So what makes a good website? A good website is user friendly, looks good and technically sound. In this post we’ll cover the essentials like purpose, navigation and security so your site looks good and works well.
Key Points
- UX and UI design to create a seamless experience, increase user satisfaction, conversion rates and brand perception.
- Performance and speed, especially mobile optimisation to improve user experience, reduce bounce rates and search engine rankings.
- SEO strategies including keyword research and on-page SEO to drive organic traffic and site visibility.
What Makes a Good Website: The Checklist
A good website is more than a digital shop front, it’s a tool to help you achieve your business goals and a pleasant experience for users. A good ecommerce site has:
- A clear purpose
- Looks good
- Is easy to use
- Is technically sound and secure
In today’s competitive market ecommerce sites need to have all these to stand out and provide a seamless user experience.
Each of these plays a big part in making your website functional and engaging and trustworthy.
To build a website you need to know your audience, optimise for search engines and constantly improve through analytics. It’s about balancing creativity with functionality, form with usability. By focusing on these areas you can build a website that stands out in the crowded online space and drives real results for your business.
Introduction
Web design is a creative process of planning, conceptualising and organising content for the online world. It’s more than just making a site look good, it’s about making it work and provide a good user experience. A well designed website helps establish brand credibility, customer trust and an intuitive user experience. Visual design, UX design, UI design, responsive design and SEO friendly design are all part of web design.
In today’s fast paced digital world keeping up with the latest trends like AI, VR and micro-interactions is crucial. Understanding these trends and incorporating them into your web design will help you stay ahead of the game.
Web design skills:
- HTML/CSS
- Graphic design
- UX/UI design
- SEO knowledge
- Responsiveness.
Tools like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for visual design, WordPress for site management and Google Analytics for performance tracking are part of a web designer’s arsenal.
Clear Purpose and Target Audience
Having a clear purpose and knowing your target audience is the foundation of building a successful website. A clear purpose helps you optimise the design and content to attract and retain users. It means your marketing efforts align with your business goals and user needs and a clear value proposition that resonates with your audience.
Knowing your target audience is just as important. It guides your design and content decisions so your site meets the needs and expectations of your potential customers. Creating user personas and using analytics tools like Google Analytics can give you insights into user demographics, behaviour and preferences. This knowledge allows you to tailor your website to serve your audience better and achieve your business goals and help users achieve their goals more efficiently.
Purpose
You need to define your purpose. This means all design and content decisions align with your business goals and user needs. Each page should reflect user intent through its layout, content and calls to action. This will create a user friendly and intuitive experience.
A value proposition helps to communicate what the product or service does and how it benefits the user.
Target Audience
Knowing your target audience means your website is built for the visitor and guides your design and content decisions. Creating user personas and ideal customer profiles helps you understand user needs and optimise the site. These personas should reflect the behaviour, needs and goals of your potential customers so you can create content that resonates with them.
Tools like Google Analytics give you valuable data on user demographics such as age, location and device type. This information helps you make informed decisions about your web design and content strategy. User intent should guide every part of your website development so you meet the needs and objectives of your users.
UX and UI Design
User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design are key parts of a great website. They work together to create a seamless user experience from the moment users interact with your website to the moment they leave. Good UX/UI design will:
- Increase user satisfaction
- Usability
- Conversion rates
- Brand perception
- Mobile responsiveness
UX is about understanding user needs and behaviour, UI is about the visual and interactive elements of the website.
Amazon’s website is a great example of good UX design with easy product search, curated recommendations and a streamlined checkout process. UI design is about creating intuitive and easy to use interfaces and brand perception and user engagement. Researching competitors and industry trends can help you discover popular visual and technical features to add to your website design.
Navigation
Simple navigation is a huge user experience booster. Navigation is second only to purpose and target audience in importance for a website. To have a user friendly experience the navigation bar should be in a standard, well accepted location and always visible. This will allow users to access the content of the website. The main navigation bar is usually at the top of desktop pages. It’s a key tool for users to browse and access different parts of the website.
Analytics tools like Google Analytics will show you user engagement by showing you site visitor patterns and behaviour. This will help you identify which parts of the site are confusing to users and you can make adjustments.
