What makes a good website?
What makes a website good and what makes one bad? There are many different aspects to a website that, when combined, will make a dictionary definition of a good website. Some aspects of considering a website as “good” are based on opinions, such as the appearance and graphics used on the site. People have different tastes, just like with homes, if everyone liked the same colors and themes, we would live in a very boring world. Appearance is only a small part of what makes a good website, additional factors include content, usability, and structure.
- Site content and purpose: So you want a site or you already have one, what is the purpose of your site and what do you want to achieve? Before starting or continuing with your site, you need to set goals and how you want visitors to benefit from using your site. The content on your site should always be kept up to date and reflect the main purpose of your website. If the goal of your site is to sell computers, you obviously don’t want to write about changing a tire.
- Appearance: The appearance and colors used elicit an emotional reaction that can be used to make people feel differently, such as shopping. Different colors evoke different feelings. The psychology of colors is time-tested and is used by professional web designers to manipulate different messages to users. A design should never be too complex and confusing and the design should reflect the business and the service or product you have to offer.
- Usability: A website must be easy and intuitive to use, navigation must be easily accessible on all pages of your site. You never need to click more than 4 times to go to a specific page, a general rule of thumb is that 2 or fewer clicks will take you to any page on the site. The complicated navigation structure will quickly frustrate your visitors and they will bounce quickly if they can’t find what they are looking for.
- Site structure – Your visitors may not see this, but it is crucial to having a good website. The foundation of your site is within the coding and programming framework. A robust site must be openly usable across all browsers, all screen sizes, all operating systems, and without additional plug-ins like Flash. Large numbers of leads can be lost if your website is not compatible with different systems.
- ISP: Your service provider (host) is also extremely valuable in a good website. Your host should have a high uptime (99.9% +) and have high transfer speeds. When was the last time you searched for a site that took more than a minute to load?
- Marketing: A good site should at least promote good SEO practice and rank well within the major search engines.
Combine those key aspects and you have a good website, and if you ever need help making sure you have a good website, Revived Media is always here to help.
