Website Essentials to Survive in 2021

Moore’s law is not a true law of physics or the natural world but rather details a specific prediction for how quickly technology will advance. Moore’s law is often cited as the simplest explanation for how technology advances at an exponential rate, but specifically digital or circuit-based technology. The exact wording projects that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles about every two years, which means technology that uses circuitry at its core will benefit from Moore’s law. By reading articles online, you are benefiting from Moore’s law “pushing” technology forward as computers like the ones we are accustomed to today have only existed for less than 40 years. Forty years may feel like a long time, but to come from the massive computers that helped humans land on the moon to the tiny laptops on our desks in less than 100 years is Moore’s law in action. Technology moves fast, and any business that depends on technology must keep up with the times. Even though you feel like your business website is holding up to the test of time, some things and technologies are requirements as technology continues marching forward. You can advertise with social media, direct response marketing, and cover the ground in paper mailers, but you will have a hard time converting sales if your website lacks essential features for 2021. Here are just a few of the things your website should have to keep up with modern technology and your competition in 2021.

Solidly Mobile Friendly

Until the smartphone boom, you could safely assume people would only access your website from desktop browsers. However, desktop browsing no longer has the majority of Internet traffic is mobile browsing swooped in to claim the top spot in recent years. Everyone has a computer in their pocket, and customers can easily browse at the drop of a hat, which means mobile formatting and optimization are no longer a nice optional upgrade but rather an industry standard. Customers will not fight on a small touchscreen with a poorly optimized mobile site; they will simply move to a different site that is correctly formatted for mobile browsing. You do not want to lose customers to your competition because a customer was fighting with your website to find the information they want or complete a transaction. Sitting down to optimize your website for mobile might not be the most exciting task in the world, but it will be worth the effort. The mobile market shows no sign of slowing down, so now is the best time to get on board with full mobile optimization before you fall even further behind. 

Customer Services And Options

Amazon has standardized two-day shipping and shipping options if you need an order to arrive faster or if you don’t mind it arriving later for a small reward. Two-day shipping is a hard standard for every business to match, but offering shipping options for online standard orders should be an industry minimum. If you can’t offer different shipping options, speeds, and prices, at least offer other shipping tools. Shipping tracking APIs are a common tool that lets customers track their order as it moves through the shipping process. Letting customers keep an eye on their own package also helps reduce the number of emails or calls from customers asking why their order hasn’t arrived yet. The more tools you can give customers to find answers themselves, the less your support staff will have to answer the same questions repeatedly. 

However, you can give customers all the self-service tools in the world, and it will still never stop issues from arising. Customer problems will happen, they are inevitable, and all you can do is create a support team that can handle issues. Call centers handle more than just phone calls these days, and you can add email and live chat support to many call center service contracts. Email and live chat are typically the preferred communication methods, which also means you can use pre-written responses for the most common questions to save staff time for more complicated problems. Ensure your contact or help information is easy to find on every page or your business’s about us page at the very least. Burying your support information only ensures customers are extra annoyed by the time they start talking to a support agent. You should never completely abandon customers when they have trouble, and good service and support is critical to keeping customers happy and coming back. 

Technology moves fast, and businesses must keep up if they want to stay at the front of the pack. Online businesses and business websites are not exempt from customers that expect innovation and progress. Do not skip mobile optimization any longer or risk being left behind as the mobile market takes more and more customer share each year. Offer as many tools and options for customers as possible. Shipping options, tracking tools, and easy to find support information is the bare minimum you should offer customers as 2020 comes to a close.

About Nick Rojas

Nick Rojas is a business consultant and journalist who lives in Chicago and his hometown Los Angeles with his wife. His work often discusses social media, marketing, and branding in regards to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).