What makes a good website?

In view of global megatrends, in particular the Digitization with constant networking, the world and also how we act in it has changed greatly - this is noticeable every day. The smartphone, for example, has become our constant companion, making the Internet and the accompanying, almost infinite possibilities accessible to us around the clock.

Whether it is to interact with friends via social networks, to follow the latest trends, to call up addresses and contact data, to obtain information on products or services, or to read through testimonials before making purchasing decisions - these few examples show that the Net is frequently used as a first port of call acts.

Years ago, it was the entry in the telephone directory, the attractively designed poster or the flyer distributed in the mail that established the initial contact between the company and potential customers. a professional website essential. Companies have long been aware of the importance of their digital presence, which not only significantly determines their external perception, but - against the backdrop of the great competition that is fought out in Google search results - can represent the decisive success factor. Nevertheless, many web presences fail to score points both technically, visually and structurally and thus to convince the target group of a company's services - low dwell times, high bounce rates and few returning visitors are the result.

But how can a website be structured and designed so that the business model presented with the core message described is optimally conveyed and the visitor's interest is aroused from the very first moment? So that you can better assess the potential of your marketing measures in the future and also derive any need for action for yourself, we have provided you below with the most important criteria for a professional, good website compiled.   

All Features of a good website
 at a glance:

A tree with an anchor on brown background.
Contact

1. feature of good websites:
 Clear definition of goals  

Regardless of whether the Web presence of a company If a website is to be created from scratch or if a relaunch is planned in the course of successful optimization, it is important to deal with central questions of conception at the beginning of a website project. After all, only when the clearly defined goals to be pursued Once the website has been created, the relevant content, the appropriate design and all the necessary functions for a successful online presence can be selected or compiled during further web development. The goals that are to be realized with the help of a website can differ significantly depending on the company and industry: For example, online stores should sell as many products as possible, blog articles should provide information on specific topics, or customer contact should be established using the integrated web form.

In addition to setting a specific direction for the website creation, these precise targets are also of great importance to ensure the success of a website and thus the ROI (Return on investment) to make them measurable. The target definition can have an operational focus on the one hand, but also a strategic focus on the other, as the following overview shows:

Strategic goals relate to the overarching vision or mission, are of a holistic nature and are to be realized over a longer-term period. Exemplary goals, which concern the entire enterprise strategy and are to be realized with the help of a web appearance, can be: Image improvement, illustration of company data, presentation of references, ...
Operational goals concretize the previously defined strategic objectives, are designed for the short or medium term, and can usually be recorded or controlled using concrete key figures. Examples of corresponding goals that can be achieved by designing a website are: Product sales, receipt of contact inquiries, comments/ratings, ...

2nd feature of good websites:
 Orientation to the target group 

In addition to the goals to be realized with a professional website, the planning and design must always include a Orientation to the target group The customer is the one who has to be met. It is important to empathize with them, to understand possible questions, problems and concerns in order to meet their expectations when they visit the website, to provide relevant content and to create trust. To do this, the potential customers must be known or defined as well as possible, which is often done according to common criteria:

At B2C area (business-to-customer) a number of demographic (place of residence, age, gender, ...), psychographic (lifestyle, values, ...) and socioeconomic (level of education, income, ...) characteristics and also purchasing behavior (price sensitivity, ...) are generally used to determine the target group in more detail.
At B2B area (business-to-business) In contrast, economic (profit, growth, ...), organizational (industry, location, ...) and personal (wishes of the person making the purchase decision, ...) characteristics play a role in the definition of potential customers, and here again - only this time in relation to the company - purchasing behavior.

3rd feature of good websites:
 Analyzed competition

Internet users - including their company's potential customers - are reached daily by a digital flood of information, which is why only a few, selected company websites are found and also visited. Despite the global networking and thus the opportunities that come with a professional website for companies, it is not always easy to be visible to the target group in the midst of this huge competition. Therefore, with the help of a Competitive analysis be found out how the relevant online market is structured, which competitor companies focus on similar products or services, and in particular how they present themselves digitally. In order to gather important information during the research, from which design aspects for your own website can be derived, it is worth finding answers to the following questions, for example:

Which websites can be identified as competitors - e.g. through similar services?
Which unique selling points are highlighted on the website?
What is the structure and what should a visitor do here?
How can the design of the website be described?

