If you’re opening a new business, you’ll want to put that virtual shingle on your website even before you hang out your signage. You’re sure to hit the mark with these four must-have elements for an SEO-optimized website. Build these into your backend and let the site hits roll! 
- Stunning imagery. Pictures can draw people to your site. That’s why you should set aside a budget for photography. You can use stock photos, but you will also want pictures of your products, your people and your promotions.
- Social media. Once you have the photography well in hand, social media is the way you’ll attract those look-sees, and the good news is search engines love pics as much as your customers will. You want them to share those photos through social media, so make it easy for them to do it. Take photos of your staff doing silly things (with their permission of course). Film short videos to capture the ethos of your company and put a humorous spin on it. One caveat: Don’t pressure employees to participate.
- A call to action. You would be surprised at how many websites neglect this most important element of all. Make it clear, shout it out, and grab a second of a visitor’s attention. Just don’t use cheesy, low-quality animations as a way to move people to click on a link. Build-in at least two calls to action, and depending upon how large your website architecture is, you may want to set up multiple opportunities for people to access links.
- SEO optimization. Visitors won’t notice if you don’t have SEO optimization because they’ll likely never even visit your website. Hire a professional to produce clean backend coding — the kind that web-crawling bots love. White-hat SEO is the way to go. Steer clear of anything that smacks of spam. That’s a sure way to see a website visitor bounce away to another website.
