1) A Clear Purpose of your Website
Why are you building a website? Understanding why is essential for creating a well-designed, interesting site. For example, if you’re an artist and you want to create a portfolio, your goal is going to be different than that of someone who wants to sell art online.
This thought process should guide how you build your site: What content do I need to get my point across? Why do I need certain information on my home page? How can I make my site load quickly without sacrificing good design?
2) Consistent Visual Design
When creating a website, you want your visitors to be able to navigate easily. One way to ensure ease of navigation is to have a consistent visual design that organizes content in an easy-to-follow manner.
You can’t just throw random blocks of text and images on a page and expect it to make sense so, before you publish any pages on your site, spend some time thinking about how you want it to look.
3) Quality Writing
A good website provides high-quality writing that is engaging and easy to understand. If a visitor doesn’t have an immediate, clear understanding of what your business does, or can’t figure out how to use your product or service, chances are they won’t come back.
When you consider your website content, it may help to ask yourself if it would make sense even if printed out in a plain word document.
4) A Clear Call to Action
A good website encourages visitors to take the next step by providing clear instructions. What do you want users to do once they’ve landed on your site? Your call-to-action should make it easy for them to carry out that action, whether it’s filling out a form, watching a video, or purchasing something online.
5) Well Written Navigation
Your website’s navigation is paramount. The navigation should be extremely clear and easy to use, taking visitors to all of your most important pages and keeping them from getting lost. There should also be an area on every page that allows a visitor to easily get back to other areas of your site, like a website map or a sitemap.
6) Proper Page Layout
Your website should have a consistent page layout that provides information in an easy-to-read, easy-to-navigate way. It’s fine to be creative with color schemes and design elements just make sure you aren’t at risk of overwhelming users with too much visual data or causing them to spend extra time trying to figure out where everything is.
7) Excellent Content Distribution
You can’t just build it and hope they will come. Just because you have a website doesn’t mean people will see it or even know to look for it. Before you launch, it is crucial that you set up your site so search engines (and especially Google) can find your content. Do keyword research, get social media accounts set up, incorporate keywords into page titles and H1 tags and do everything in your power to tell Google that your site exists.
8) Up-to-Date Information
After that, check and make sure that your website contains up-to-date information on all of your products, services, and policies. Take into account what’s available on your site, as well as what’s not there.
If you don’t have a page for a certain product or service if it isn’t mentioned anywhere it might be time to remove it from your offerings or look for ways to highlight it better.
Are there errors on your site? What about dead links? These things are an immediate turnoff to visitors looking for quality content, so rectify any issues right away by researching, updating, and checking all of those little details.
9) Relevant Links and Resources
The Internet is a big place, and you need to be able to find information quickly and easily. Make sure your website has links to whatever resources you’re recommending so that customers can go get more details if they want. Examples include a product video on your site or an informative post on Reddit that answers the most common questions about a topic.
10) An Active Social Media Presence
Today, many people find out about companies online. In fact, one study found that 47% of consumers turn to social media when they’re looking for information on a company or product before they make a purchase. If you have a Facebook page or other social media presence and keep it updated regularly, your website visitors will be exposed to more information about your brand. The more information customers have about your business and what you offer, the more likely they are to make purchases from you.
Conclusion
A good website is a hub for your content. Whether you’re providing articles, infographics, podcasts, or videos, every piece of content you publish should be available on your website and should be easy to find. Give people a reason to visit your site and they’ll stay there which will, in turn, give them more opportunities to learn about and buy your products.
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