What Makes a Good Website?

A website is like a digital storefront. If you sell doughnuts in your shop for example, what makes a customer buy from you rather than a shop across the road? They need to find you easily. Your window needs to look more attractive and inviting than the other shop. Once inside, your stock needs to be displayed clearly with correct information. Friendly, efficient staff will play a big factor in whether the customer joins the queue or not. The quality of your product will determine whether people will recommend your products to others. The same rules apply to a website. Beautiful, quick loading websites will attract attention. Easy navigation will keep a customer exploring. Good quality pictures and up to date information will decide whether they buy your product or not. Even if they don't go ahead with the purchase but they had a great experience, they are likely to recommend your website. As more and more people use smartphones for browsing, the mobile version of your website needs to be mobile-friendly. So, what makes a good website? Let's dive deeper!

An Attractive And Professional Web Design

A good website design is important for any business; an attractive and professional looking website builds trust and plays a big part in the user's experience. A few elements that go into making good website design include:

Colour scheme - The colours should be complementary and easy on the eyes.

Font choice - The fonts should be legible and easy to read.

Layout - The layout should be logical and easy to navigate.

The content - must be well-written and relevant to the audience.

A great website design will have all of these elements working together to create a site that is attractive and professional. A custom design instead of a template, will give your website a unique look. If you’re not sure how to design your website yourself, there are many online tools and services that can help you. Or, you can hire a professional web designer, like us, to help you create the perfect look for your website.

​A Clear And Concise Message That Is Easy To Understand

In order to create a successful website, you need to make sure your website has a clear understanding of why users are coming to your site and what they hope to accomplish. Are they looking for information, products, or both? Are they after entertainment or are they just killing some time?

Once you know the answer to those questions, you can start tailoring your content and design appropriately. Providing value and helping users achieve their goals facilitates successful website engagement.

Mobile-friendly Design

What makes a good website? In the past, a website had to look good, and it had to be easy to navigate. Nowadays, in the age of mobile devices, it has to do just that, but also in a smaller format. The same design has to be mobile-friendly, which means there is much more planning and thought going into a web design. Due to an increasing number of people using their smartphones and tablets to browse the web, a website that is not mobile-friendly will often be difficult to view on a small screen, making it hard for users to find the information they need. Focusing on a mobile-friendly design from the start saves time and money. All the features of the website have to work properly on mobile devices.

If you want your website to appeal to a larger audience, it is important to make your website mobile friendly. This is also important for search engines like Google. Websites that have a responsive design, have a big advantage over websites that do not. Now that you know you need a mobile-friendly website design that looks professional, what is the next step?

Fast Loading Speed

While there are many factors that contribute to a website’s quality, one of the most important is loading speed. In today’s fast-paced world, internet users have little patience for slow-loading pages.

If a website takes too long to load, users are likely to click away and find another site that can give them the information they need more quickly. For this reason, it is essential for website owners to ensure that their page load time is as fast as possible. Best practices to improve site speed:

Optimising images

This can involve reducing the file size of images, using the right file type, and choosing an appropriate image resolution.

Using caching plugins

These create a temporary copy of your website’s pages and store them in the browser’s cache. When a user visits your website, they will load the cached version of the page, which can dramatically reduce loading times.

Regularly clean up any unnecessary code

This includes anything from old plugins and unused Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to extra spaces and line breaks. Removing this extraneous code can help your pages load faster, and it also makes your site easier to maintain.

Having a fast-loading website not only improves the user experience but can also improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) rankings, leading to more traffic for your site. The loading speed of your website is a ranking factor for search engines.

Quality Content And Structure

Fresh web design and relevant content, as well as keyword-rich titles and descriptions. Regularly updating your website with new content helps to show customers that you are active and invested in your online presence. Furthermore, using keywords throughout your website’s content can help improve your SEO ranking, which makes it easy for potential customers to find you when they search for related products or services.

In addition to quality content, it is also important to have a well-structured website. This includes organising your pages in a logical manner and making sure all links are functioning properly. A good website structure helps improve the user experience and can also positively impact your search engine rankings like Google. When designing or updating your website, be sure to consider the value and structure of your content as well as its visual appeal. A website with high-quality content and a clear structure will likely see more success in attracting and retaining customers.

Optimising For Search Engines

A good website is not just about quality pictures and videos. In order to be successful, it also needs to be optimised for search engines.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), is the process of making your site more visible to search engines like Google and Bing. By improving your site’s ranking on search engine results pages, you can increase the number of visitors who come to your site.

SEO is a complex and ever-changing field, and there are many factors that contribute to a website’s ranking. However, there are a few basic things that you can do to help improve your ranking:

Use keywords throughout your website content

Keywords help search engines understand what your website is about, and they also help users find the information they are looking for. When choosing keywords, it is important to choose ones that are relevant to your topic and that are not too competitive. You want to choose keywords that you can realistically rank for in search results.

