Your website should be your greatest ROI as far your business is concerned. Every aspect of your site should be geared towards making it your hardest working employee. In many cases your website will be the point of contact between your business and its audience--there is no way to overestimate the value which a well-thought out website can bring.
So what makes a winning website? That depends on the needs of your user and what works for your audience. A few flashy photos and design trends will not make you the industry leader overnight. The best websites have designs that are strategic and data-driven, as well as built with the end-user and needs of the business in mind.
That said, here are 10 ingredients for a winning website that have been shown to cut across all industries.
1. A Homepage with a Message
Many websites make the mistake of not having a homepage that sends a strong, clear message to visitors. You homepage has the all important job of selling your product or services to your visitor so that they click further into your website and possibly reach out to you. Too many websites ignore this and suffer for it.
2. Branding
Branding will set your website, and consequently your business, apart. The question about your brand and what your business stands for should be addressed early on so that your website reflects that in its logo, pictures, text, graphic elements, theme, and so on. In the end, your brand image goes a long way towards determining whether or not people choose to do business with you.
3. Responsiveness
We live in a mobile first era where the majority of people are more likely to visit your website on mobile than on a desktop/laptop. If your website does not look good on mobile, not only will you be sending website visitors over to your competitors’ website, you are likely to be pushed down the Google rankings as well.
4. Fast Loading
If your website takes more than a few seconds to load, visitors will bounce on to another faster-loading website (and possibly never return). Make sure page loading and other functionalities like processing orders happen quickly.
5. Simplicity
You don’t want to overwhelm visitors to your website. In web design, most often less is more. There’s a reason why that phrase gets thrown about a lot--that’s because it works. Use high impact visuals where necessary, use intuitive links and buttons, employ layouts that are easy to understand, and make your website as easy to navigate as possible.
6. Easy-to-Use
Your website should be intuitive and easy to use. You don’t want to leave your visitor scratching their heads about how to go about taking an action that you want them to take. If that happens, believe they are going somewhere else. Put the user at the center of every design decision, apply common sense where necessary to make your website design convenient for the user.
7. Details
A huge chunk of your visitors will be coming to your website in search of information about your business or its product. You want to make this information as detailed as possible and as easy to find as possible on the appropriate pages within the site.
8. SSL Certificate
Search engines are stepping up the fight for a safer internet by displaying warnings to users whenever they try to access a website without a valid SSL certificate. Even if you don’t sell anything, imagine the traffic you would lose if such a warning popped up whenever someone tried to access your website!
9. Multiple Feedback Channels
Your website showcase other channels for reaching you like phone numbers or emails. That way, if a visitor does not find what they are looking for, they have other alternatives they can use to reach you.
10. Proper Backup
You want to make sure that your website is properly backed up to make your work more secure and less susceptible to being hacked. Free backup software exist, of course, but for something as crucial as your business website you want to invest a little cash get something more secure and dependable.
Conclusion
Your website redesign would benefit greatly from the help of an experienced developer who understands how to find that balance between what your audience needs and what your business needs to succeed. Like earlier mentioned, a winning website depends on your audience and your business needs. At Eternity we are passionate about making your website your biggest ROI in your business. We would love to hear about your business and talk about how a website redesign could help achieve your business goals. Reach out today.
