In this XYZ Quarterly we’ll cover the six essential features your business website needs to succeed and recap XYZ’s Q3 2020 activity.
Read on for Part 1: “Discover 6 fundamental features your business website needs to succeed”
Or jump down to Part 2: “XYZ’s Q3 2020 Recap.”
More people are going online today than ever before. In fact, current usage statistics say 62% of the world’s population is now online.1 Your website is one of the best ways to tap into this growing market, create new customers for your business, and promote your product or service. If done well, your website can lend credibility and professionalism to your company, be fully customized to meet your business’s needs, and help you reach potential customers all over the world. But what features does your website need to unlock its full potential and drive more customers to your business? In this edition of the XYZ Quarterly, we will show you six successful businesses websites that are prime examples of the key features that make an impactful company website.
Visibility is crucial for your business’ website. Make your website easy for your target audience to find by choosing a short, memorable domain name that clearly conveys your brand or business goals. Keyword domain names can also offer a great opportunity to rank in relevant searches for your product, along with even broader branding opportunities. An example of this idea is all-in-one property management platform Property.xyz.
Property.xyz is a free-to-use property listing platform designed by property investors, for property investors. Their goal is to offer services for each step in the property buying process. The company’s long term aim is to become the world’s leading property management platform. That’s why they chose the Property.xyz domain name, which exactly matches the keyword search term for their industry. They also wisely branded with a global domain extension – .xyz. Using the .xyz extension shows they are a worldwide platform built as a solution for all aspects of the property industry.
“We’re creating a property platform that works for everyone,” says Property.xyz co-founder Robert Jones. “All buyers. All sellers. All agents and suppliers. Covers all geographic areas. All property types. All property categories from residential to commercial. All steps of the property process. All available data in one place. A centralized platform. ‘Building the world’s most intelligent property platform.’ We felt (the name) Property.xyz achieves this perfectly.”
Visibility is essential for your business’ website to attract customers. Increasing your website’s visibility online starts with your domain name, and choosing a short, memorable URL helps increase your chances of getting your website to reach your target audience.
Your site needs to be easy for customers to navigate and read through in order to maximize their experience. Good user experience on your website helps generate more leads and sales. If your site is confusing or difficult to navigate on first visit, you could see a large number of potential customers quickly exit your page. When users “bounce” from your page like this, you lose potential conversions. To build the best possible experience for your visitors, consider things like your top-level navigation. What pages do you want to incentivize visitors to click? How well does your site guide visitors toward the actions you want visitors to take? A site that answers these questions well is Amaz.xyz.
Amaz.xyz is an employee benefits platform that helps businesses who use their service offer unique perks and experiences for employees. Amaz.xyz creates an easy and enjoyable experience for users starting right from the homepage. The company clearly explains what the service does “above the fold” – meaning users don’t need to scroll or click anything to learn this information. They introduce their service with a short, elevator-style pitch and feature a picture of the service in use. Overall this adds up to a quick and effective introduction of their service to new site visitors. Amaz.xyz clearly labels the navigation links atop their page to provide tailored experiences for both employers and businesses. When users scroll down the site’s main page, they’re given more information about how Amaz.xyz’s service works and its benefits.
Designing your website with the user’s goals in mind helps optimize their experience, which will keep them on your page longer and create a more positive association with your brand. Many of the most successful products and services are created with the user in mind first, and this same principle holds true when it comes to your website.
Generating trust in the quality of your business is a key part of promoting your product or service online. Show new customers they can depend on you in order to win them over. This is especially true for brand new products and services, or businesses working in emerging industries. One time-honored but effective way to create this trust through your website is by featuring testimonials from customers who have had a positive experience with your business. In addition, you may also showcase awards or notable media coverage you have received. This shows potential customers that others trust your company’s product or service and that it meets their quality standards. A great example to follow when adding this element to your website is Argent.xyz.
Argent.xyz is a cryptocurrency wallet service that aims to simplify the overall crypto trading experience by adding custom naming and other helpful services for users’ wallets.
The company’s product is an example of emerging tech that is not yet familiar to mainstream customers. So, in order to generate trust and transparency with new users, they’ve dedicated a section of their homepage to a wall of tweets praising the Argent.xyz service. Beneath this “wall of love,” Argent.xyz also lists the industry leaders who have backed their service, which includes venture capital firms like Hummingbird and Index Ventures. This further shows Argent.xyz’s legitimacy and success in their industry to potential customers and partners.
Adding testimonials, notable press, and awards you’ve received helps establish trust and show legitimacy with your website visitors from the first time they arrive on your page. This trust is crucial if you are asking them to try your business for the first time. It also gives you a more professional image online by showing that your product or service has others’ support behind it.
