Creating a Good Website: A Recipe
NEWSFLASH: Just because you have a website does not mean it is a good website!
I'm not trying to be the bearer of bad news, I just want you to know that you have to put a little effort into these things. Especially, if you're doing it yourself!
Building your own website will definitely save you money (I charge $999 for website makeovers), but it will exhaust your time if you are not familiar with how to utilize the web host system you've chosen. Effort must be put towards this, and make sure you factor in that you're going to keep revisiting it to tweak and revise it.
However, whether you're building your own website or hiring it out, there's a recipe to make sure it attracts and keeps your customer/client/consumer. See below for the ingredients.
Good Website Recipe:
2 cups clear communication of purpose and product/service
1 1/3 cups design
2 1/2 cups mobile friendly
3/4 cup navigation ease
1/2 cup load time, diced
2 tbsps search engine optimization (SEO)
Starting with your purpose and product/service, you must lay the foundation. You know what these things are, but does your visitor? If you're unsure, ask an honest friend to look it over and give their true opinion of your site. Be open to critique; the goal is for people to not just visit your website, but to do so with purpose!
Next add in your design. This can be overwhelming. It's like choosing what peanut butter to get at the grocery store; there are so many, sometimes you just end up buying whatever because you needed it, Then you get home, and it doesn't taste the way you thought it would. Take your time in selecting a design, and then be willing to go back and tweak it so it truly reflects your vision.
Once you've thoroughly mixed the first two ingredients, add in your mobile friendliness. NO ONE WANTS THE DESKTOP VERSION ON THEIR PHONE! Depending on your web host, you may have to do this manually or it could be automated. Just make sure it's done.
From there, you want to pour in navigation ease. Visitors should not struggle to find what they are looking for. Put yourself in their shoes; if you sell a product, can you find it quickly? If you have a service, is the prospective client able to book online with ease? Is everything clearly labeled?
Once these ingredients are well-blended, you're almost ready to launch. At this point you want to add in your load time. You have about two seconds to capture someones attention, so if they go to a page and it appears blank, they will inevitably leave. Outside widgets can slow a site down, so limit their use on your website.
Finally, you'll want to ice your website with good SEO! It's not the only factor in driving traffic to your website, but it's pretty large component. Nobody is going to look for you on page 3 of their Google search, so you need to work on getting to page 1. SEO is major factor in that, so put time into it, research how to do it, buy a guide on it, or hire someone to make it happen for you.
There you have it! A good website! But not just any good website, YOUR good website!
If you're unsure as to whether or not your website has all of the ingredients, chances are it doesn't. But, we can help you! Book a website review session here and we'll help you get on track.
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