Despite rapidly changing technology, websites still matter.
A good website should be well-designed, functional, and user-friendly. Here are important elements of a good website:
- Clear and Concise Purpose: Your website should have a clear purpose or goal. Users should quickly understand what the website is about and what it offers. What is the single most important information you want to convey? Is that information consistent with your other social media and advertising messaging?
- Responsive Design: The site should be responsive and adapt to different screen sizes, including mobile devices and tablets. This ensures a consistent and enjoyable user experience across all platforms. Over 55% of website traffic comes from mobile devices and 92.3% of internet users access the internet using a mobile phone.
- Intuitive Navigation: Navigation menus and links should be easy to find and use. Users should be able to navigate through your site without confusion.
- High-Quality Content: Content should be well-written, relevant, and engaging. It should provide value to your target audience. This includes text, images, videos, and other media. Every page on your website should have well-written, keyword-rich content. Search engines crawl sites looking for content that is readable, valuable and updated often and then serve those sites up higher in results than those that don’t.
- Fast Loading Speed: Slow-loading websites can frustrate users. Optimize your site’s performance to ensure fast loading times.
- Security: Protect user data and maintain website security. Ensure that you use secure protocols (HTTPS), keep software updated, and implement strong user authentication and access controls. A website that is not secure means that the connection between the website and the web browser is not encrypted. This means that any information entered on the website, such as passwords, credit card numbers, or personal information, could potentially be intercepted by a third party.
- Contact Information: Make it easy for users to contact you. A “Contact Us” page, or a visible contact form is essential for customer inquiries and support. Many contact pages include one or more of the following elements: a contact form, an email address, a contact phone number, a live chat option, a text number, an FAQ, and links to a help center or guides. Local companies often include a map and a physical address.
- Call to Action (CTA): Use clear and compelling CTAs to guide users toward desired actions, such as signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or contacting you. A CTA on a website is an instruction to the visitor in order to encourage them to take some kind of action. A CTA might be simple instructional text, such as “call us now”, “find out more”, or “subscribe to our Newsletter”.
- Search Functionality: If your website is content-heavy, a search bar can help users find what they’re looking for quickly.
- Social Media Integration: Connect your website to your social media profiles. This helps with brand consistency and provides an opportunity for users to follow your updates.
Additionally, good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is important. Expect more frequent algorithm updates, experimentation with AI content generators, and an increased focus on the user experience.
Remember that a good website is not static; it should evolve and adapt to the changing needs of your audience.
Now, go to Fam.news and tell us how we’re doing (see how I slipped that CTA in?).