There are many ways businesses aim to stay in touch with their customers, from sending newsletters to posting regularly on social media. These methods help businesses remain on customers’ minds and drive them back to their website to generate sales and product usage. It’s crucial that you give your customers a way to stay in touch with you so that you can communicate with them once they leave your website. One of the simplest and most effective ways to do this is by adding a feature that asks for customer contact information in exchange for a valuable resource. An example of this strategy that you can follow for your business’ website is that of TheLushLife.xyz founder Sarah Tracey.
Sarah Tracey is a certified sommelier who has shared wine advice for MarthaStewart.com and served as wine director at a Michelin-starred restaurant. On her website, TheLushLife.xyz, she offers her expert wine advice for everything from pairings to gift ideas and even style guides. Her website includes a dedicated section for website visitors to sign up for her wine advice newsletter. Sending valuable information via this newsletter is one of the main ways Sarah stays in touch with potential customers and brings them back to her website.
Sarah also trades fun for contact information from her website visitors through features like the “What kind of wine should you ‘actually’ be drinking” quiz at the top of her page. As visitors fill out the quiz, it concludes by asking for an email before it can be completed.
Collecting customer information through fun and engaging methods creates a perfect avenue to bring them back to your site. When you provide value to customers through newsletters and similar outreach methods, you establish a stronger relationship with customers and keep them engaged with your business.
When you set out to build your website, the first goal in mind should be to prioritize what action you want website visitors to take on your page. It could be to sign up for your service, buy your products, or contact you to work with you, among many other things. Whatever your end goal for your visitors might be, it’s vital that you guide them to completing that action through your website design. The most visible and effective way to close the deal with website visitors is by using clear calls to action. Calls to action tell website visitors what to do in order to get something (i.e. add to cart or sign up for service). The best calls to action will catch website visitors’ eyes and inspire them to complete something that further engages them with your business. Without clear calls to action, your website visitors will not be sure of what action to take while on your website. Without clear direction, potential customers may leave without purchasing your product or service. To see a website that has calls to action done right, look to TheHop.xyz.
Created by 114-year-old Spanish brewery and beverage company Hijos de Rivera, TheHop.xyz gives startups the opportunity to develop new tools and technologies. The company program integrates the tools created by participants in their program into the promotion methods for it’s popular Estrella Galicia premium beer. To bring startups on board, TheHop.xyz’s website features clear calls to action starting right from the homepage.
TheHop.xyz strategically placed calls to action beneath their main elevator pitch and every program description section. These call to action buttons direct visitors to get to know their program, see projects created by program participants, and submit projects to be a part of the program. They also direct website visitors to engage more with the company’s mission and brand, which is TheHop.xyz’s main goal.
Using clear call to action buttons on your website guides visitors toward the sections of your website you want them to engage with. They also help you capitalize on every website visit by funneling users toward taking the actions you want them to, like buying a product or learning more about your services.
Smartphones have been the main way we access the internet since 2016, when usage surpassed desktop computers.2 As smartphones become more powerful and affordable, the number of mobile internet users only continues to rise. Your website needs to be designed to appeal to mobile users first, because they will likely make up the majority of your website’s visitors. Having a mobile version of your website that loads slowly, doesn’t look good, or is difficult to navigate could result in visitors leaving your page. This means lost sales and less visibility for your brand. Fortunately, you can build your website to be optimized for mobile no matter whether you are designing your website yourself or using a website builder.
An example of a very well designed mobile website is Comuzi.xyz. The London-based design studio creates forward-thinking, “radically creative” product designs.
Their mobile website is designed to be easy to navigate and view as a mobile user. The three-button layout at the top of the page leads visitors to relevant information about their studio, blog, and work. Comuzi.xyz also employs large text and short sentences in their site design to describe each project. These design choices work to keep the page’s main focus on the eye-catching images they use for each project page link and simplify overall visuals presented to mobile users.
Comuzi.xyz’s mobile website design allows visitors to easily scroll through the website to learn more about their work. A mobile-first design helps to communicate their message clearly and draw in potential collaborators and clients. Using this kind of simple and strategic mobile design on your website can help you to make a positive impression on your potential customers.
An effective company website is a crucial part of your business’ success. Making it easy to find and navigate your website will help you attract and retain potential customers. Authentically sharing your story, customer testimonials, and notable coverage of your business helps to create a stronger connection with website visitors. Utilizing clear calls to action helps you convert them into customers or users.
Whether you’re building a brand new website for your latest business or tweaking your existing website, these elements will build the backbone of your successful business website.
As the summer winds to a close, the XYZ Team looks back on everything that happened in another busy quarter for our team and our partners. Despite this summer being a bit different than usual, together we worked as hard as always to serve the .xyz community and spread the word about .xyz.
