Ten Tips For A GREAT Website

We’ve designed a lot of websites, and have visited literally millions that run the gamut from “wow, how did they do that?” to “what were they thinking?” We’ve therefore come up with a compilation of tips from our years of experience, both as Web Developers and Web Surfers.

Keep it Simple

This rule could apply to virtually anything, but it is highly relevant to a website design, especially when it comes to how your visitors interact with your site. Many times, developers will try new experimental navigation, or some kind of “system” for rearranging content on a page. This is ok in some instances, but for the general public they have come to expect a certain level of commonality among websites: Horizontal menu across the top, vertical navigation along the left, etc. Breaking this paradigm, while clever and unique, also lends to confusion among the majority of visitors.

Also be conscious of how your information is organized on your site. Burying a page behind a link that is buried on another page makes it difficult to find. One rule we employ is the three-click rule, where a user should never have to click more than three times to get anywhere on your site. If you have a lot of pages, your navigation scheme or taxonomy of data will still be challenging; therefore, it’s always a good idea to put a Site Search within easy reach.

Content is King

Regardless of how interactive, eye-catching and beautiful your site is, if the message you are conveying is inadequate or obscure, you’ll lose potential customers. Be specific, but be clear and to the point. If you are selling products/services, make it known immediately, and in plain English. In keeping it simple, avoid using “buzzwords” or jargon that’s specific to your industry. “Optimizing business proficiency,” “revitalizing upside capital,” “mitigating global market risk” comes across as vocabulary babble.

You do, however, want to show you are a subject matter expert in your field. Provide your visitors with free information: a glossary or list of terms your business uses, an FAQ, even links to other resources. Just that alone builds your reputation among visitors, and lends credibility to your competence.

Design matters

If content is King, design is its palace. Your website reflects on you, and a well designed website makes a great first impression to your visitors. You wouldn’t use crayons and construction paper to produce your business cards or brochures, neither should you take a half-hearted approach to your site’s design. If you want a hand in the design of your site, great! But don’t be afraid to ask for advice, or too stubborn to accept it. If you use a web designer, and have chosen them carefully, and trust their advice and experience in what works and what doesn’t. Most web designers will feature your site in their portfolio, and therefore have a vested interest in how well your site is received.

Flashy vs. Trashy

This is really a side note to good design. but warrants its own mention. As with anything, moderation is key. Having too little is boring and plain. Having all kinds of animations and over-the-top graphics is distracting and, in some cases, downright annoying. There’s no need to grab their attention; after all, they’re already on your site. The design should accentuate your branding and your content, not compete with it.

Humans are not your only visitors

No, the world wide web hasn’t gone intergalactic, we’re talking about search engines. Always develop your site for humans, but be cognizant of Search Engines, too. This really comes down to the nuts and bolts of your site—the HTML and coding used to produce it. This is what search engines see when they “spider” your site. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are quickly becoming a hot trend among web developers. Some businesses even specialize in just SEO and SEM. No one can guarantee you that coveted top-spot in Google, but having your site optimized for search engines conclusively increases your ranking.

Do’s:

• Your domain(s) should include your company name at a minimum.
• Your page titles should be different and include keywords.
• Use META keywords/descriptions, but don’t overdo it
• Relevant links to your site from others increase your ranking
• Outgoing links reward your site as a steward of the web community
• Use >H1</>H2< and >STRONG< tags around keywords, as it gives them emphasis
• Use TITLE attributes in links and ALT attributes in images
• Submit your site to other directories and search engines
• Submit a sitemap via Google’s Webmaster Tools

Don’ts:

• Google is very smart, do not try to “trick” or deceive it...it could lead to your site being banned from Google entirely
• Avoid auto-submitters or software that touts itself to increase your rankings, these are most likely snake oil, and heavily frowned upon by Google
• Do not create “cloaked” text (text hidden to humans but not search engines) or pages that are filled with nothing but keywords
• Participation in link schemes or link farming to gain rank is a sure-fire way to lower (or remove) your site in Google.
• Don’t allow your site to have broken links
• Avoid duplicate content on your pages, search engines ignore this
• Keep your content from becoming stale, see “Update Often” below.
• Steer clear of javascript or flash as a navigation tool, search engines can’t always follow the links

For more information and tips directly from Google, read their Webmaster Guidelines here.

Put your contact info in plain sight

There’s nothing more frustrating than visiting a site, getting excited about a product or service, then no easy way to obtain it or learn more. If the goal of your website is to drive sales, put a phone number directly on your home page or, at a minimum, a “Contact Us” link within easy reach. Too often we see websites that are nothing more than faceless entities, and your visitors will certainly notice this.

Know your audience

Who are you expecting to visit your site? Is it a prospective customer who may not know about you, or return customers who simply want to get right into the product catalog? Setting this expectation goes a long way in minimizing your visitor’s frustration.

Update often

As previously mentioned, your content is what makes or breaks your site. Having good content is a great start, but that content needs to be refreshed from time to time. Posting relevant news, blogs or simply adding/updating information currently on your site not only lets users know you are an active business, but search engines favor this as well. If your content is static, take some time every quarter (at a minimum) to just touch up and polish. If you have news and/or a blog, post something at least once a month.

Make your domain easy to remember

Your domain name should be concise and easy to remember (and don’t be afraid to have multiple domain names, as long as it isn’t for the sole purpose of deceiving search engines). Don’t be afraid to search for creative or simple domain names. If your business name is “Widget Manufacturers of Missouri,” go ahead and get widgetmanufacturersofmissouri.com but also look for something that’s going to stick—coolwidgets.com, or missouriwidgets.com.

Analyze and Evolve

At FusionAge, we love Google. We use Google Analytics with all of our customers’ sites, as it sends them with a Daily, Weekly, or Monthly report on their site’s statistics. In the old days we had “counters” that would show the number of visitors that have viewed the site. Today, that’s simply not enough. Google Analytics not only shows you how many visitors you get on each page, but also when, where they came from on the web, where they are in the world, how long they spent on a page, and even what they typed in the search engines to find you. This is invaluable to the ongoing success as your website, as you can interpret this information and change your site accordingly. If a product or information page is not getting adequate hits, maybe look at featuring that product/information on the homepage if you think it should be prominent—or remove/replace it, if it isn’t.