When you have a brick-and-mortar business, you have a storefront to take care of in-person and online. While most of your business may take place in your store, your website is just as important to your brand as your physical location.

Your business website:

  • Helps people get details about your business like checking your hours, service details, product information, address, etc.
  • Helps people discover your business by finding it through search, social, and referrals
  • Supports your sales team by sharing information that customers use to research before they buy
  • Generates leads by getting website visitors to share their contact details
  • Provides valuable social proof that makes customers trust you
  • Shares news with your audience and keeps them informed about changes at your store, within your industry, etc.
  • Acts as your brand’s online homebase where you can drive all social and PPC traffic

Needless to say, there are a lot of benefits you can get from having a business website. But, you can only get these benefits if your site includes the right website elements. The rest of this post will showcase the elements you need on your business website if you want to reap the benefits listed above.

5 Essential Website Elements Every Business Site Must Have

Go through this list if you are just starting a website so you can include each element in your website plan. Or, audit your existing site to make sure you have each of these essentials on your current website.

1. Business Contact Information

Many people visit your website to find details to help them visit your location in-person. Make those details easy to find, and include your phone number, email address, hours, address, and map. It’s important to include business contact information on your website, and it’s also important to display it in the right ways.

Showcasing your address in the right place helps people find the info they need, and it also sends signals to search engines that boost local SEO. When your address is properly highlighted, it drives search engines to display your brand when nearby customers search for a business like you. So, feature your business address by:

  • Adding it to your footer (if you have five or fewer locations)
  • Adding it to your contact page
  • Embedding a Google map on contact or location pages
  • Adding your location to relevant page meta titles and descriptions

Recommended Reading: Local SEO Tips to Promote Your Business

2. Location Pages

Because contact information is so important to both users and search engines, you need to focus on this website element even more if your brand has multiple locations. It’s not enough to simply show your business addresses on your website. You also need to create a location page for each of your businesses.

Location pages are essential website elements for multi-location businesses. Create a page for each of your locations. On each page, share the location’s unique qualities, hours, address, and contact info. Also, embed a Google map on the pages to send even more local SEO signals to search engines.

Recommended Reading: How Multi-Location Brands Can Tap Into Local Digital Marketing

3. Customer Reviews/Testimonials

In addition to looking for business details, customers visit your website to find out if they can trust you. They look for signals that show that your products and services offer good value and will leave them satisfied.

To help customers get the proof they need, add reviews and testimonials to your site. Customer reviews are extremely important to shoppers. A Local Consumer Review Survey by BrightLocal found that 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses — which is why they are an essential website element.

4. Lead Generation Form

Your website shouldn’t act as a passive marketing asset that only shares information with customers. It should act as an active marketing tool that collects information from customers and also helps guide them toward making a purchase.

For your website to act in this way, it must include a lead generation form. A lead generation form collects email addresses from website visitors. It may also collect information such as name, birthday, and other details that help your brand qualify and segment customers. Generating leads from your website starts the sales process and allows you to stay connected with potential and existing customers.

Recommended Reading: How to Generate Leads Online to Drive Customers to Your Physical Storefront

5. Desirable Lead Magnet

It’s not enough to simply add a lead generation form to your website and have customers start signing up. To get customers to add their contact information, you need to give them an incentive to do so. You need a lead magnet that drives them to sign up.

A lead magnet is a valuable offer, freebie, or upgrade that customers receive when they join your list. It could be something as simple as a coupon code or free content assets like an ebook or PDF checklist. Adding a lead magnet will boost your sign-ups as it gives website visitors something in return for joining your list.

6. A Fresh, Regularly Updated Blog (Maybe)

The previous five website elements are essential for every business website. This final element can benefit your site, but it’s not necessarily right for every brand.

A fresh, regularly updated blog serves both customers and search engines. A blog gives you a channel to share brand news, fun content that brings website visitors back, and educational content that supports the sales cycle. It can also target keywords and provide fresh content that makes search engines more likely to rank your website.

But, a blog isn’t necessarily right for every business. To find out if it’s right for your brand, check out our post that includes three questions to help you decide: Does Your Business Website Need a Branded Blog?

This Is Just The Beginning for Your Business Website

The five website elements in this list are just the beginning of your business website. They are the bare minimum of what you need. There is so much more you can do with your site.

Once you get these website elements added, continue to build out your site with more content that will work to attract new customers, engage existing customers, and drive more sales and interest in your brand.

Start scheduling your new website content plans by grabbing our free editorial calendar. It helps you lay out your website content as well as other content pieces for social, on-premise messaging, paid advertisements, and more.