What Makes a Good Website: Checklist for a Successful Design

Having a website is a necessary business asset and keeping a robust, professional, and at the same time, engaging online presence takes work and patience. In accordance with Statista, there are about 1.88 billion websites on the Internet, but how many of these websites are well-designed and give the user a good experience? 

The main problem of many website owners is a lack of quality UX design, which depends on several factors. According to Toptal, a shocking 88% of people won't return to a site they had a bad experience with. 

So, what makes a good website? It grabs users’ attention, stirs up their emotions, and offers them what they are searching for. A good website is a web resource that should be convenient for the visitor, has a nice design, and has proper navigation, which works and makes a profit.  

In a more business language, a website is like a business card. It's what everyone sees - customers, shareholders, business partners, or those who think to cooperate. Maintaining the appearance of the website will give extra insurance that everyone who visits considers it trustworthy and professional. Note that according to Intechnic, improving the user experience can increase KPIs by more than 80%. 

‍‍What is an ideal website? 

A perfect website should present its clear purpose, should be visually engaging and aesthetically pleasing, mobile-friendly and easy to navigate. A good website has to be convenient for a wide range of users, technically stable, credible, trustworthy, secure and safe. Generally, what makes a good website is accuracy, awesome content, and a clear vision of what the website represents itself.

There are thousands of courses, books, and articles on web design that go into great depth about building websites. But for beginner web designers or entrepreneurs who want to create a web platform for their business, the picture can be somewhat simplified.

As explained above, many websites can fail because of low-quality user experience and lose about 90% of their visitors, which results in a low profit. But everything has its solution, and this article will tell about the most important trendy points to take into account while doing a web design and increasing sales. 

The checklist of what makes a good website can become a helpful guide for designers, web developers, or clients who are looking for a professional designer, also for those who are making their first steps and do not know where to start, how to design a perfect website for their customers. ‍

Сhecklist for a Successful Design

1. Domain name 

The domain name is a fundamental feature to start from, but many people may not know how to choose a domain name. It is a necessity that directs users to the website. It is like a street address. Specifically, it is a simplified form of the IP address that users enter into a web browser to reach the target website.

Before registering the final domain name for the website, considering a long-term business plan is a must, as the domain name cannot be changed that easily. Moreover, every day there are thousands of names being registered, and the wanted name may be not available. 

While choosing a domain name, web developers should take into account a few points:

• Short name is better than long 
• Easy to pronounce 
• No numbers or symbols 
• Right domain extension (.com /.co /.org)
• Easy to type 
• Easy to remember

‍‍2. Web hosting 

This is the foundational part of building a website. Everything is quite simple - if the domain name is the website’s street address, Web hosting is a web house. This is an online server where hosting companies rent space to websites. The hosting companies include all the information about the website and make it accessible for users from all over the world. 

But when it comes to choosing a good hosting company, it may need a huge consideration and research as not all hosting companies have equal features. Usually, the web host should provide storage for the website’s essential data and files, moreover, it should control the data delivery to the visitors of the website. 

When someone tries to enter the website, his browser will use that information to locate his web host and access the website and its content. Briefly, without web hosting, the website will not be connected to the internet.‍

3. Brand Identity 

One of the very first steps of the website’s design is the colors and fonts, which is the style and in fact, building the brand identity. This may seem not important at all, but color can be a game changer and can play a huge role in the success of the website. The right color and text font can be useful not only for the brand identity but also for the effectiveness of delivering the main purpose of the business. 

Illegible typography and unpleasant colors may confuse the users, give them a bad user experience, and they will never come back. Instead, using the psychology of color can increase website conversions.

The website has to be visually appealing, have an awesome design, and have eye-pleasant colors (maximum 3 different colors), and this is what makes a good website. 

Using the right fonts is significant, it should be clear and available not only on monitors but also on mobile screens. Different fonts can be used to highlight and make more visible the essential texts, links, or navigation. This will make the website easier to use and understand.‍

4. Design elements – logo, website icon 

After styling the website, the next step is choosing the brand logo – the face of the brand and the very first impression of the user. The presence of a logo is a powerful asset for a good website and preferably should be designed by a professional graphic designer. Logo design is extremely important, but the creation of an effective visual representation of the brand requires not only a good graphic design but also a few rules to be followed.

Considering a balanced design will be successful logo basics. This means keeping the size, colors, and graphics on the same level. Color theory can be a little challenging, but specialists who understand the basics can suggest the smartest color options. The logo design should suit the company, and be understandable and different.

What makes a good website is also the presence of a website icon. It is a small logo, sometimes modified in size, presenting the website on the browser tab. It is good to have one to be differentiated among other opened tabs.‍

5. Content is King

Another asset that makes a good website is engaging content, and probably it is the most important point in this checklist. With good content, the website will rank better and have higher user engagement and a low bounce rate. The quality of the content will be a decisive factor, as the visitors’ further steps will depend on it, either they will become customers, or leave and forget about the website. Delivering high-quality, engaging, easy-to-read, and appropriate content is the key to success. No grammatical mistakes are allowed, and the content should be targeted to the audience the website has.

Another main thing to remember is while selling a product, one should prioritize not his but the customer’s demands and needs. When someone visits the website, he is looking for information on how the provided services can help to solve his problem. The website’s design, color, a font can be important but if a user does not find the answer to his question, he will not stay longer and will find another who will. People care about how the company can help them. 

This is all marketing, and one of the most influential rules in marketing is to always remember the needs and demands of the customer. 

