When it comes to marketing your business online, the best starting point is to create a good website. Much like shopping in stores, customers want finding products and services to be easy and enjoyable.
Creating a good website is no small feat however. It’s not just a case of throwing things together and assuming that your audience can make sense of it. A good website needs to consider all aspects of the buying or browsing journey.
A good website will engage your audience and have them clicking through all of the pages to discover more, whereas a poor website will have potential customers leaving your site immediately, with no good word to say about your business.
So what makes a great website stand out from the crowd? Well here are 6 top secrets that will set you off in the right direction.
Every Website Needs a Purpose
Establishing the purpose of your website may seem a little obvious, but you’d be surprised how many businesses rush to take their business online, without really understanding what it is they hope to achieve by doing so.
Planning and management is key. Website owners and bloggers should have a clear understanding on what their goals are, and have a clear strategy on how they plan to achieve these goals.
Without clearly defining your website’s purpose, it’s easy to lose direction, waste time and money and end up with a website that’s not effective.
Be sure to establish a clear and specific purpose and set out a detailed strategy that states exactly how you will meet this goal consistently throughout your website. For example, if you wish to increase your online presence, you should have clear steps that set out exactly how you plan to do so through your content.
Website purpose works in a similar way to your business goals and mission statements. It’s all about setting out a plan and making decisions that are inline with achieving that goal.
Clarity is Key
Once you’ve figured out your website’s purpose and have a well-thought out plan, it’s vital that the message you’re hoping to convey is delivered in a clear and organised way.
Fancy designs and cool features can make your website look great. However too much fancy can distract the audience away from your main message, and actually work against you when it comes to generating leads and conversions.
Users want everything quickly. This includes understanding your business. Your audience should be able to visit your website and understand immediately what it is you do and what you’re trying to tell them.
Website developers like creativemonarchy.com will build you a great website that is clean and clearly shows your target audience what they can gain from using your website and why they should care.
For example, Ecommerce stores should be easy to navigate, and deliver clear messaging that tells the user what they should buy, why they should buy it through your website and how they can buy it.
Clarity is all about taking your brand message and delivering it in a clear and concise way.
Quality User Experience
With everyone now using the internet on a regular basis to find the various things they want and need, expectations of users are forever increasing. People want more information, and they want it quickly.
Bad user experience is the most common reason users will leave a website. Slow loading times and poor navigation will result in users feeling as though their time is being wasted, and they will often leave the page before they even see what’s on it.
Even if a webpage loads quickly, if it is hard to navigate, a user will be left feeling frustrated and unable to find what it is they are looking for, resulting in you losing their precious attention.
An ecommerce site for example, should have products categorised properly, a useful search feature, and a user friendly check out to ensure that customers can find what they need, and purchase quickly without a hitch.
A quality designer will ensure that the functionality of your website is based around the people who use it.
Accessibility
It’s important to understand and consider all the types of people who use the internet and make sure your website is accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities.
Optimising your website for accessibility is relatively simple, but is still often overlooked by many. For example, if your website may be filled to the rim with rich, high resolution imagery, and that’s great, but have you considered users that are unable to see them.
Websites should be optimized in a way that enables all kinds of people to find the information that you have to offer and should not limit people to one style of accessing information.
Websites should also be optimised for different devices. The majority of users search the web on mobile as well as desktop, so your developer should ensure that your website is mobile friendly and functions well on all devices.
Customer focus
Another vital thing to remember when creating your website is who it’s for. First and foremost, your website should focus on your audience, after all they are the ones who will use it.
Before deciding how your website is going to perform for you, you should first consider your audience and what it is they need and want from your site.
User-focused websites generate more engagement, more leads and more conversions. Making sure that the user feels valued is essential, as well as ensuring they have everything they need when they visit your site.
Avoid content that focuses heavily on your business goals and desires and concentrate on your audience.
Looking Good
With technology advancing and creators continuously upgrading their designs, it’s important that your website stays relevant and looking fresh. You don’t want your website looking dated and uncared for, as users may be turned off.
Aesthetics of a website can also work towards making your brand stand out. Wow your customers and clients with something they’ll enjoy looking at and may want to share with others.
When considering your design however, it’s essential that you base your design around your content. The appearance of your website should accessorise and highlight the content that you wish to share, otherwise you run the risk of over shadowing the content you worked so hard to create.
The key to good aesthetics to have it work alongside the other elements of your website to present users with a quality experience that’s functional, informative, easy to use and great to look at.
