How To Make A Successful Website :
in this article i want to talk about your website and the things you must know in order to make it as successful if possible .
a successful website will translate differently from industry to industry but here are some blanket ideas that are very strong and that will absolutely help you.
Important Notes:
- first and foremost always use a.com unless you really want to specific URL and there is no other alternative .
- stay away from dashes and hyphens in your web address because as cool as it may be you're only creating an obstacle course for your users .
- make sure that the contact email associated with the website matches the domain name I see many people using Gmail as your website's contact info and that to me is just a little rookie.
now to make sure all the information I'll share with you today make sense I divided the ideas into five parts : (website appearance, functionality, content, usability and search engine optimization).
1- The Appearance:
your site needs to look clean and uncluttered :
- the right use of color would incorporate 2 to 3 primary colors that go well together and are appropriate with the tone of the business.
- too much color or colors that are very strong, those can distract from your message.
- the text has to be easy to read, so gray text on white background is a terrible choice, black text on white background is always the best but any combination really will work as long as it's got a good contrast.
and the ideal text size is typically between 10 to 12 points.
and the ideal text size is typically between 10 to 12 points.
- make sure to use spawns that are easy to read, this is such common sense yet I see many websites with fonts that look cool but at first glance I have no idea what their spelling out for me so that to me is content suicide.
- you also want to stick with fonts that are common because web browsers can only display the fonts that are installed on that computer right so unless you have coding experience and can work around it please keep in mind that just because you have a cool font installed on your computer it doesn't mean that the people visiting your site have it as well .
your home page is a key to a successful website, and it's the first impression you give your visitors so use short paragraphs and short words list only key points or strong benefits on that page .
bullet points work really well as do captions so definitely use them .
2- Functionality :
- always check your navigation links, hyperlinks, the Site Search feature, contact form, sign up or registration forms...
make sure they are all working properly. check for spelling errors.
- make sure your site loads fast, use tools like Google speed and web page test to see how fast your site loads.
you should also know that website speed is not only for retaining your visitors it's a Google ranking factor as well so if your home page takes more than 14 seconds to load at the most.
there are some things you can check for and potentially fix to make it faster.
3- Content:
- your content needs to be organized and short ,break up the text into small paragraphs.
- update the content regularly, ideally at least once a week .
- when writing copy use more of 'you' and less of ' I ' 'me' 'us' .
- it's always a good idea to present your audience with multiple media formats for your content,
ideally that means having text images and videos available for your users to consume.
pictures are more powerful than words and videos are more powerful than pictures so keep that in mind but plan how you will distribute your content wisely because, flash for example may be incompatible with certain browsers and it can't be entirely scanned for keywords either so that can limit your site's search ranking .
- make sure you're using high quality images and overall keep your pages uncluttered any more than 3 to 4 four images on one page can look overwhelming if not done right.
and make sure that the images used are 1,000% relevant to the content so it doesn't confuse the user
- ask customers if they're willing to share testimonial about your business and if so, make sure to include those on your website.
and also every three weeks or so change the homepage around a little bit to promote the latest service or newest product video or event so that returning users won't be bored of your website.
4- Usability :
when it comes to usability, this is all about the type of experience your users have while on your site some key usability elements include simplicity and fast loading pages which are two elements we already talked about, logical navigation, it's one thing to want to do something unique or creative or groundbreaking with your designs but that should never get in the way of the flow of navigation.
- the navigation menu needs to be at the top of the page( bottom line having more than 10 menu items is crazy).
- keep the search bar at the top as well.
- minimal scrolling is really important if you need to share a lot of content for example create links to other pages where the users can go to see or read more.
- the site has to be responsive, it's very important and you need to make sure that your website is set up to automatically scale to fit all the different screen sizes that is getting pulled up on.
so they will show one way on your desktop but a different way on mobile devices and tablets that's how it should be.
- browser compatibility is also very important here different browsers can have different rules for how they display their content so at a minimum test how your website behaves on the newest and past three versions of Internet Explorer as well as Firefox Safari and Chrome.
- usability testing has also shown that long link text makes it easier for users to navigate around the site and longer links are also in the good graces of search engines.
so rather than just linking the words click here, you could link click here to see more.
- consistency in the layout is also important, keep the same color, scheme, fonts, text sizes... etc throughout the entire site, and check the screen resolution as well the average web surfer has the resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels so make sure your website display is good at that setting.