Summer is always a great time to listen to music as you soak up the sun. This quarter, the XYZ team celebrated the inspiring creativity of the musical artists in the .xyz community by creating a playlist of their impressive work: .XYZ Radio. The playlist features artists from the .xyz community who share their next-generation work through their .xyz websites.
The artists featured in the playlist cover a range of genres, from R&B sensations Aminidi (Amindi.xyz) and Quami.xyz (Quami.xyz), to pop vocalists C TORRES (CTorres.xyz) and Grant Carey (GrantCarey.xyz), and even features electronic vibes from Lance Free (LanceFree.xyz) and Electric Cafe (ElectricCafe.xyz.) The mix is streaming now on Spotify, jump in and discover your next favorite song from these creative artists and .xyz adopters.
Many events have gone digital, and so have XYZ’s efforts to support coders around the world. In Q3 of 2020, XYZ sponsored five hackathon events in two different countries that brought participants together to create projects which address current global issues related to health, education, and emerging technology.
First was XYZ’s return as an official sponsor of Hack the 6ix in Toronto, Canada, where we helped participants showcase their projects and create portfolio websites for their work. Then, XYZ showed support for the blossoming .xyz community in India by supporting four hackathon events in the country.
XYZ’s sponsorship helped coders in India work on projects at Hack in India, Garuda Hacks, Hack Gujarat, and Delhi Hacks. Some participants at the events were making their first ever websites, and we’re proud to have helped them do so with memorable .xyz domains.
.XYZ is the domain on which many great artists and designers have chosen to build a home for their work online. This quarter we were proud to give back to the global art community by supporting next generation artists in Vietnam at the TEDxTrangThiSt Art Hackathon.
The hackathon’s central theme asked participants to use modern coding techniques to create artistic solutions for traditional art problems. XYZ provided domain names for the participants to showcase their artfully coded projects and gave them a platform to share their solutions with a global audience.
One key component of XYZ’s commitment to the next generation of internet users is our focus on setting them up for success in the future so they can share their ideas with the world. This quarter, XYZ provided .xyz domain names to students participating in coding camp programs UX Academy, HackBright Academy, JavaScript Mastery Design Lab, and Girl Genius STEAM Conference. Through these collaborations, participants in the program were given their own .xyz websites along with guides on how to build their first professional portfolio online. The portfolios will help the students put their best professional foot forward online and help them rise above the pack as they step into their careers.
For the past three years, XYZ has proudly been the official jersey sponsor for our friend Elliot Silver of DomainInvesting.com and his riding partner John Berryhill on their annual 80-mile charity bike ride in the Pan-Mass Challenge. XYZ was the lead jersey sponsor for the 2020 event as well, creating a jersey design which pays tribute to those whose lives have been affected by cancer. We were proud to support Elliot and help him reach $10,000 raised for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
One more training ride to go before @PanMass weekend. 35 miles today and 30~ miles tomorrow. Thanks to our jersey sponsors for supporting @DanaFarber: https://t.co/l4BjMxoJAE Also, thanks to my domain industry colleagues for their support: https://t.co/w9x33blVbh pic.twitter.com/TCIDnQSCci
— Elliot Silver (@DInvesting) July 25, 2020
Our Indonesian partner Domainesia held an exciting super sale in Q3, offering customers a great discount on a .xyz domain and hosting bundle. The sale generated a great deal of interest, as Domainesia spread the word to a huge audience through a fun video showing customers they can do almost anything with their own .xyz domain!
In China, our longtime partner Alibaba Cloud had an incredible number of .xyz registrations in Q3, eclipsing over 100,000 new .xyz domains created. These .xyz names were registered as part of Alibaba Cloud’s ongoing developer campaign, which bundles a .xyz domain with a free website builder and hosting. The bundle was a huge hit with developers in China, and our team is happy to welcome them to the .xyz community.
Google’s registrar platform is now offering the world’s favorite new domain. Customers of Google Domains will now see .xyz among the list of available extensions, and we’re excited to welcome Google to our ever-growing family of retail partners. Our mission is to offer .xyz customers choice and freedom when choosing a domain name, and adding Google Domains as a retailer marks another step XYZ has taken toward fulfilling that promise.
XYZ, our partners, and the .xyz community still have plenty of exciting plans in store before 2020 draws to a close. Stay up to date on all things XYZ by subscribing to our newsletter, following us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Sources:
1. https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
2. https://bgr.com/2016/11/02/internet-usage-desktop-vs-mobile/
XYZ is proud to share about the many incredible members that make up the XYZ community! We encourage you to do your own research before using the products and services of the websites we feature. The information about products and services contained in this blog post does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by XYZ.
