What Makes a Great Website?
If you’re building your own site to save money, either with web-publishing software or with an online site builder, make it attractive. But don’t forget critical elements (often invisible) that are necessary to bring in traffic. Finally, what you have must be functional to make it easy for visitors so they don’t leave without reading what you had to offer!
10 Steps Toward a Successful Website
- Establish a concise list of objectives. What is your main goal?
- Understand the target audience.
What information do they need, and how fast? Will graphics or video help? - Provide quality content and keep it concise.
It must immediately convey it’s purpose, or visitors will leave. - Develop a site map based on a logical sequence to display information.
- Keep the visitor in mind when developing a navigation scheme.
The flow from page to page should be logical and consistent. - Utilize multimedia features if they aid communication.
Mouse rollovers, animated images, sound, etc. can reinforce the text. - Make it Search Engine friendly (Google friendly!). Appropriate title, SEO keywords and META tags are essential to generating traffic.
- Maintain the site on a regular basis to keep it fresh and give visitors a reason to return.
- Integrate the site with other components of your marketing plan.
- Work with a professional developer who has an understanding of both technological and marketing aspects. More Web Design and SEO tips!
Keep Your Site Working Hard
Your business has a website because it’s a cost-effective way to supplement advertising to prospects and to maintain contact with customers. Include the web address in all marketing material, correspondence, signage, and phone directory ads. You want your site to be more attractive and more user-friendly than the websites of your competition. You’re happy with the design, structure and your marketing video. But once the site is online, it can be all too easy to neglect a key ingredient—your content!