There are hundreds of articles and thousands of tips on how to make a website successful. It is true that websites vary greatly in content, style, approach, and many other aspects. Consequently, there can be no one great formula or one key success factor. However, if we take a close look at successful websites, some features stand out, features that are common to almost all successful sites.
A successful website, obviously, is one that is capable of attracting quality visitors and retaining them. The core of this appeal is its content. However, content alone is not enough, just like a good product needs good packaging, a successful site needs elegant presentation and promotion.
In this article, we discuss 10 basic elements that can significantly contribute to the success of any website.
1. happy
It doesn’t matter if you have a business site or a personal page, you need to give people a reason to stay on your site; the first question the visitor will ask: “what’s in it for me?”
That doesn’t mean you have to give gifts: programs, books, tickets, vacations, etc. etc. – means you have to offer something. That “something” could be:
- Information
- Utility (bulletin board, search engine, directory, etc.)
- Entertainment
- Advice
- Help with a problem
- Opportunities to network with like-minded people
- Links to useful sites.
Remember, a successful site is a useful site. Must contain:
- information that is perceived as ‘useful’ by your visitors (community)
- the information is unique (i.e. not available anywhere else or hard to find)
- the information is fresh (i.e. regularly updated)
2. General appearance
Your home page is your billboard or storefront – it makes an immediate impression on visitors. Considering the importance of the first impression, which we are all aware of, it should be:
- Cleansed
- clear
- professional
- Attractive
Do not be stingy with the blanks, distribute them as much as necessary. Try to “disappoint” rather than overwhelm. Too many flashing lights, animations, colors, dropdown boxes, graphics, etc. they are distracting It’s like those stores that play loud, frenetic music: your heart rate increases, your stress levels increase, and you just want to get out, fast!
3. Speed
In this age of impatience, an average visitor will spend no more than 20 seconds deciding the value of your site. You can well imagine what happens if the visitor spends those precious 20 seconds staring at a blank screen slowly loading tons of images.
Therefore, you need to make sure that your home page loads at least as fast as possible. That means no big, flashy graphics.
Keep reminding yourself that your front page is like a billboard. When you drive your car, you don’t have time to read detailed descriptions or admire intricate images on billboards. Signs pass you by and they have to make an immediate impression.
Your web visitors are also ‘flying by’, so keep your home page simple and fast.
4. Graphics and designs
Your homepage graphics and layout contribute to that first impression – think about the image your site is trying to convey, and make sure everything on your site contributes to that overall image.
If you have a serious business site, you don’t want garish cartoons on your front page, but if you have a gaming site,
then cartoons can be an integral part of the image.
The graphics are what consume the loading time of your site. A rough rule of thumb for determining a good page load time is to keep the entire page around 50Kb. Images should be between 6K and 8K. Each additional 5K can add a second to load time.
If in doubt, right click on the image and then click “Properties” to get the image size.
Color is also an important part of your site; Colors have different effects on our emotions:
Red and orange excite the senses and increase the heartbeat, blue and green are more restorative. Yellow reminds us of sunlight and is a happy color.
Consider the effect you want to create and choose a color that is appropriate. When reading Western texts, the eye travels from the top left of the page, across, and then down to the bottom right. Remember this when you are placing graphics on your page.
Any graphic image that has a directional aspect should be positioned to point to the most important section of the page. If you have a picture of a bird in the top left corner of your page, make sure it’s facing in and its beak directs your view toward the center of the page, not out.
The same applies to all charts:
The faces must ‘face’ the center of the page. Cars must be ‘parked’ facing the center of the page. Paths, ties, etc., should be placed to guide the view from left to right or top to bottom.
This is also the reason why you should put the navigation bars down
the left side of your page – keeps them constantly on the
visitor’s field of vision.
5. Readability of the text
This isn’t referring to the words you use (we’ll cover those in detail later), but to the way the words look on the page. Going back to the billboard concept, his words should stand out on his page: he should surround them with plenty of white space.
Dark backgrounds make you feel like you are in a small space and also have a depressing effect on your mood. Certain colored backgrounds make the text very difficult to read; purple, orange and red tones dazzle the eye.
