According to Internet Live Stats, there are over 1.75
billion websites online. Thousands of websites are uploaded
online daily as businesses seek to increase their online presence. There are
7.79 billion people on the planet according to Worldometers and 4.57 billion of them
are active on the internet (Statista, 2020). This means to be taken seriously
in today's digital world, your company must have some online presence despite
its size.
However, statistics show that 88 percent of online users are
less likely to return to a website after a bad experience. This means you
should not have a website for the sake of just having one, you must have a good
website. A bad website can chase away customers just like how a poorly
organized brick and mortar store would repel customers. This can result in a
business losing a significant amount of money.
So what separates good websites from bad websites? Here are factors to consider to come up with
a good website:
A Well-Defined Purpose
Vague goals produce vague results. You need to determine the
purpose of the website before going through the process of setting up one. The
purpose of a website entails in detail what exactly you want to achieve by your
website as a business or as an individual.
Today there are many types of websites and it can be difficult to choose
the one which suits your business if you are unclear about what you expect to
get out of the website.
Furthermore, a well-defined purpose assists you in
determining what content to put on the website, the type of messages to be
communicated on the site, and how the site will be managed.
Clarity
A study found that 70% of small business websites lack a
Call-to-Action on their homepages. A good website should show essential details
to its visitors in a clear manner. For instance, service providers must be
clear as much as possible when communicating details of their services on their
websites. Clarity is one of the ways your website can turn leads into sales and
retain more clients.
Simplicity is one of the best ways you can use to achieve
clarity on your website. And simplicity is making the primary message more
clear and easy to understand for the site visitors.
Appearance
It takes about 0.05 seconds for your site visitors to form
an opinion on the quality of your website.
Another statistic shows that 75% of consumers judge a company's
credibility based on the company's website design. Therefore to retain users'
positive impression you need to combine clarity and quality design.
Things like aspect ratio, font, and information layout
should be given serious consideration when working on the appearance of your
website.
Users prefer consuming content that's beautifully designed than
something plain.
Web design trends are constantly improving, therefore you
should consider freshening up your website's design from time to time. However, you should make sure that appearance
does not override the purpose of your website. And the content and message of your
website should be matched by the design of your site.
User-Oriented
Usually, many companies or site owners get carried away by
focusing on their own needs and wants, leaving out the users in the equation.
A good website must have content that interests and assist
its users to achieve their goals. The
desires of the users should take high priority in making any decision during
the process of developing the website. Always have users in mind for your
website to be successful.
Usability and Navigation
Using your website should not feel like hard work for your
site visitors. The lack of usability for
any particular website is a great frustration that can repel visitors to seek
out alternative options.
Studies in the area of eye-tracking discovered that website
users scan websites, in the same manner, they do when reading a book. Therefore for your website to be usable and
navigable your website pages should be ordered in such a way that makes it easy
for users to see content that will influence them.
Moreover, pages that are most critical to the purpose of
your website must be linked in such a way that makes it easy for your users to
move from one page to another. A good website must have a navigation menu that
links all pages on the site. Things like FAQs, site maps, and search textboxes
are some of the fundamental components that must be easily navigated by your
site users.
Accessibility
One study found out that an approximate of 8-10
customers would stop engaging with your website if it does not display well on
their device. A website that has
accessibility issues drive customers away to seek out alternative options.
The accessibility and usability of a website go hand in
hand. If your website is not accessible, chances are also that it lacks
usability. A good website must be accessible across different browsers and
devices. Your website should be
compatible with all major browsers like Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla
Firefox, Netscape, and even the older versions.
Loading Speed
Let's face it- nothing frustrates like a website that takes
ages to load its pages. One study shows that 47% of website visitors expect an average
website to have a loading time of at least 2 seconds. Slow loading times are one of the causes of a
high bounce rate for many websites.
One of the main causes of slow loading times of a website is
the use of large file sizes. Inasmuch as
you need to make your website beautiful with high-resolution images, you should
make sure that they are of reasonable size to avoid loading times issues.
Use tools like Page Speed Insights to analyze you website's loading speed.
Responsiveness
85% of internet uses thinks that
a mobile website ought to be pretty much as good as or better than a desktop
website.
As there are now more mobile device users than desktop
users, a good website should work seamlessly across different devices in the
same manner.
The best way to create a
responsive website that adapts to any device is by choosing a responsive
design.
Content Originality
The content on your website should be original and relevant
to the nature of your business. A website should provide content that echoes
and amplify the brand of the company.
You should avoid using content duplicated from other sites as it can reduce the credibility of your
website. Duplicating content can also affect your website's search engine
rankings. Therefore make sure you publish original content on your website.
Tools like Copyscape and Siteliner can assist you in ensuring that your
content passes duplication standards before publishing it on your site.
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization is a way search engines use to
determine which sites should rank higher in the search engine results.
For your
website to get more traffic and clicks it means it should rank high in the
search engine results.
Search engines like
Google use metadata from your site's meta tags for ranking purposes-therefore
you should make sure that every page on your site has good meta tags like
title, meta content type, meta description, and viewpoint.
To have repeat customers your website should be search
optimized. Therefore investing in your website's SEO is a great tool to improve
your company's visibility and profitability.
Security
Security is one of the main concerns of users when using
your website. Viruses, malware, spam attacks, malicious apps, and hackers are
some of the security threats which can compromise the integrity of your website
in today's digital world.
To make your website secure, you should add a Secure Sockets
Layer (SSL) certificate which will ensure that your communication connections
is encrypted.
You can also make use of CAPTCHA(Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers
and Humans Apart) tests to avoid spam attacks
on your site.
CAPTCHA tests make use of random letters and numbers that are
entered before submitting web-based forms. These tests prevent spam attacks on
websites by differentiating human beings from robots.
CONCLUSION
What are the other factors that you think makes a good website? Please do share with us in the comments section.
I hope this article was of great service to you and if you
enjoyed it please share it with your friends. See you in the next one.
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