There are certain aspects of a site that will make a website great. Seek to accomplish all of these and you are on your way to making even a good website better.
Good web design considers what the end user’s needs are (while keeping business goals at the forefront as well). You need to know what your visitors will be looking for: particular information, transact with your business, a certain type of interaction, or entertainment. Each page of your website ought to have a definitive, clear purpose while fulfilling a specific need. The visitor should know where they’re at, what they can do and should also be reinforced about who and what your company is and does.
The content for high quality websites will keep their audience’s needs paramount rather than on what they’re selling. Good and fresh content builds the visitor’s interest and compels them to visit more frequently and also share the site with their friends.
SEO is a critical part of a website in acquiring an audience. Without SEO, a great website is practically invisible. There are many SEO considerations when making a new site - beyond just what words people see on a page. Utilize all aspects of smart SEO to bring potential customers that will appreciate and pay for your services rather than acquiring a generic audience.
Great web design, that aligns well with the business’s brand, will help to make a memorable website. Consider your market and personality. A website should effectively use layout, call-to-action placement, white space, colors, fonts, and other supporting elements. While using these facets, also offer a clear hierarchy of content. If a website’s pieces of content are heavily competing against one another, you’re customer may get distracted, may feel overwhelmed or may be unable to find what they’re looking for. Be sure you know what is most important to least important and the business goals should align with this.
A responsive designed website is the new standard and is great since there is only one set of code (was previously two) to manage all the content and the website will adapt to all screen sizes. Be sure to take into consideration interactions such as hover-overs, modal windows and carousels, navigation and forms as the interaction can noticeably differ from a touch device to non-touch device.
Successful websites deliver simple, user friendly navigation – for all device uses. Visitors should be able to find whatever they need quickly and easily. If users are left to wandering around the site and aren’t the exploration type or care about how they spend their time, they will get frustrated and leave – to your competitor.
All of a website’s content, both seen and unseen, should be optimized so the website will load as fast possible. Users are getting more used to having information quickly and they want to avoid any delays. The quicker your site loads, the better the chances you have for users to initially peruse your site.