At the end of the research, the industry in which the own company operates and also potential customers should be understood even better. The knowledge gained in this way can then be used for the Positioning of the own websiteThe website should be designed in such a way that it stands out from the competition and succinctly highlights important unique selling propositions. In the process, mistakes made by other website operators should be avoided, success strategies adapted and previously unused opportunities seized. In order to continue, i.e. after completion of a homepage, to meet the needs of the target customers optimally and to convince them of one's own company, it is furthermore important to Market developments - existing and also new websites of competitors - to be observed.

4. feature of good websites:
 Concise domain name

About the Enter the URL - Uniform Resource Locator - in the address bar of the browser, potential customers can access a website online in a direct way. The Internet address describes the unique path to a specific file on a server and is basically structured as follows:

Domain name

An important component of URLs and thus also a success factor of websites is the domain name - in this case lead-anker. As a first impression of the company behind it, it makes sense to point to memorable keywords that best describe the offer or the content of the page or refer to the brand name. In addition, when selecting a domain, it is important to ensure that no complicated terms, numbers, special characters or umlauts are used and that a maximum length of 20 characters is not exceeded - this is the only way for potential customers to easily find the desired company homepage!

5. feature of good websites:
 Suitable hosting and CMS

Once a suitable domain has been selected and registered, the contents of the future website - such as images, texts, design components or selected functions - must be stored on a server. The provision of the necessary storage space (web space) is referred to as a "service". Web hosting and is a basic requirement for publishing and operating a website. Today, a suitable hosting package can be selected from a variety of possible providers with different scopes of services, whereby aspects such as support or the expected performance must be taken into account.

Once a suitable hosting provider has been found, further decisions have to be made regarding the technology to be used, whereby it is usually advisable, due to the user-friendliness, to rely on a Content Management System to fall back on. Here, too, many options are available (such as in this blog post can be read under the basics), whereby we express a clear recommendation for the world's most popular - Wordpress. In addition to constantly appearing new plugins and templates, the large network offers, above all, comprehensive technical support and many networking opportunities for problems that arise.

Another important note: The choice of a suitable hosting provider and also that of the content management system should not be made lightly or, against the background of cost savings, fall on the cheapest offer. The reason for this is that this decision forms the basis for many other criteria of a successful website, such as security or loading speed, which are listed separately below due to their great relevance.

6. feature of good websites:
 High loading speed

If a website is called up that takes far too long to load and has to be watched slowly being set up, disappointed visitors usually jump off quickly and find the information they need or the product they want at a competitor's site. Particularly in the case of mobile surfing, where the speed of data transfer also depends to a large extent on the mobile network, it is necessary to good websites therefore via a short charging time dispose

This means that all content is displayed within the shortest possible time - ideally within maximum two seconds - should be fully displayed and ready for interaction. But a fast-loading website is not only relevant in terms of making a good impression on users, it can also have a positive impact on search engine rankings.

7. feature of good websites:
 Security

Especially in the online sector, which is often riddled with false reports or dubious providers, a good website create trustThe company has to convince Internet users of the services it offers and of its own brand. For this, great importance must be attached to Security The first step is to ensure that the data transfer between the browser and the web server visited is protected. A secure connection can thus be established by a Encryption with HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure), which is available via a SSL certificate has to be created.

In order to prevent unauthorized third parties from gaining access or to be prepared for a possible loss of data, security measures against malware, hackers, viruses or Trojans must also be taken, all plug-ins must be continuously updated and backups must be created.

8. feature of good websites:
 Legal compliance

Online store with purchase options, interactive forums, blogs or plain web presence of a company - anyone who operates a website on the Internet has to deal with a variety of legal regulations otherwise there is a risk of costly warnings. A website almost always requires a Imprint, whereby the compulsory levies in the Telemedia Act and include, among other things, the name, address or contact details of the site operator.

Since data protection also plays an important role, it is essential that the specifications from the DSVGO (European Data Protection Regulation) must be complied with. This includes a privacy policy for the collection and processing of personal data, as well as the integration of a cookie banner, if applicable.

9. feature of good websites:
 Clear structure

A menu structure that is too convoluted, information that cannot be found, or links that lead nowhere - if potential customers cannot find their way around a website intuitively right away, they will leave after just a few clicks. Against this backdrop, good web presences are characterized by a logical structure with clear structuring of all contents off, whereby in particular a clearly arranged menu ensures a high level of user-friendliness. A few aptly formulated terms lead the visitor to the desired subpage with just a few clicks and show exactly where he is on the website at all times. A maximum of 5 to 7 self-explanatory main menu items, which form thematic units and can in turn be structured with the help of a few sub-items, are optimal.