This is why content is very important and there are a few essential pages to include on the website, these are:

• Homepage
• Services or Products
• Pricing
• About us
• Contact us 
• FAQ 
• Terms & Conditions 

Also, informational pages:

• Blog 
• News

What should a website contain? 

While it is obvious that every business is different, there are several points that should be also included while developing a website. To impress the users and prove to the customers about the trustworthiness and reliability that the website can deliver them, developers should include:

• A comprehensive description of the business
• Well-organized content
• Design elements such as logo, website icon, brand
• The URL address that can be easily remembered
• Client testimonials, storytelling 
• Contact information (email, phone number, address, etc.)
• Staff photos and short bios 
  

Optimization for all devices

Nowadays, mobile devices are so powerful and multifunctional that can replace any computer. That is why more than 60% of Internet users search and access websites through their mobile devices. An ideal website should provide access to both computers and any other devices. This is useful not only from the perspective of good user experience but also for SEO as Google analyzes the website before suggesting it. In case the website is mobile-friendly, it will benefit the rankings.

During the optimization, several features should be considered, such as short load time, text and picture sizes, and design for the “fat finger navigation” - everything for the customer’s convenience.

After optimizing the website for different devices and browsers, it should be checked and tested to reach the perfect condition. This is what makes a good website and gives an awesome user experience.‍

Right marketing strategy

The website can have amazing content and interesting and engaging design, but what is the point if only a few people can read it? That is why picking up the right marketing strategy for the website can be a good option to promote it, and get a wider audience. Today, social media offers a huge range of options for promotions. Besides SEO, the website can use social media platforms or can use email marketing.‍

Email Marketing 

One of the most cost-effective and common options to promote the website is email marketing tactics. It is a very popular marketing tool and is widely used in different spheres. People will love it as it is personalized and informational. This is a tête-à-tête dialogue that will be appreciated by the users. 

Usually, email marketing is used to promote the company’s brand, but not make offers.  With the help of email marketing, companies can make use of special content and design that will able to showcase the company’s purposes. This is a very useful tool that makes a good website.  ‍

Social Media Marketing 

In the century of social media, it can be wrong to not mention how important are social media platforms for promoting the company’s brand. Social media is now available for everyone, and the opportunities to have successful promotion results are high. Connecting the website to the trendiest platforms can be beneficial. This is the head start towards obtaining a wide audience and loyal customers. Communicating with them will help build trust and good relationships. To make it easy for users to connect the social media pages, visible buttons should be present on the website, and easy redirect to the links. ‍

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

‍The process of increasing website visits through search engine results is called SEO. Having a good SEO is a must for attracting more traffic and a number of new customers. This will help the website to be more discoverable and easily accessible to new users.

Many users search for specific products or services, moreover, they have an intention to make a purchase. Without SEO, the website will be lost among millions of many other similar websites, and the one that has a good and developed SEO will win.

There are a lot of significant reasons to optimize the website for conversions. For example, it will make the website useful and informative for a specific audience, and finding the needed source easily is the first step to a good user experience. Note that the main search engine is Google, which is responsible for the majority of search engine traffic in the world. Google finds and offers websites that have the highest-quality and relevant content.‍

Strong security 

In the online world of scams, fake pages, and cybercrime it can be difficult to offer a website that can win the trust of the users. What makes a good website is a strong security and the maintenance of standard security procedures.

Spending that much energy and funds for a website to lose it because of a website hack or explosion of website data can be really sad. The first step to avoid this problem is to choose a good website hosting, that will have stronger security and automatically provide it to the hosting websites. 

A website should have SSL encryption and follow the industry guidelines of security. SSL certificate is the protection every website should have, it is like verification bade of having strong security, otherwise, the website will be harmed.

To escape any harmful situation, there are a few basic things to maintain:

• Up-to-date registration
• Password security system
• Updated plugin
• Backup website

‍‍Good user experience (UX)

Considering all the above-mentioned points will bring the website visitors to experience quality and professionalism. User experience is what makes customers see and feel, these are emotional-based feelings that will make them regularly come back. But how do provide this experience?

The website has to be mainly directed to the user’s needs, it should rapidly answer the visitors’ questions, offer solutions and present how it can help them. Offering the user easy navigation and giving the great option to find what he is searching for is a great and bold plus that will always be appreciated. Providing a pleasant and unforgettable experience with eye-catching design, engaging and informal content presented in a great font, unique images, and videos. This is all that makes a good website and gives a great user experience.‍

What are the main key characteristics of a good website user experience? 

The user experience (UX) depends on the demands, values, and expectations of the visiting people. It should also bring into balance the goals and objectives of the business and the team that manages the project. This is a very effortful and challenging work, that should be completed in the best way to reach both short-term and long-term goals. Here are the most important key characteristics and features of a website that will provide a good user experience:

• Great design 
• Unique, comprehensive, and regularly updated content
• User-friendly
• Mobile-friendly
• The website is trustworthy, no scam, doubtful links or information is found
• The highest-level security (SSL encryption)
• Short load time 
  

The last lines

So building, designing, and maintaining a good website requires much time and dedication. The website is a business presentation, that should include all the necessary information to answer all the questions and be comprehensive for new customers. So this is the checklist that includes all the must-have features that make a good website and help orientate on the most important during the website development journey. On Techreviewer.co you can find the list of top web development companies, that can help build a good website from scratch, and give it a great design. They will help to integrate business functions into the Internet and increase the potential of companies and people. 

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