10 tips for what a website should be for your business

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If your page on the Internet has stopped at the “hello from 2002!” Stage, it's time to read this article.

1. Make a decent mobile version of the site

According to As predicted statistics (based on numerous studies and mobile eCommerce statistics), mobile traffic became just as prevalent as desktop traffic collected by OuterBox, more than 79% of users visit sites and make purchases from mobile devices, not from the desktop. At the same time, 84% have difficulties with purchases in mobile versions, and 40%, having received a negative user experience, go to the resources of competitors.

It is very unpleasant when a visitor opens a mobile site, and it looks and works badly. The user is unlikely to deal with difficulties, repeatedly click on buttons or wander in an unintuitive interface - it is easier for him to go to another site.

57% of surveyed Internet users say they will not recommend a brand with an ugly or inconvenient mobile website to friends.

Chris Lucas Vice President of Marketing, Formstack

It's even worse if you open the company's website on a smartphone and see that it simply does not have a mobile version. It's crazy to zoom in and out with your fingers on the full version in the browser to see at least something.

It is statistically more likely that your customers will interact with you from a tablet or smartphone rather than a desktop computer. Mobile visitors are finicky, and they will not hesitate to go to competitors if your site gives them the slightest headache.

Justin Smith CEO of OuterBox

So make sure your site has a good mobile version or even a dedicated app. It should be designed to intuitively adapt to any device. Make sure all buttons and elements on the page are comfortable to interact with with your fingers.

2. Come up with a catchy name

A simple, straightforward, memorable domain name is very important for your website. You are happy to visit lifehacker.ru. But would you read our site if it was called lifexaker123.ru? I don't think so.

The right domain in the hands of an experienced team increases customer and partner trust in the business, increases user conversion and ROI, and reduces viral marketing costs.

Gary Millin CEO WorldAccelerator.com

Finding an unoccupied and euphonious name is not easy, but you have to try. Remember that the shorter it is, the better: this makes it easier to remember and enter into the address bar. The most famous sites in the world are Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. What unites them? That's right, their names are easy to keep in mind and print. It is also important that the name can be easily pronounced out loud.

Sometimes you visit the site of an unknown company, do not find a single CTA element and cannot understand what the resource is offering you. Provide service? Sell an item? Subscribe to the newsletter? What are they doing there?

Place the relevant buttons right on the home page so that the visitor does not have to search for them for a long time. Simply and clearly explain to the visitor what will happen if he clicks on the CTA element.

If you have created a cool Internet service - let it be possible to register on it with one click immediately after loading the site. If you provide locksmith services - make the button "Call the master" right before the user's eyes. There is no need to hide the CTA elements at the bottom of the page, because not all visitors are patient enough to scroll to the very end.

4. Make navigation easier

Access to information, services and purchases should be easy. Ideally, the user shouldn't think at all how to find something on your site.

Surely you notice that the vast majority of sites are tailored to a similar pattern. For example, the search, registration and login buttons are always on the top right. You can switch between the main pages with information using the tabs at the top. And social media buttons and company details are placed at the bottom. Don't reinvent the wheel, because if the user finds your site intuitively incomprehensible, he will leave it.

Place no more than five tabs on your navigation menu at the top of your site. They should be clearly organized and clearly named. Add Site Search to the top-right corner of your screen so users can quickly find what they're looking for.

Dan Veltri is co-founder and chief product officer of Weebly.

And do not forget to provide the user with the opportunity to return to the main page of the site at any time, eliminating the need to tediously click on the browser's "Back" button.

5. Keep the site up to date

First, even though it may sound a little strange, the actual site inspires trust in a purely psychological way. Will you use the service or application that was last updated in 2016, or will you be looking for something newer? If your last news is dated last year, the thought arises that you have closed down a long time ago. And secondly, irrelevant information misleads the client. And again, it undermines the credibility of the business.

Therefore, update the content of your site regularly. The emergence of new content encourages users to visit it again and again. Fix broken links - this is necessary for better conversion of site visitors. Make sure users only see relevant information (news, discounts, product prices, contacts) - otherwise they will get the impression that you are either careless or trying to trick them.

6. Post contact information in a prominent place

There are two reasons for this. First, if your business relies on people being able to contact you (for example, calling your sales force), the unintuitive arrangement of contact information will rob you of the customer. Secondly, users will consider a site without contact information dubious: it is unlikely that a reputable office will hide this information.

Your contact information should be clearly visible so that users do not have to search for your phone number or email address for a long time.

David Brown CEO of Web.com

If you also use social media to connect with customers (and you should use them!), Be sure to place icons with links to them in the header or footer, where they are easy to find. You can get icons, for example, here.

7. Avoid typos and mistakes

Blindness sometimes happens, it's true. But for your business to be taken seriously, the text on the site must be grammatically correct. Mistakes of all sorts scare away visitors, making your business untrustworthy. After all, how can you handle a business if you can't figure out spelling?

Your grammar is a reflection of your image. Good or bad, you will make the impression. Fortunately, you can control this.

Jeffrey Gitomer American writer and business coach

Check and correct the texts carefully. Literacy is like hygiene. You can be the most brilliant businessman in the world, plugging all the Bezos and Zuckerberg into the belt. But if you appear in front of clients and partners with an unwashed head and dirty shoes, your talents are unlikely to be appreciated.

8. Make the site simple

How to

How definitely not necessary

Website design is practically the face of your business. According to research on How Do People Evaluate a Web Site's Credibility? experts from Stanford, 75% of users form an opinion about the solidity and worth of a company based only on the appearance of its website. Moreover, it takes users' attention web designers: You have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression! only 50 milliseconds! And the first impression Too good to be bad: Favorable product expectations boost subjective usability ratings then shapes all further expectations from your company.

You can provide as high-quality services as you want, but if you have a page "originally from the 2000s", only your friends will use them. Keep your designs simple, clean, and elegant. Follow current trends - your site must keep up with the times.

Currently, the main trends in design are flatness and minimalism. The era of eye-catching gradients and shadows is a thing of the past. And remember: fewer colors are better. But you need to choose them carefully.

Travis Moore graphic designer

In addition, sites with a simple design load faster than those that are cluttered with extraneous elements. And speed, as you will now see, is also an extremely important aspect.

9. Keep the site fast

According to SOASTA's Mobile Load Time and User Abandonment, 53% of mobile users leave a website before it is fully loaded if it lasts more than 3 seconds. In addition, 83% of respondents said that slow sites give them a negative impression of a brand or company. And 28% go to competitors if the website takes too long to load.

Keep your site running at an acceptable speed. Optimize videos and images to immerse fast enough, even on mobile devices.

47% of users believe that loading an average site will take a maximum of 2 seconds.

Asad Ali marketer GO-Gulf

And don't overuse ads: as stated in the SOASTA report, on most of the sites we examined, banner rendering took almost half of the loading time. Users dislike ads as much as long wait times.

10. Create your own 404 page

Technical failures happen to everyone. But having your site has its own bug page gives the impression that your company is in control of the problem and is actively addressing it.

By admitting your mistake, you build user confidence and do not make them feel like they stumbled upon an incomplete site. An empty white screen with some kind of technical inscriptions suggests hack-work.

How to

How to

How to

How not to

Create a bug page to mitigate the negative user experience. Place on it links to articles that may interest him, or to popular products instead of missing ones, and so on.