With Christmas and New Year now a distant memory, it’s time to get back to business. So what better way to kick off 2025 than by taking an objective look at your company’s website and making sure it has all the essential features needed for a successful year ahead.
Now, without expert knowledge, it is hard to know what is essential, and what is simply subjective.
But we are here to help you. So, read on for 10 essential features that we know are essential to any professional website in 2025.
404 ‘Error’ Page
A 404 page is what website users see when they try to access a page on a website where the page no longer exists.
This could be because a link is broken, an incorrect URL is typed, or the page no longer exists. A good 404 page should supply some kind of information on what has happened, as well as suggesting links to other pages to help the user continue their journey.
Call to Action (CTA)
Call to actions are visual or text-based prompts that encourage website users to take a specific decision – they help push a user to further engage with your company.
Without a CTA on each page, a user may not know the next step if they want to make a purchase or an enquiry.
Accessible Website Navigation Menu
A clear and obvious website navigation menu is arguably one of the most essential parts of a good website.
A navigation menu is the main menu that allows users to get around your website.
If it is slightly hidden, or somehow difficult to access, users can get frustrated, which in turn will see your bounce rate increase quickly. Also, a website that is difficult to navigate and makes finding the relevant information hard work, doesn’t reflect very well on your business.
Contact Forms
With over a decade of experience in supporting businesses digitally, we know how important the simple, yet underrated, contact form is!
A contact form on your business’s website massively increases the likelihood of receiving online leads from new clients. It prevents the need for the user to open their email, meaning they can message instantaneously.
It can also make it far easier to respond, with all contact form queries normally going to the same place and not getting buried in your email inbox.
Contact Information
Even with the inclusion of a contact form, it is important to have your business’s general contact information clearly visible on your website.
Some new and existing clients will still prefer the thought of making a phone call to reach out, whilst a registered address lets prospective clients see where you are based and that you have a legitimate business location.
The Right Imagery
Using imagery that matches your business’s brand and offering is a vital and often overlooked aspect of a website. Imagery is generally the first thing that users see, so it requires serious thought.
Nobody wants to work through a website that is completely text heavy, so your imagery needs to speak for your business.
So, remember to ask yourself, what is the goal of your website? What do you want the images to say? What story do you want them to tell? Will the images chosen appeal to your business’s target audience? And finally, do they match your brand?
Where possible, we would always recommend using custom photographs over stock imagery, to give some personality.
Great Copy
Even with the best imagery, the actual text on your business’s website is still going to be the key part of your website. So, it needs to be great.
Great copy can help improve SEO, create consistency, improve customer experience and help sell your products or services.
It also helps legitimise and professionalise your company, as poor copy with spelling or grammatical errors do not make good first impressions.
Responsive Design
Responsive design ensures that your company’s website looks great and functions well on all devices, from desktops to smartphones. This improves user experience, increases engagement, and can boost SEO rankings. A responsive website also helps build a positive brand image and can lead to higher conversion rates.
Privacy Policy
Again, linked to GDPR – with data privacy laws requiring websites to have privacy policies. Basically, having a privacy policy on your company website lets users know how a website processes data in accordance with all relevant data regulations.
It also helps to build trust with customers and shows that your business takes privacy matters seriously.
Cookies Prompt
Anybody that uses the internet is fully aware of cookie prompts, which generally ask you to accept or decline. But not many users are aware of what cookies actually are.
Cookies are small files that contain text and data that are used to identify the user’s device whilst it uses the network. They are used to recognise specific users and help improve the website browsing experience. Data stored within a cookie is created by the server once a connection is made. This data is labelled with a unique ID, so returning users are recognised.
Because cookies are used for things such as saving user login information to remember them on subsequent visits and identifying the user and what they are doing; it falls under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore it is essential to ask the user if they are happy to your site to save this information.
If you are looking at this blog and thinking that your company website is missing some of these pointers, then please feel free to get in touch for a free website audit.
