‍9 Critical Features to Include in a Website Redesign

Have you finally decided to do redesign your website this 2023? It’s crucial to consider all the tools and features your site may need to provide the best user experience possible.  

This can be something challenging to do since technology is constantly changing and so are your customer’s preferences and behaviors. But there is a way to future-proof your web design in Nashville.  

In this article, we will discuss website design features and technology you may need to take your site to the next level and start boosting conversions.  

Without further ado, let’s get started!

9 Website Design Improvements and Features Your Site Needs

To properly determine what upgrades your web design in Nashville needs, consider the crucial parts of your site. Identify the different marketing channels you use to drive sales and how they all play a role in engaging and getting your customers to convert.  

1. Put Advanced Site Search Features  

Users want to be able to effortlessly find the information they’re looking for or products they’re most interested in right away.  

Why?  Because people value their time above all else. They don’t want to venture through your pages sifting through content just to get where they want to be.  

By providing advanced site search features, you can make your products and services easier to find, which exponentially increases your conversions.  

Studies show that 59% of web visitors use a site’s internal search engine to navigate its pages and content. 15% of users also prefer to use the search feature instead of the hierarchal menu set in place.  

Internal search features help users find the information they need most and engage with the right content. As a result, they can move further into the sales process seamlessly.

However, it’s not enough to just have a simple search bar on your site. You need one that’s personalized to your business’s specific page index so they won't end up getting search results that are completely unrelated to what they're looking for.  

This allows you to serve highly focused and limited search results that users love because it streamlines their experience on your site.  

Internal search features are indeed an invaluable tool that helps users address their immediate needs while boosting your lead generation, search engine optimization, and marketing.  

2. Add Consumer Reviews

Adding customer reviews to your site helps consumers make purchasing decisions. 63% of customers are more likely to trust brands with online reviews over those with no reviews.  

84% of consumers also consider reviews as an important factor in their buying decisions. 95% of shoppers also read online reviews about your products and services before they buy.  

The lack of reviews on your site will make potential customers feel at risk, which ultimately prevents them from buying.  

By featuring positive reviews on your site, you can reassure potential customers that they can trust you and that your products are worth their money.  

When integrating reviews into your web design in Nashville, consider adding general positive reviews on your homepage and more targeted ones on specific pages.  

For example, if you're selling pet accessories, include a review that says how great your dog collars are on the dog collar page.  

3. Don't Forget to Include a Wishlist and Favorites  

In today’s highly distracted world, scatter-brained users find every minor convenience on a site essential to a great user experience.  

Offering wishlists and favorites allow consumers to easily recall and find the products they already know and what they want without the hassle of having to sift through the pages on your site.  

This improves the users' experience and engages people who are already interested in what you have to offer. These features also allow you to gain useful insight.  

For example, if customers are only favoriting an item but not buying, there might be something wrong with its description or the pricing may be too expensive.  

People who are interested in what you have to offer need to have a reference point to come back to when they're ready to buy.  

Make sure your website has a wishlist or favorite features to make it easy for consumers to save what they love.  

According to Brendan Witcher of Forrester, wish lists can drive open rates as high as 80% and can have up to 10 times higher returns to purchase.  

4. Include Smart Forms  

Smart forms are digital elements that allow you to learn more about your customers and their website interactions. They're similar to eForms except that they're more intelligent with a wider variety of functions and capabilities.  

By integrating smart forms into your site, you can monitor your forms and drive leads onto your CRM. It also provides you with insights that improve your way of engaging with users on your site.  

You can add smart forms to any content web page to capture leads. What’s great about smart forms is that they’re a more streamlined and customized way to request personal information and details about their web search activity and behavior.  

This enables you to convert visitors into leads. Here are the six reasons why you need smart forms to increase lead generation and boost your overall digital marketing strategy:

• Move prospects from one stage of the sales funnel to another until they’re ready to purchase.  
• Identify prospects that are interested in your company and what you have to offer, whether by downing your content or subscribing to your newsletter.  
• Segment your prospects according to the information they provide, which allows you to serve relevant content that they’re more likely to engage with.  
• Get up close and personal with your prospect leads through the information they provide through smart forms.  
• Accommodate mobile users, making it easy for people to respond and fill out your forms.  

• Can be tailored to each user. Smart forms can automatically show or hide questions based on how a user responds.

5. Add Social Media Content  

Social media has become a great deal among consumers, especially when it comes to discovering new brands and products or services. It also allows them to get to know you on a more personal level and connect with you.  

By adding social media to your website, you can promote user-generated content and appeal to the emotions of your target audience.  

