The internet is great for many reasons, but one of the biggest is connecting. The online community can seem quite large at times, which means that there are millions of web pages out there waiting for you to discover them! New sites are popping up every day, and regardless of whether you’re looking for an individual blogger’s take on a major news story or want to find out what the latest updates are in your favorite game series, there’s bound to be someone who has either written about it or set up their website specifically about it. So, where do you start? If you’ve never used the internet before, then things may seem daunting – although fear not! This article looks at some of the things that great websites have in common, so it should be an excellent place to start your search.
Why Should You Care About Your Site?
If you’re running a business, then it makes sense to set up your website. Even if you’re not running a business, having a site of your own can be a great way of connecting with friends and family or simply sharing information on topics that interest you. Again though, things can seem daunting when you first start – especially if this is the first time that you’ve ever been online! Even the most amateur web crawlers will have noticed some sites stand head and shoulders above others, even in areas where they may not necessarily belong. No matter what type of site it is, though, some qualities do tend to crop up again and again.
SIGNS OF A GREAT WEBSITE
A good website should have a purpose
A great website should always have a clear purpose – anything else is likely to confuse your visitors. If you’re unsure about what this might be then, it may help to think of your site in terms of its future growth. What direction do you want to take things, and how will that affect how people use your site? You can always make changes later on if they don’t work out as intended, but at least having a competitive offer and an idea of where you are heading in the short term will make life easier for everyone involved.
Very Easy to Navigate
How clear is it to tell where you can go next? For example, if someone were visiting your site for the first time, would they be able to find what they are looking for quickly enough without having an accident halfway through their journey? You don’t want people leaving your website before they’ve had a chance to explore some of the other parts, so get outlined a competitive offer and call to action images. If something like call-to-action pictures can catch their eye while reading well-organized and engaging content, then there would be no need not to leave your site.
A good website should be mobile-friendly.
Nowadays, more and more people use their phones to access the internet. How many times have you found yourself without your laptop or desktop but still wanting to read that latest blog post? So, no matter the quality of your competitor’s offer and call to action pictures, if your site is not mobile-friendly, it could be putting these potential readers off – especially if they can’t even be bothered to load up an entire website on their tiny screen! There’s no real excuse for this these days either, as there are so many great ways of making sure that your site looks good no matter what device someone is looking at it with. Something as fundamental as making sure that text is large enough to read will improve things massively.
A Great Website Must Have Quick Loading Times
And it should load quickly on all devices. There’s nothing more frustrating than waiting for a page to load only to find that the file is too large and you have to wait even longer! So watch the quality of your call to action pictures or videos because if your site takes ages to load, then people will leave and try elsewhere, notwithstanding the competitive offer – and if they’re on their mobile phone, then they may not bother coming back at all.
Search Engine Optimized.
It’s the art of making sure that your site gets to appear within search results – which sounds simple enough until you get into the nitty-gritty of knowing how to work it all out! Luckily, if this is something that interests you, then there are lots of great resources online that can help. You may also want to consider hiring an expert in this area for a few hours so they can show you what everything does and how everything fits together. The higher the rankings your site appears, the more people will find it – so being on top is significant! Not just quality call-to-action pictures and the competitive offer.
Has branding elements and effective visual design.
A good brand will attract an audience and keep them coming back for more. You don’t want your website to scream “amateur hour.” Hence, it’s a good idea to put some thought into the overall design of your call to action pictures\videos and how it fits in with your competitive offer and any other branding elements you may have already created. If someone lands on your site without knowing who you are, is this enough to make them want to stick around?
It has an impressive layout
Is there a balance between text and images? How easy is it to navigate around the site? If someone lands on your homepage and doesn’t know where to look, then they’re going to get frustrated very quickly, so make sure that everything has been placed in an obvious way. The same applies if you’ve broken your site up into different sections – people should be able to find what they are looking for without too much trouble.
A great website is interactive and has fresh and engaging content.
This is the main reason why your customers want to visit you. They don’t just pop over for a quick look; they want to see what you have got to offer and read about things that could be of interest to them (which hopefully means that they’ll stick around for longer!). If people can find out what’s going on with your brand, this will encourage them to come back for more and give them a good reason not to spend their time elsewhere. It takes some work, but it’s worth it in the end!
Conclusion
If you’re looking for what makes an ideal website, you can hire professionals for an excellent website design service. Also, this list should hopefully give you a good idea of the minimum standards you need to aim towards. It takes some work (and not everyone is cut out for it!), but with time and dedication, you too can make your site stand out amongst the rest!
Vitalii Nedzelenko is the marketing manager at Good Zone Service & Repairs in NYC. He is passionate about digital marketing, gadgets and technologies.
