part in generating more sales and revenue.

1. Conversion

A website must be capable of generating leads and new clients

The difference between a beautiful website and an efficient one is the number and quality of conversions. While a pretty website may be eye-catching, a useful website for the company and the brand is the one that generates traffic, keeps people interested when going through the pages, because it has relevant content, and is capable to drive visitors to conversion.

Conversion is the final objective of an efficient website, that might be subscribing a newsletter or blog, downloading an ebook, requesting a quote or demo or making a purchase.

To generate conversions should be the main objective of a website, because everytime a new visitor is converted you have an opportunity to start a relationship with that visitor. This relationship needs to be continuously nurtured, mainly by presenting to the converted visitor more quality content. To boost conversion in your website, you can use catchy calls-to-action.

2. SEO

The website should be optimized for search in order to be found by potential customers

In the usual buyer's journey, prospects search online in search engines for products or services that can solve their problem. It's crucial to be on the first page of search results if you want to get people to know your business and the solutions that you offer.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) consists of a set of technics and good practices that help you achieving a prominent position in search results. Thus, it's essential to elaborate an SEO strategy and to implement it successfully in your website.

3. Responsive Website

Your Website should offer a good user experience in every device

Having a responsive website will provide the user a good experience while navigating your website, whether they do it on a desktop, a laptop, smartphone, tablet or any other device.

The multiplicity of devices through which it's possible to visit a website and the differences in screen sizes amongst them, forces websites to adapt and present content in a way that is suitable to the device.

A responsive website design prepares the website to be visited and navigated in the right way, regardless of the device through which you’re accessing it.

4. Speed

A fast website enhances the user experience and improves the ranking in search engines

Nowadays, it's almost inadmissible to have a website with a poor loading time, because not only users give up waiting for a slow website, but also search engines punish slow websites in the search results ranking. The speed of a website is fundamental to allow the user to have immediate access to the content. Therefore, in order to improve overall performance, website speed should be a priority.

In order to guarantee a good performance and ensure a good user experience, it's important to have a good server and a well developed and optimized website that can be fast when loading content.

5. Security

Make your website safe. Have SSL certification and show the certificates

Online security is fundamental, especially for websites through which financial transactions are made. Security in data sharing must be ensured by the website owner, namely through SSL certifications that consist in the implementation of a code in the server. This code encrypts the data and content transferred between the user equipment and the server, in a way that is not possible for third parties to intercept information.

Make your website safe, get certificates and show your certificates to visitors, so that they can be more confident when sharing confidential data.

6. Unique Experiences

Attract and Conquer the (right) visitor

Tell your visitors what is your value proposition from the get go, in your website. Be clear and try to communicate in a straightforward and insightful manner. How can your product or service be useful and relevant for your target? Show that you can help and contribute with a solution.

The content and the look of your website are equally important, great content with poor looks may cause visitors to not even take a moment to check out the content, great looks but poor content will not get the conversions you need or the return of the visitor.

Be different, make an impact so that visitors recognize your website as unique and form a relevant opinion about it.

And don’t forget: your website should be focused on the client and its needs and challenges, not just on the mission and values of your company.