Here are the five reasons why social media integration with your web design in Nashville is crucial:

• Reach a broader audience and drive traffic to your social media accounts, and vice-versa.  
• Boost your website’s interaction and engagement rate.  
• Generate performance and sentiment analysis reports. It allows you to study how users are engaging with your posts and gain insights into their social behavior.  
• User-generated content serves as social proof that helps build trust and boost your conversions.  
• Enhances the visual aesthetics of your website design in Nashville. People love looking at new, fun, and engaging posts.  

• Increase your conversions and sales by showcasing products that your customers are already buying through UGC.  
• Boost your brand image and reputation by showing how active you are on social media and by partnering with influencers.  

Strengthen your brand by linking your social media profiles and all user-generated content to your site. This will help give your business a more authentic feel and attract the right customers.  

6. Customize Your Checkout Process

You want your checkout process to be as simple and efficient as possible to avoid cart abandonment and increase the chances of customers completing their transaction with you.  

17% of online shoppers in the US have abandoned their orders solely due to a complicated checkout process.  

To help improve the user experience on your checkout and drive more conversions, you need to understand that consumers have different checkout needs.  

By personalizing your checkout process, your customers can finish their purchase in a snap, all without having to fill in unnecessary fields or wait for pages to load.  

Here are some best practices for checkout personalization:

• Offer a free shipping option when they reach a minimum order threshold or by joining a membership program.  

• Use exit popups to prevent users from abandoning their carts. Offer a compelling deal and add a CTA to persuade them to complete their purchase.  
• Include customer reviews and other forms of social proof at checkout. 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Leverage the power of reviews to boost conversions.  
• Offer a guest checkout option. Don’t force shoppers to create an account because this will only lead to cart abandonment.  
• Limit the fields in your checkout process to four only. Only ask for their shipping and billing addresses, payment info, and phone numbers.  
• Use autofill and data validation to avoid any errors that can potentially cause delays in delivery.  

• Offer a wide variety of payment options.  
• Add an SSL certificate to build trust with shoppers. You want them to feel confident that your checkout is safe and secure. Studies show that 83% of consumers are more likely to shop on sites that showed their fraud prevention efforts.  

7. Include Related Items  

A related product section is a part of your site where you suggest or recommend three to five items that are relevant to what they’re currently looking at or about to buy.

Having a related product section for your site is a great way to increase a customer's average order value and boost your revenue. It also provides the following benefits:

• Boost the number of impulse buys.  
• Speed up the purchase decision process for users and boost their experience.  
• Meet user experimentation and show that you’re a reliable company.  
• Great way to upsell products and services.

When designing a related product section, here are some best practices you should follow:

• Use eye-catching and bright images.  
• Curate the images in line with your company branding.  
• Make sure the scrolling system that the related product section is on is responsive.  
• It should also be easy to use and interact with across all devices.  
• Use professional imagery.

8. Create a FAQ Page

Before consumers buy, they want answers to their questions and assurance that your products are worth investing in.  

What better way to give them all the information they need than by creating a FAQ page? A FAQ page is an opportunity for you to deal with specific queries that people have about your business.  

By answering these questions in-depth, you can establish trust, boost credibility, and educate consumers. It also helps users navigate your site efficiently.  

When creating your FAQ page, make sure you create high-quality content that will establish you as an authority in your industry. It’s also an opportunity to answer questions before your customers even think about asking them.  

9. Create Amazing Loyalty or Reward Programs

Loyalty or reward programs play an important role in retaining your most valuable customers through exclusive offers and special deals. It also enables you to gather useful marketing data and increase referrals.  

Create loyalty programs that incentivize website visitors to leave reviews and ratings on your site and social media. It will lead to authentic user-generated content from customers who truly love what you have to offer.  

Here are some loyalty or reward programs' best practices:

• Make it easy for users to join and use your loyalty or rewards program.

• Avoid asking your customers to carry a card or download an app. According to a study by CodeBraker, 70% of shoppers would rather use a mobile version of their loyalty cards as long as they don’t have to sign into a site or download an app.  
• Offer smaller but more frequent rewards.  
• Use customer data to provide compelling deals and exclusive offers they can’t resist.  
• Create a flexible loyalty program that allows your customers to transfer rewards and points.  
• Ask for your customer's feedback about your loyalty programs.  

Take Your Web Design in Nashville to The Next Level!

Now that you know what features are crucial to improving user experience on your site, make sure to incorporate them into your web design in Nashville!

Working with an expert in website design and development will help ensure that your website redesign turns out to be a huge success.  

At Digital Resource, our website design experts and digital marketing specialists will work with you to create a bespoke web design that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also helps you achieve business goals.  

Contact us today for a free consultation!

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