In our ever-changing social climate, a good website is key to reach the digital savvy consumer of today. Every business owner, whether a large or small business, needs to have a credible online presence. Websites serve as a central social media hub, this is because a website has the power to house sizable amounts of content, taking the user on a journey to best understand what your business is about. Along with content, websites can provide a great platform to grow a business’s database through opt-in services, ultimately gaining the leads a business needs to perform.
With all this being said, a poor website can be a slippery slope of bad SEO ratings, online attacks and confusing user journeys which can undoubtedly hurt the online presence of any business. There are a few things to keep in mind when looking at website builds, these important factors can boost any website’s capabilities to gain considerable leads.
What is a good website?
A good website consists of a multitude of factors. At its core basis, a website is leading a potential consumer to the products or services a company provides. A stellar-looking website may gain traction but can oftentimes fall short if the content is weak, the functionality is bad or something as simple as the website not being mobile-friendly will eventually lead to drop-offs. This can be avoided with a few key considerations. Here are a few things that every good website should have.
Find out more about the future of digital development here.
1. Quality Content
The familiar saying “less is more” heavily applies to website content. Bombarding the consumer with endless paragraphs of information will leave them feeling frustrated and will eventually end in a drop-off. This is because we have become accustomed to fast and concise information in our everyday lives. An easy way to inform the consumer of a business is to break down the content into bite-size chunks of information.
Smaller paragraphs of clear, concise and readable information will help get the message across without overwhelming the consumer. Be direct and to the point to aid in a clean user journey. The use of visual aid further helps the consumer understand the content supplied.
Another important factor when looking at content is your SEO rating. By keeping your content fresh, up-to-date and engaging, you will improve your rating leading to more traction on your site.
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2. Calls to Action
A Call to Action or CTA is an image or line of text that prompts your consumer to other sections of your website. A simple CTA can be “Click Here”, this CTA is standard but can fall flat depending on what you want your consumer to gain from your website. Complex CTA’s are more effective in getting the consumer to the right information. A few complex CTA’s to mention are:
- Lead Generation – These action the consumer to pages on the website where you would like to see traction. This could be a “See More” button directed to a products page or a “Read More” directed to a blog page.
- Lead Nurturing – Once a consumer is on the right page, they may need further convincing to become a lead. This could be through offering a free service or a subscription to a newsletter. Some examples of this are “Sign Up”, “Register Now” or “Get a free quote”.
- Social Media – These buttons can lead consumers to other social media a business may have. This helps gain a following on other sites such as Twitter and Instagram to further market your business.
Find out more about the call-to-action and why it matters here.
3. Mobile Friendly
Smartphones are a consumer’s gateway to fast and convenient content. People are able to do a lot more on smartphones, making lead generation easier as consumers are able to gain information about a business with ease. A mobile-friendly site is becoming a vital necessity for any website.
A ton of factors are considered when optimising a website for mobile. Sizing and functionality play a large role in making a successful mobile site. Other important factors such as asset placement can also greatly impact your website. Things like button sizes and font sizes need to be considered as there is nothing more frustrating than having to zoom in on a mobile site.
As with most desktop sites, image size limits are very important. On mobile, it’s even more imperative to keep image sizes to only a few kilobytes. Smartphones go with us everywhere so data usage is a big consideration when it comes to mobile sites.
4. Responsive Design
Responsive Design is quickly becoming a website must-have. Websites are viewed from a multitude of different screen sizes from mobile and tablets to various desktop screens. Responsive design is the way in which you build a site. The website’s elements will automatically scale to the screen size it is displayed in. It also prevents images from exceeding the limits of the screen it’s being viewed on. So why is this so important?
Responsive Design prevents unnecessary resizing, panning, zooming, or scrolling on a website which can not only lead to frustration but it could also hinder the consumer’s ability to read or view the website’s content, this ultimately gives the consumer a bad user journey. Furthermore, Responsive Design replaces the need to redesign for mobile, it will scale down and work within the confines of a mobile screen with minimal tweaking. This helps greatly for SEO as Google prefers mobile-responsive websites.
5. Website Security
Having a safe and reliable website may seem easy to achieve but in actuality, potentially detrimental website attacks are becoming more prevalent and more difficult to detect.
The obvious and scariest point of website security is information security. Websites house a ton of important personal data. This data is a gold mine to any hacker as they can use this information to further attack consumers.
A website attack can slow your website speed through an influx of bot traffic, rendering your website unusable for consumers. This can lead to a drop in traffic and furthermore, a drop in revenue.
This is however preventable. A good 3rd party application that secures the pathways to your website can limit the number of attacks received. These applications can filter out bots and spoofs that may try to slow the website down as well as give the website further security through a reCAPTCHA.
6. UX Design
UX Design is an important part of any website, this determines how a customer will navigate through your website. A good UX design will aid in a clear and well-established user experience whereas bad UX Design can create frustration and could even render the website unusable.
UX Design goes beyond a clear layout, this is apparent with social media. Facebook has been the leader in social media for a number of years, a large majority of their success lies in their clever UX design, making it possible for anyone to navigate through their apps and websites with ease. This is achieved by prioritising a few important factors such as visual hierarchy, readability and engagement, as well as personalised experiences, user-friendly icons and an appealing layout.
However, this can go further as Facebook not only has the UX upper hand on similar sites, they are continuously evolving and updating. Facebook closely monitors the trends on other social media, this is apparent in their features. In the past, apps like Snapchat and Tik-Tok lead trends of live video feed updates and short clips and so Facebook adapted their platforms by introducing Stories to Facebook and Instagram to conform to the growing trend of live feed updates. They did this again by adding Reels to Instagram where you are able to create short/medium-length videos and upload them like you would pictures.
This adaption helped make them the leaders in social media and will continue to aid in their success, this is an important lead to follow when looking at trends on websites. Having features that become popular and a part of everyday use is paramount in creating a well-balanced and user-friendly user journey, thus making your website a more enjoyable experience for future leads.
Find out more about why UX design matters in web design here.
In short, these 6 things can add a lot of value to any website, making the overall experience safe, memorable and informative for consumers, this further leads to added traffic and consumer loyalty for growing brands.
Here at Flume, our clients come first. We offer various services, including web, app, platform production, SEO, Data Analytics, digital strategy, creative production, and publishing. Whether you need to revamp your website or create engaging social media content, Flume has the expertise to make it happen. So why wait? Contact us today to learn how Flume can help your business thrive in the digital world!