Website structure

For a Optimal navigation should also focus on sensible internal linking, compliance with conventions and the integration of a 404 page - for information about a non-existent path - should be respected. In this way, the inner connection, like the red thread in a written work, is established and the website visitor is accompanied on his way from the page call to the desired action (conversion) - a successful customer journey!

10. feature of good websites:
 Meaningful content

The content of good websites offers the visitor a real added valueThe content is a convincing way of highlighting the services on offer and getting to the heart of the matter. In order to drive the right content strategy and offer variety instead of boredom for the most different purposes - whether industrial company with focus on special productions or talented wedding photographer - it is important to combine the right formats. In addition to a high resolution and the appropriate production quality of images and videos, a number of things should be taken into account, especially when creating good texts.

In order to be quickly grasped by visitors, it is important to provide text passages with a high information content and to create a clear structure with the help of paragraphs, concise headings or bullet points. Error-free grammar and spelling are a matter of course and underline the seriousness and credibility of a company.

11. feature of good websites:
 Appealing design

The most interesting content - be it excitingly written texts or video recordings in the best quality - will not reach and convince the website visitor if it is not presented in the right way. In addition to clarity, good websites therefore always impress with their modern, contemporary design, whereby both the creative design as well as the functional structure support the goals of the company. Basically, the first step is to follow the existing corporate design and to place the shapes or fonts already used in the logo or on flyers on the website in a visually appealing way. The design is also significantly determined by the color scheme used, which combines harmonious tones, creates contrasts between the background and the font, and emphasizes important points with accent colors.

Here you get an impression of effective web design:

Example of a Wesite designExample of a Wesite design
Lead anchor web design

Overall, the website should thus have a coherent, uniform and unique appearance The company needs to have a website that makes it possible to experience the company digitally, reflects the brand with the elements used, and conveys the values on an emotional level. This is the only way to ensure that the online presence stands out positively from the mass of competitors and remains in the target group's memory for a long time.

12. feature of good websites:
 Opportunities for interactions

Whether it's signing up for a newsletter, leaving a comment or buying a product on offer - according to the goals set for a website, potential customers must be prompted to take certain actions. Thus, a good website not only navigates to relevant information, but also offers, above all with the help of "Call-to-action" buttons, many opportunities for interaction and communication:

If contact is to be achieved, an easy-to-use, clear form or other contact options must be presented or linked concisely.
As a result of social media channel linking, company information can also be shared, liked or commented on in social networks, which can significantly increase brand awareness.
The integration of a web chat allows direct communication with visitors to the website, where questions can be answered quickly and problems encountered can be resolved.
Other ways in which the company presented online can be experienced by Internet users include interactive graphics or integrated search functions.

13. feature of good websites:
 Accessibility with mobile optimization

In recent years, the number of mobile Internet users increased steadily and so nowadays more than 50 % of all page views via a smartphone or tablet. So instead of on a computer, more and more people are looking at a company's online presence using their respective mobile device. For this reason responsive web design - the optimal display of content on all screen sizes - is now actually one of the standard functions of a modern website.

In addition to mobile optimization on all popular browsers, however, other measures must be taken to ensure the Criteria for accessibility to fulfill. This includes, among other things, the insertion of alternative texts (ALT texts) for the description of images and videos, the filling in of meta information or the uniform design of text elements, such as headings.

>0% of page views occur with mobile devices

14. feature of good websites:
 Topicality

Pictures of employees who have long since left the company, an outdated product range or incorrect address details - if the information on a website is not up to date, visitors are guaranteed to leave it quickly and will not be encouraged to return. For this reason, good websites are characterized by the Actuality of all contentsThe blog should contain information about the company, in particular about the listed employees, contact options and the scope of services with offered products or services. Likewise, in a created blog should be Regular contributions published and all links be checked on the website with regard to functionality.

15. feature of good websites:
 SEO

Since the best website cannot contribute to the realization of set goals if it is not seen by the target group, it belongs to Search engine optimizationSEO, for short, is one of the central aspects of successful online marketing today. The term refers to all measures that contribute to increasing the visibility of one's own web presence in the Google search results to increase. But only those who focus on the right keywords, optimize the content on the website accordingly, pay attention to a fast loading time and also keep a variety of other aspects in mind can hope for a very high ranking and thus many website visitors.

Still something incomprehensible? Here again as a video:

ALL SOUNDS VERY COMPLICATED?

A website forms the basis for successful online marketing - but the creation and maintenance of a professional web presence, as shown by the features listed, are usually an elaborate challenge.

Therefore, if you are wondering whether working with an advertising agency could be a promising step for your company, just contact us.  
© 2024 Lead Anker
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