There are over 1.7 billion sites out there on the great world wide web, and standing out is no easy feat. So the best you can do is to just do your own thing, your own website that is just good, with a bit of honest work and elbow grease. But, all things considered…
What makes a good website?
Well, it depends on how you look at it.
For some, design is key, for others, innovative functionality. Maybe a few put ease of use as their number one. Others search for great content. Of course, a good website is a combination of all of a lot of things, technicalities and personal opinions included; and a personal, yet informed opinion is exactly what this article is. So without further ado, let’s see what a good website consists of, in Emotionstudios’ opinion.
Ease of use
First and foremost, ease of use. People actually being able to enjoy your site without being hindered by slow load times, perpetual errors and bad design will, in time, of course, create a loyal user base that will come back time and time again for new updates and content. And if that is not a successful website, then I don’t know what is. And this is not even considering the scalability of it in time.
To be sure that your website hits the usability mark, don’t make your users search for the information or content that they want. Keep in mind UI/UX design: create a clear structure and use easy-to-understand navigation, consistent layouts and visual cues.
Innovative design
Looks are the first thing people notice, and this doesn’t apply only to first dates. You have only one chance to make a good first impression; so being bland and outdated is just not a viable choice when it comes to your website’s design.
So try to avoid clutter, use a good amount of white space to let things breathe, yet still try to keep things on brand, polished and professional. Oh, and all of this while keeping in mind usability.
Great content
Looks without content is like a jar without cookies in it. And you can have as much usability and innovative content as you want if you are lacking content. Content is crucial to any website, as it drives in people looking for information or entertainment. And the best thing that comes when you start taking your content seriously? Your SEO score and ranking improves without doing much else besides continuing writing your content.
When thinking about the content of your site, always keep in mind your audience. Use language that makes sense to your target demographic, with specific jargon, be succinct and clear and continuously invest in your site’s content.
Optimized SEO
Speaking of SEO, many consider their position on search engine results as an accurate way of determining how successful a site is. If you haven’t heard of SEO before, take a look at our article What is SEO and why should I care about it? (spoiler alert, yes, yes you do). Long story short, SEO is what will help you rank higher or lower in search engine results; depending on that you can get more or less traffic on your site.
Of course, everything said before still stands, but now you also have to think about SEO: keywords research, meta tags and alt tags everywhere and optimized links. Think of the audience that you want to get and then think like them: the keywords that you will find this way will drive you to success.
Functionality
Functionality is quite the broad spectrum and it can span over a lot of web concepts, but what I’m actually referring to here is the minimum tech requirements that will give your website a fighting chance to be the best that it can.
For starters, a good website should have an SSL certificate. Not only does it make people trust you a bit more, but nowadays it’s the standard to have a SSL certificate. A good website should also be responsive, as in it should adapt to different screen sizes. Somehow, in our day and age, some websites still aren’t responsive. Fast loading speed, image optimization, SEO and site architecture & navigation are also crucial when it comes to website functionality, but we’ve already talked about them previously.
But instead of trying to figure out what a good website means on your own, maybe let a web agency with 14 years of experience figure it out for you. You know, like us.
