Having collaborated with hundreds of banks on their websites, I am eager to share our insights gained over the years and provide a glimpse into the future of web development. In an ever-changing digital landscape of compliance, marketing trends and user experience, it can feel hard to stay ahead of the curve. Here are our website must-haves and growing trends.
- User-Friendly Content Management Systems: You will want your website to allow you to have different user roles, the ability to add unlimited pages, source code access, forms and submissions stored within the site and file/image uploading options. You don’t want to be reliant on your web provider to have to do things because you are limited within the CMS, so make sure you are able to edit and change a majority of the elements within the site.
- Custom Design: You want to set yourself apart from the bank down the street. Having a custom design allows you to do that and provides extra pizzazz from the different functionalities and elements that can come from a custom interface.
- Mobile-Responsive: If a site is not mobile-friendly, you can immediately lose those who have hopped on the site. Plus, Google gives a boost in search results to mobile-friendly sites.
- Blog: Add other elements to enhance the site, such as a blog. This allows you to add more keywords to the site to enhance your SEO and position yourself as more of a resource. You can use those blogs on different pages of the site and in marketing such as social media, email blasts and Google Ads.
- Additional Enhancements: Another enhancement could be an alert banner where you are able to draw extra attention at the top of your site to announce holiday closings, online banking maintenance and so on. One last enhancement could be showcasing your staff with the use of a module on different pages. This would allow you to highlight lenders only and their info on the lending page for example.
- Content Creation: You’ll want custom content, just like a custom design. This sets you apart from the other banks nearby that have the same write-up for home loans. You want content that encourages visitors with a prominent call to action — you can also have quick, short contact forms for more lead generation.
- Landing Pages: While landing pages are already in use, we’re seeing this trend climb even more. Having specific landing pages for each of your lenders to gain qualified leads on a more personal basis or landing pages for onboarding customers in different stages of their banking journey will continue to grow in popularity.
- Audit Log: An audit log showcasing each user’s actions and changes on the site can come in handy, as well as the ability to revert back to a previous version if needed.
- Security: As a bank, security comes first. An SSL, SOC2/SSAE-16 certified data center, DDoS protection, managed firewalls, and so on are all parts of security needed for properly hosting a bank website.
- ADA & WCAG Compliance: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines help follow the Americans with Disabilities Act. This allows users with different disabilities of varying levels to be able to navigate the site. This helps avoid discrimination lawsuits from someone trying to navigate the site with a disability.
- Data Privacy: To ride the ADA and WCAG wave, data privacy is comparable to the General Data Protection Regulation and varies by state. This is a cookie consent banner that allows consent logs for advertising and data collection cookies.
- Enhanced Site Speed: Your site is ranked by numerous factors, including site speed. Make sure your site is enhanced for optimal page speed.
- Third Party Integration: You will want a website provider who can integrate with third parties such as your online banking platform or chat.
- Chat Integrations: Speaking of chat, we’re seeing this trend climb as banks get more comfortable with this functionality. Banks we’ve built sites for tend to lean towards Glia, Podium and POPi/o.
- Multi-Factor Authentication Login: We’re seeing MFA pop up more and more on audits. Eventually, we can see this being a requirement for your bank to have two factor authentication when signing into the website’s CMS to allow for one more layer of security.
Building secure, compliant, and tailored websites is key to your bank’s online presence. Keep these factors in mind when it comes to your website so you can be set up for success.
Bailey Ronnebaum is a business development manager with forbinfi, a full-service agency for financial marketing solutions. Reach her at [email protected].