Optimise your website images

By including keywords in your image file names and descriptions, you can help improve your website’s ranking in search engine results pages. In addition, optimising your images can help to speed up the loading time of your website, making it more user-friendly. With so many benefits, there’s no reason not to optimize your website images for SEO.

Perform regular website audits

There are many factors to consider when conducting a website audit. Some of the most important include site structure, content, usability, and link building. By taking a close look at these and other aspects of your website performance, you can get a better understanding of what is working well and what needs to be improved.

Use Google Analytics to track website traffic and performance

By tracking analytics, you can see which areas of your website are successful and which need improvement. For example, if you see that people are leaving your site after the home page, you know that you need to work on keeping them engaged. If you see that people are searching for a specific product, but not finding it on your site, you know that you need to make it easier to find. Tracking analytics can help you fine-tune your website so that it performs at its best.

Invest in quality SEO software and tools

When it comes to ranking high in search results, quality SEO software and tools like Ahrefs or Semrush can make a big difference. With the right tools, you can optimise your website for specific keywords, track your progress over time, and even diagnose and fix technical issues that could be holding you back.

Have Clear Calls-to-Action

Whilst it is important to have high-quality, engaging and SEO-friendly content, you also need to direct the reader what to do next. This is what is known as a Call-to-Action, and at least one is needed on every page. This could be directing the reader to 'Download a free guide' that will help them, 'Call Now' or 'Get a free Quote' for example. Some Call-to-Action prompts lead to other pages, taking the visitor on their own journey. A Call-to-Action is basically something that tells the reader what to do next and when done correctly can significantly improve your conversion rate.

The Trust Factor

By including pictures of you and your staff on your website, as well as your office address and landline number, potential customers will be more likely to trust doing business with you. Furthermore, if you have industry membership badges or certificates, display them prominently on the site. These verification symbols help instil confidence that your business is real and reliable.

Testimonials

Remember the doughnut shop? The more people that have a great experience using a particular product or service, the more likely we are to want to try it for ourselves.Testimonials are important when it comes to building trust. Feature them prominently on your home page, which is often the first stop for visitors to your website.

If you have too many to fit there comfortably, create a separate testimonials page that lists all the happy clients you’ve helped. If you want to convert potential customers, showcase testimonials from people like them on your website and social media pages. If you’re selling to businesses, feature their logos with the accompanying testimonial. This increases trust between you and the customer while also building a relationship foundation.

Payment Logos

Be clear about your payment options on your website if you want to sell products. Credit card fraud is a common concern for many online shoppers, so reassure potential customers that it’s safe to pay on your site by displaying relevant logos (e.g. Visa, Mastercard) or payment methods (e.g. PayPal).

A Contact Form or Email Address

Including a contact form or email address on your website is a must. This allows site visitors to easily get in touch with you if they have any questions or concerns. It also makes it simple for them to request a quote or more information. Your contact information should be visible on every page of your website. Make sure it is prominently displayed and that the contact form or email address works properly.

Easy Social Media Integration

What makes a good website? Is it the design? The content? The user experience? While all of these factors are important, one element that is often overlooked is social media integration. In today’s digital age, it’s essential for businesses to have a strong social media presence. By making it easy for users to share your content on their favourite platforms, you can dramatically increase your reach and engage with new audiences. What’s more, social media integration can also lead to higher levels of customer loyalty and satisfaction. So, if you’re looking to take your website to the next level, consider adding social media integration. It’s an essential component of any great website.

Have a Blog On Your Website

A blog is important for a business because it allows you to share your expertise with potential and current customers. A business blog can also help to build trust and credibility with customers, as well as increase traffic to your website. By sharing valuable content on your blog posts, you can attract new customers and retain the ones you already have. In addition, blogging can help to improve your search engine ranking, as Google likes websites that are constantly updated with fresh content. If you’re not currently blogging, now is the time to start - just be sure to write content that is relevant to your target audience.

The Website Should Be Secure With an SSL Certificate

In an age where cyber security is a growing concern, it is important to have a secure website. One way to do this is by having an SSL (secure sockets layer) certificate, which encrypts data exchanged between the visitor and the website. This helps protect sensitive information, such as credit card numbers or passwords from being accessed by hackers. In addition, an SSL certificate can also help to improve a website’s SEO ranking. Google prefers websites that are secure, so having an SSL certificate can help your site rank higher in search results.

So what makes a good website?

A good website is more than just a pretty design. It should also have relevant and engaging content, easy navigation, and important features like contact information and social media integration. And don’t forget about security – make sure to have an SSL certificate to protect sensitive information and improve your search ranking. By taking these elements into consideration, you can create a top-notch website that attracts and retains customers.

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ISTOS DESIGN provides a professional web design services to take your online presence to the next level with expertly crafted website that captures your brand's personality, engages your customers and increases your visibility. Looking for an experienced, professional web designer? Get in touch.