While we look to 2020, we are able to reflect on exactly how much the internet has expanded and transformed over the last decade.
Websites nowadays are usually by no means exactly like they were a decade ago. How they look, feel and function is definitely vastly different from their 2010 counterparts.
Nowadays, there are over 1.5 billion websites going around the web.
Although the quantity of energetic sites is far significantly less – around 200 million, it’s important for any organization to understand exactly what differentiates the good from the awful.
Or better yet – exactly what makes a website?
We all know that first impressions matter. Your website is usually the initially digital impression of your company so it’s vital that it placements your brand name in the perfect.
The most effective websites grab the users’ attention, keep them on the page, as well as hopefully lead to a conversion.
They clearly and concisely communicate everything you want potential prospects to know and keep in mind concerning your company.
However, there are several common characteristics of websites that attract lots of traffic. Here is what we suggest you do.
How the website looks ultimately affects people’s thought of your business. An aesthetically pleasing website begins with your brand.
Branding is one of the ideal ways to differentiate your business from competitors. Consistency is key when it comes to the following elements:
Additionally, there is a psychology behind font selection. While there are so many exciting fonts to select from these days, the essential concern is readability.
San serif fonts are usually widely used because they read so properly on the web. It’s also suggested to stick to two fonts and use these consistently throughout your site and marketing communications.
Various colors can convey various meanings and can impact feelings, feelings, and behaviors.
Excellent websites have considered color psychology and chosen a color scheme that matches their brand’s character.
High-quality images are not just a ‘nice to look’ – it increases the value of your website by allowing you to better explain the important points and demonstrate products and services.
Images can consist of unique photography, stock images, graphs, custom designs, vector images, and even user-provided images.
Images that are too big can slow your site down so be wary of image size.
Video content has increased in recent years. A lot of us have simple attention spans when browsing on the internet, so simple videos are a fantastic technique for quickly deliver your message to visitors.
Engaging videos result in site visitors spending more time on your site and considering your value proposal and calls to action.
When it comes to usability, these types are the features that will improve your website.
Your website must function optimally on all displays and devices, from smartphones as well as tablets to wearables, TVs, and laptops.
Responsive design reacts with the user in mind, instantly recognizing the screen size, platform, and orientation and responding with dynamic content.
The amount of individuals accessing the internet via mobile now far surpasses desktop users. In response to this difference in July 2019, Google introduced mobile-first indexing.
These types of modifications suggest prioritized content and links from mobile-friendly pages. Mobile-friendliness also provides a much more user-friendly user experience.
All web pages of your website should load quickly as well as completely.
The majority of web users expect a site to fully load within 2 seconds, with a whopping 40% abandoning a website that takes over 3 seconds to load.
If you want prospective customers to be able to get your business, SEO is a must.
A website that is optimized is seen more favourably by search engines like Google and offers a superior chance of ranking well.
A brand is more favourably liked and viewed if it has a website that is designed to foster trust.
This can be attained by incorporating factors of social proof in the form of testimonials, reviews, ratings, statistics, certifications or client logos.
The tiny padlock symbol that sits before a URL in the address bar is known as SSL Encryption.
This provides site visitors satisfaction by letting them know that your website is safe.
Developing trust is especially essential for e-commerce sites as people want to understand that their details are safe.
Think of how many times you’ve shut down a website because it was frustration to navigate.
Easy intuitive and functional site navigation not just improves functionality for visitors, it also helps SEO by allowing Google to crawl and subsequently index your site more easily.
Call-to-Actions (CTAs) are a staple part of web content. Clear and engaging CTAs motivate site visitors of a site to take some specified steps.
These short, sharp prompts can create a sense of urgency or gently nudge users to learn more, make a purchase or contact your business.
Effective CTAs ensure it is easy for clients to take the next steps in their buying journey.
It is well known to us, that content is king. A website without content is such as a book without words.
Excellent content is relevant, unique and interesting – the more quality content you have on your website, the greater you can tell site visitors about your business.
A rule of thumb for every website is to have four basic pages: a home page, about us, services or products and a contact us page.
Content is great for SEO, increases website traffic, motivates engagement, can help you generate new leads and sales, as well as adding value to your product or service by educating site visitors on how it can solve a problem they are facing.
Consider all above point when making a website which attracts visitors.
Make a website that visitors fall in love with your website so that you have won the game.
If individuals are ready to share your site and suggest it to their friends, you have succeeded to make a community around your brand that is a lot more powerful than any marketing budget.
To sum it, we can claim that this goes approach beyond bounce rate, time invested on-site and other analytics.
A hundred individuals who will get the word out about your website are more than a huge number of visitors that will arrive and never go back.
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Subhasish K owns IBS. He is a web design standards and compliance specialist and educator with 15 years’ experience in usability, accessibility, information architecture, software QA, project management, community management, business ownership, search engine marketing and industry writing. He is also a Sr. Consultant for many web design startups.