The color of your text is just as important, keep in mind that different browsers read colors differently, what looks good in your browser might be invisible in another!
Take a lesson from newspapers and break your text into columns for easier (and faster) reading—even two columns are better than one slab of text that covers the entire width of the page.
Another element that contributes to the readability of the text is the font you choose. Simple fonts (Arial, Times New Roman, Garamond, and Courier) are the easiest to read. Fancy fonts are fine for headings, but not for entire pages (imagine trying to read an entire page in Gothic, Script, Westminster, or Cloister). Your eyes would soon tire from the effort involved and you’d be reaching for the back button!
6. Structure of each page
You have to make your page as easy for visitors to read as possible and this means breaking it up into small “chunks”. We have already seen the need for columns (which divide the page vertically); You also need to divide your page horizontally, by using headings and subheadings.
7.Fonts
Select one font for all your headings and subheadings (and stick with it). No need to have a different font for the headings (just go up one size for the headings and then use bold on all headings and subheadings).
This way, it’s easy to recognize which is a heading (big and bold) and which is a subheading (same size but bold).
The purpose is to make it easy for your visitors to take a look at your page and find out what the key points are. If what they see interests them, they will stay and continue reading.
To draw attention to other important points, you can also highlight them by making an entire sentence bold or a different color (or both). However, be careful which colors you select: some are quite difficult to read, even against a white background.
8. Navigation
Navigation is one of the most critical aspects of any website, possibly the most important. No matter how good a site looks, and no matter how much useful information it offers, without a sensible navigation scheme, it will only confuse and scare visitors away. A simple, logical and understandable navigation scheme can increase the number of page impressions, increase repeat visits and improve the “conversion rate” (the number of visitors who “convert” into customers). It’s a critical aspect of site design that has a direct effect on the bottom line.
The core of any good navigation scheme is:
- Tell people exactly what is available on your site
- Help them get the parts they want fast
- Facilitate the request for additional information
Use a well-structured navigation bar. should run along the left side of your page, for two reasons:
They accuse us of reading from left to right and from top to bottom.
On a long page, it’s also a good idea to have a short navigation bar at the bottom of the page (simply start | top of page will suffice).
Once you’ve found a system you’re happy with, use it on every page so your visitors know where to look for information. Greater consistency leads to better readability
and ease of use.
9. Privacy statement and testimonials
Credibility is an essential part of any business site, especially
in the anonymous world of the Internet. You need to make sure that your potential customers feel safe dealing with you. Transparency and candor are the cornerstones of lasting trust, so tell people exactly what you are doing to safeguard their interests. In particular, how you are protecting your privacy. It’s worth having a separate page that sets out, in detail, your policy towards your email addresses; how you accept orders; how you collect information; Who has access to this information; how you use information collected from children, etc.
Visitors also like to know that real people have used your products or services, so it’s worth asking your satisfied customers if you can cite any positive comments they’ve made about you. Don’t be afraid to ask for testimonials; We all like to know that our opinions are valued.
Set up a separate page for testimonials and offer to link to your clients’ pages in exchange for using their feedback. This is one of those “win-win” situations.
10.Words
Now we come to one of the most important elements. If this part is wrong, the rest of your efforts will be largely wasted. How many times have you been impressed by the initial appearance of a site, only to be disappointed by poor spelling, sloppy grammar, and punctuation?
It reflects poorly on the site owner and indicates that whoever is responsible for this page is careless, careless, lazy, unprofessional, or all of the above. Would you trust some of your hard-earned money to someone who doesn’t even care enough to check their own site’s expression?
- You can take steps to improve your own writing skills.
- You can hire someone to review and edit your work
- You can hire someone to write your pages for you.
CONCLUSION
This column is too short for a detailed discussion. There are many places on the web that will help you with all of the items discussed above. Check them out, even if you’ve hired a professional web designer. A successful website is a precondition for a successful eCommerce business, so invest more time and resources into the website. It will definitely pay big dividends in the future.
