11-Point Checklist For A Great Website

A great website is essential to almost all industries. Considerations like web designing, navigating, marketing, and brand building should be established to make your site attractive. You need to have a breakdown of the integral parts of a successful website, so you can build a solid platform as quickly as possible.

Here is a list of features your website should have:

1. Purpose And Goal

Your website should showcase the brand’s cause. This may include:

• Selling a product on your site
• Providing informational content
• Building a network

Whatever your goals are, you have to be clear with your reason for creating your website. Its purpose will be the starting point of building a successful platform. Without this, web designers may not customize your website based on your stated goal.

Moreover, without a concrete purpose, you may not know whether to hire a web designer or web developer. One is definitely more expensive than the other, and one is far more technical vs artistic.

Check out this site from laughingsamurai.com to learn the difference between the two. You may think you know one over the other, but sometimes you will be surprised what you can learn!

2. Responsive Website

This is very important if an e-commerce site is what you’re looking for. You cannot have your website unavailable on other devices such as mobile phones and tablets.

People tend to use these devices more often, and you may be missing out on a lot of possible customers for not having a responsive website. Also, if your website doesn’t look good on mobile, you risk the chance of not having a successful omnichannel marketing strategy.

3. Web Design

Humans tend to be more inclined with good aesthetics because they are usually stimulated visually. The same principle applies to websites.

Your website is only as good as its design. Visitors will probably forget about you or ignore you completely if your website looks like trash. If you have a website that’s pleasing to the eye, you’re more likely to attract more people and have them trust your site easier.

4. Logo

The logo acts as the face of your brand, so you must place it in optimal locations along with your site. It is important to have a recognizable logo because it is the primary thing people would remember about your brand.

There are free websites and applications where you can make your logo. You could also outsource logo designers if you have a budget.

5. Key Information

Your website must include basic information about you and your brand. Include information that describes who you are, what your business does, and how you can help your customers.

Visitors to your website should get a clear understanding of your brand identity and the value you can bring to them. It’s also essential to add a story or a feature that sets you apart from your competitors.

6. Domain Name

Creating and registering your domain name is also essential when creating a website. It’s impossible to create a functional website if you don’t have this. Your domain name is how your customers and visitors will find you.

The domain name indicated would also appear in the URL of your website, which they can see in the navigation bar. This would lead your customers to your site after finding you through a search engine.

In creating a domain name, make sure to keep it simple and easy to write. This will enable your visitors to remember you better. Find a domain name that is creative and hasn’t been registered yet.

7. Call-To-Action

No matter how good your website may be, if you don’t tell visitors what the next step is, you might not have any customers. A call-to-action tells your visitors what to do next. You’d be surprised how often they follow it.

Add a CTA on each page of your website. You can even add a call-to-action around the navigation panel. This will make it easy for people to know what they should do next. Also, it will help guide your visitor’s browsing as well.

8. Smooth Navigation

You may have the best aesthetic, but visitors are likely to leave your website for navigational issues. Your visitors should not have a hard time browsing through your website. Instead, they should instinctively know where to go next and how to get to the next page.

You can do this by avoiding too much information on your menu. Only put what’s necessary.

Take note of the three-click rule, which says your users must find whatever they are looking for in three simple clicks.

9. Useful and Relatable Content

Another way to keep your visitors stay longer on your site is to create high-quality content. You might entice your visitors with the looks of your website, but it’s your content that will make them stay.

Content is the real determining factor in how great your website is. This is what will turn visitors into readers and hopefully make them your paying customers.

Ensure you’re producing good quality content. Don’t forget to cater your content to what your readers and customers need. If you satisfy what they came to get, they will come back again for more.

10. Security

Another factor that makes visitors a buying customer is your site’s trustworthiness. Security is everything, and if you’re trying to market your service or products online, you’ll need to ensure your site’s reliability.

Put efforts into acquiring a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. This will conceal sensitive data you and your clients are sharing from unauthorized people. This will also alleviate your customer’s fear of having their information stolen, prevent identity theft, and make them trust you more.

11. Your Social Media

Lastly, social media is now a paramount aspect in marketing your site. Use them to extend your visibility across the internet.

Having social accounts integrated into your website will enhance SEO and make your footprints more noticeable all around the web, allowing you to increase your following throughout all your platforms.

Conclusion

Your website serves as the window to your brand, and visitors will formulate first impressions based on what they see. Not only does it make you easy to find, but it also shows everyone what you stand for. It lets your readers know who you are and what you can do.

Having a quality website increases your credibility and helps you generate more traffic. Utilizing the checklist above will surely bring the website of your dreams into reality.