Visuals
Since 94% of a user’s first impression of a website is design related, visual appeal is key to user engagement. A good design will increase user satisfaction and users will be more likely to engage with the website. Consistent branding and design will help users familiarise themselves with your brand’s design elements and create long term associations with your business. This can last for years.
Choosing principles like colour scheme, layout and typography will make your site look and feel better and user experience. Consistency in UI design including typography, icons and buttons creates a familiar environment for users. Visual hierarchy in UI design prioritises information based on its importance so it’s logically accessible to users.
Accessibility
In UX design accessibility means users with disabilities can access your website inclusively. It improves overall user experience by allowing users with disabilities to use your website effectively. Make sure your site is mobile friendly and screen reader compatible for all visitors to have a good user experience.
Making your website accessible means considering technical aspects like providing alternative text for images, keyboard navigation and colour contrasts that are readable for users with visual impairments. By making your site accessible you’re making it more user friendly and inclusive which can also help with search engine rankings.
Content
Good content is key to attracting and keeping visitors. Good content should be:
- User focused and written for the reader
- Effective copy that connects with the target audience
- Designed to make the reader take a specific action, often through storytelling
- Relevant content that builds trust, authority and credibility
These are the essentials for a good website and makes it a great website.
Keeping your content fresh is important for search engine rankings and user engagement. Regular updates will encourage users to come back and that can lead to higher engagement and conversion rates. Deciding what content to put on your website is key to meeting user needs and making sure your site provides value to people.
Copy
Good and consistent copy will engage users and avoid confusion. Here are some of:
- Headline: Clearly state what the business offers in 3 seconds.
- Sub-headline: Address a problem the product or service solves.
- Good content: User focused and written for the reader.
- Storytelling: Connect with the target audience through storytelling to get customer loyalty.
Using action verbs in your CTAs will make them more lively and engaging and get users to take action. Here are some action verbs you can use in your CTAs:
- Buy
- Sign up
- Subscribe
- Download
- Learn more
- Get started
- Join now
Simple language in your copy will help users know what to do quickly and improve overall user experience and conversion rates.
Updates
Updating content regularly has many benefits for your website:
- Keeps your site relevant and engaging for visitors
- Prevents user disengagement and higher bounce rates
- Improves search engine rankings so potential customers can find your site.
Updating regularly shows your website is live and maintained which builds trust with your audience.
Visuals and Media
High quality imagery is key to looking professional and appealing to specific user groups. Good images add value to the visitor, explain key points, give the eyes a break and even sell products and services. Supporting images should drive action and visually tell the story being presented. Media should be relevant to the website’s content and branding.
Content design including charts and visualisations will improve user experience and engagement. High quality images and videos will increase user engagement and make your website more visual and interactive. Make sure your media is optimised for fast load times to maintain a good user experience.
Performance and Speed
Performance and speed is key to delivering a good user experience and search engine rankings. Page load time is critical to keeping visitors, search engine rankings and customer satisfaction. A 2 second delay in page load time increases bounce rates significantly. Optimising your website with techniques like avoiding duplicate content and site speed will get your website visible to potential customers by helping search engines find and rank it better. This will lead to more traffic and more opportunities to engage and sell.
Tools like W3 Total Cache make caching easier and will increase site speed. Too many large images will slow down your site which is bad for SEO and usability. By prioritising site speed you can have a fast website that’s seamless for the user and performs well in search engines.
Page Load Speed
Page load time is a user experience factor. Here are some guidelines to consider:
- Your page should load in 2 seconds for a good user experience.
- If your page takes more than 4 seconds to load it will impact user perception.
- Faster sites have higher user engagement, users spend more time on site and visit more pages.
- Mobile sites should be fast as mobile users have slower internet connections.
- Fast mobile sites are key to a good user experience and will reduce bounce rates.
Google has considered page speed a ranking factor for both desktop and mobile search since 2018. Before you launch a website you should optimise your content for high performance including running a speed test. Conversion rates are directly affected by page speed, B2B sites that load in 1 second see significantly higher conversion rates than those that load in 5 seconds.
