All business owners fancy a magnificent online presence. This is especially true for small business owners who utilize their websites as their most powerful tool to compete against bigger competitors. Being online is the trend today, and not having a solid Internet presence seems to be synonymous to inadequate and poor branding. Indeed, creating effective branding automatically means having a nice website to show off. So what really makes a great website?
After going through some notable sites, we found that those sites which make a positive impact have certain attributes in common:
Aesthetically superb
Appealing visuals are essential to attract customers. And for websites this means employing good colour combinations, readable typeface and fonts, clear images, and stylish interplay of all these visual elements on the site pages. An aesthetically superb website doesn’t mean excessively stylish to such extent that it defeats the purpose of accessibility. Yes, it must adhere to aesthetics, but cleanliness and simplicity are still important so that the purpose of the site and message is easily conveyed.
Niche-related in all aspects
A corporate site has to live up to its niche, its market, and its brand. It’s essential that a user identifies the nature of the website from the moment of landing on the home page. If the website is about literature, then the elements should convey this, such as quotes from great writers and content that doesn’t have any grammatical errors. Similarly, an ecommerce site that sells rock n’ roll memorabilia wouldn’t suit a cutesy design.
Great content
The content must always be always relevant to the website’s niche market. It should also be evolving and up-to-date. This does not only pertain to the blog, but also to the content visible on each page. Moreover, great content needs to be readable, so it’s necessary to use words and phrases that are suitable to the target audience. Why use highfalutin words if your website’s target audiences are 5th grade students?
Accessible and fast
In website terminology, accessible simply means that the website is navigational, or the user finds it straightforward to navigate through your website. Pages should always be easy to find and links must not be broken. More importantly, pages need to load fast, as everyone knows that when it comes to surfing online users don’t want and won’t wait. Patience has no home on the Web.
Social media friendly
In the social media era, websites that lack sharing buttons turn many users off. Why? Well, this is the age of sharing, and users will see your site as old fashioned and out-of-date if you aren’t across social media platforms. People love to share nowadays, so don’t deprive them of this joy.
SEO friendly
By creating a website that is balanced and readable, as well as well-structured and social, you are also helping make it far more SEO friendly too. This is vital is your site is going to stand out and be counted, and more importantly be found in Google’s search engine results.
In essence, business owners and website owners should strive to have a well-designed website. A website needs to fulfil its real purpose and function. The true intention of a website is how it speaks about your brand and represents your target audience.