Mobile Optimisation
As smartphones make up over 51% of all online traffic and tablets over 12%, mobile friendliness is key. This means you need to make sure your website is mobile optimised. A responsive design means your website will adjust its layout based on the device screen size to look good and work well across devices. Google considers mobile functionality a ranking factor and prioritises mobile friendly sites.
A responsive website will give you a consistent user experience across different devices by adjusting to different screen sizes. Good UX/UI design will support multiple devices and give you a consistent experience across multiple platforms. Keeping your website up to date will keep it compatible with the latest browser versions and devices.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO is key to increased visibility and search engine rankings. SEO will get your site to rank higher in search engines and drive thousands of visitors to your site every month with no extra effort. Bad SEO will get you invisible on Google and limit your website’s reach.
SEO has three main types: Technical SEO, on-site SEO and off-site SEO. Each type is crucial to optimise your website’s performance and visibility. Keyword research will help you find phrases used by your target market which you can then incorporate into your website copy and content to improve search engine ranking. SEO friendly design means using relevant keywords, optimising page load speed and making it easy to navigate to get search engine traffic.
By focusing on these you can have a website that gets traffic and ranks well in search engines.
Keyword Research
Doing keyword research is key to creating content that matches user intent and improves search engine rankings. Some tools for keyword research are:
- Google Keyword Planner
- SEMrush
- Ahrefs
Google Suggest will also give you keywords directly from user search queries.
Long tail keywords which are longer and more specific phrases have lower competition and are easier to rank for. The ‘Organic Search’ report in Google Analytics will show you traffic from search engines and will tell you top performing keywords.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is key to improving search engine rankings. By using pillar pages and topic clusters you can develop a content strategy that increases your authority and visibility on search engines like Google. This will allow you to go deeper into topics that match your users interests and create a more comprehensive content structure. Internal linking from high authority pages to pages that need more authority will improve rankings.
To get your site visible in search engine rankings try:
- Short and keyword rich URLs.
- Optimise page titles, headers and meta descriptions with keywords.
- High quality content that provides value to your readers.
- Get backlinks from other authority sites.
By doing these you can improve your search engine rankings and visibility.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is key to better site performance and user experience. Using structured data will help search engines understand and display your content in rich snippets. Website owners can use structured data to tell search engines important information about their content, site categories, publication dates and metadata. This will increase the relevance and visibility of their site. By adding structured data to your site it will make it easier for search engines to understand the context of your content and will drive more traffic to your site.
When you add structured data to a recipe on your website it will be eligible to show content rich snippets in the SERP. This will show details like rating, cooking time and number of servings.
Faster page load speed will improve crawl efficiency so search engine bots can index more content in a given time.
Security and Trust Signals
Having website security and trust signals is key to building user confidence and protecting data. SSL is required for compliance with laws like GDPR and CCPA which requires strict data protection. Updating your site regularly will improve its security by fixing vulnerabilities.
Trust signals like social proof and contact information will establish a website and business as a trusted source.
SSL Certificates
SSL certificates creates a secure tunnel for data, prevents eavesdropping and data breaches. Sites without SSL certificates will be labeled as ‘Not Secure’ by browsers and will harm their reputation.
Extended validation (EV) SSL certificates will show a green address bar and will prove the website’s authenticity.
Visible Trust Signals
Trust signals are visual indicators on a website that will increase its credibility and build trust with visitors. Displaying customer reviews will show authenticity and will prove your website is trusted by other customers. Testimonials will add a personal touch and will highlight positive experiences from past users, social proof.
Showing star ratings or written reviews will make new visitors trust your products or services. Security badges like SSL certification will tell users their data is safe on your site. Displaying logos of well known security companies will further reassure users about their information.
Good Calls to Action (CTAs)
Good calls to action (CTAs) is key to turning website visitors into leads or customers. CTAs are elements that will encourage an audience to take action, like clicking a button or filling up a form. They will guide the reader through each step of the sales funnel and will lead to conversions. Common types of CTAs are buttons, forms, banners, contextual links and pop-ups.
Good sales points is key to conversions as it will start the journey to a purchase through good calls-to-action (CTAs). Companies like SAP and Performable saw significant conversion rate increase from optimisation efforts. Good CTAs will guide visitors through webpages by helping them achieve their goals.
CTA Design
Primary CTAs on the homepage should be action oriented and visually striking. Good CTA design is using high contrast colors to make buttons stand out. Using action verbs in CTA copy will make it more vibrant and will encourage users to take action now.
Simple and concise language in CTA will help users understand the action quickly.
Placement and Testing
CTAs can be placed in many ways to capture user attention without being too intrusive. Some common placements are:
- Pop-ups
- Slide-ins
- Banner ads
- Inline within content
Testing different versions of CTAs will help you determine which design and placement is best for conversions.
Companies like SAP and Performable saw significant conversion rate increase from optimisation efforts.
Analytics and Continuous Improvement
Using analytics and continuous improvement is key to maintaining a good website. Some benefits of using Google Analytics are:
- Gives you insights on website traffic and user behavior
- Helps you make data driven decisions
- Free and easy to install so most website owners can use it
- Allows you to create custom reports that focus on metrics that matters most to your goals
- Enables continuous data driven improvements
Tools like Hotjar can analyse user behaviour on your website. By updating and refining your website based on analytics data, you can improve site performance and user satisfaction. Using analytics data to make iterative changes will ensure that website improvements are based on actual user behavior and not assumptions.
Setting up Analytics
Setting up Google Analytics involves:
- Create a Google Analytics 4 account.
- Link your website to your Google Analytics account.
- Get a unique tracking code for your website.
- Install the Google Analytics tracking code on your website.
Once the tracking code is installed, Google Analytics will start collecting data on user interactions on your website.
Setting up Google Analytics involves installing the tracking code on your site which can be done manually or through plugins. For WordPress sites, plugins like ExactMetrics can do the installation of Google Analytics without coding.
Goal tracking in Google Analytics allows you to measure conversions and specific user actions on your website.
Analysing Data
Analysing the data collected in Google Analytics is key to understanding user behaviour and making informed decisions. The ‘Behaviour Flow’ report will visually show the sequence of pages visited by users, to help you optimize the user journey. Analysing the ‘Bounce Rate’ will help you if visitors are engaged or leaving your site after viewing only one page.
Analysing bounce rates in Google Analytics will help you identify pages that need improvement because of high exit rates. Tools like Hotjar can give you more insights on user behaviour so you can make data driven decisions to improve your website.
Iterative Improvements
Continuous updating and refining based on analytics data can improve site performance and user satisfaction. Using analytics data to make iterative changes will ensure that website improvements are based on actual user behaviour and not assumptions.
By updating your website regularly you can ensure it stays relevant, functional and engaging for your web users.
Conclusion
In summary, a good website is a combination of clear purpose, understanding your audience, good UX/UI design, quality content and good performance and speed. These elements work together to provide a smooth and enjoyable user experience so your website meets both business goals and user needs. Prioritise these and you’ll have a website that stands out in a crowded online space.
SEO, security and trust signals will add to your website’s credibility and visibility. Updating and refining based on analytics data will ensure your site stays relevant and engaging for users. By focusing on these areas you can have a website that attracts traffic and converts visitors into loyal customers.
Building a good website is an ongoing process that requires effort, creativity and understanding of user needs. Follow this checklist and you’ll have a website that truly works and drives results for your business. Remember a good website is one that evolves and adapts to the changing needs of its users.
FAQs
What are the must haves of a good website?
A good website should have clear purpose, be visually appealing, easy to use and technically sound and secure. These will make your website functional, engaging and trustworthy for your users.
How important is page load speed for my website?
Page load speed is very important for retaining visitors, improving SEO and customer satisfaction. A slow loading website can lead to higher bounce rates and poor user experience. So make sure to optimise your website for speed.
Why mobile optimisation for my website?
Mobile optimisation is important for your website because a big chunk of online traffic comes from mobile devices and having a mobile friendly website will give you a consistent user experience across devices and improve search engine rankings. It’s a must to reach and engage with a broader audience.
How do I improve my website’s SEO?
To improve your website’s SEO focus on keyword research, on-page optimisation and technical SEO such as structured data and page load speed. These will help increase your website’s visibility and ranking on search engines.
What are trust signals?
Trust signals like SSL and customer reviews are for credibility and to protect user data. They’re visual cues to build trust with users and establish your website.