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Qualities of a good website
EASY TO READ
If background colors or images are used, the text on top of the background should be in a color that can easily be seen. The right contrast between the background of the website and content is one of the most basic yet most important web design principles that should never be overlooked. Use a color scheme that complements and is pleasing to the eye. White space between images and sections of text make a page easier to view. Lack of contrast, on the other hand, makes it very difficult for visitors to read your content.
EASY TO NAVIGATE
A visitor should be able to find the information they are looking for without hassle and frustration. The site's navigation buttons should be grouped together. If image links are used, text links should also be provided for those people who have images turned off on their browser or are using an older browser that doesn't support images.
Simple HTML or JavaScript menus tend to work best and appear consistent on all browsers and platforms.
It is equally important for the navigation to be clutter-free. Try to limit the number of menu items as far as possible. A drop-down menu or sub-navigation may work better on large site with many sections and pages
COMFORTABLY VIEWED
A Web site should be easily viewable in all screen sizes without a visitor having to scroll horizontally (left to right).
QUICK TO DOWNLOAD
Graphics and sounds add download time to a Web page. Use them sparingly. Many web visitors simply quit slow sites, so rather keep things simple and slick. Not everyone has DSL or cable Internet.
AVOID DEAD LINKS
Make sure that links on all your pages are working, whether they are internal links to pages within your site, or links to external Web sites.
KEEP THE CONTENT FRESH
People are more apt to return to your Web site if they find new and interesting material. Post articles on your site, offer a newly updated "Internet Special" or provide fresh, helpful links. All these things cause visitors to bookmark your site as a reference tool.
KEEP YOUR TARGET AUDIENVE IN MIND
Think about the people who would be interested in visiting your Web site. If you are designing a web site about razor blades and shaving cream for men, the site should have a masculine feel to it. Decorating the page with pink hearts and roses would not be a good idea!
PROVIDE A FORM FOR VISITORS TO CONTACT YOU
Visitors are more likely to fill out a form to contact you than clicking on an e-mail link. Always make things easy for your visitors... especially contacting you.
COMPATIBLE ON DIFFERENT BROWSERS
Check your Web site in the most popular browsers to make sure everything is displayed properly. After your website designer has created a site for you, you should test your website on different versions of various internet web browser such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer.Also, you should check whether your site works flawlessly on stock internet browsers available on platforms such as Windows Phone, Android and Symbian.
MOBILE COMPATIBILITY
As more and more people use their mobile phones to access the Internet, creating a mobile optimized website has become a necessity.
The first step is to check how your existing website appears on mobile. You can use Google mobile site tester to find this out. If your website cannot currently be accessed on mobile, you can create a mobile version of your website for free with the help of web-based mobile website builders.
WELL-FORMATTED CONTENT THAT IS EASY TO SCAN
Clear and to the point. Visitors should have a clear understanding of what your Web site is about when they visit.
Web visitors have short attention spans, so: be clear and succinct, use proper grammar, spell your words correctly, be accurate, be relevant, and update your content regularly.
The average Internet user skims through the content on a web page instead of reading each and every word from top to down. Users tend to scan through key parts of the page quickly to determine if it is relevant to their needs.
FAST LOAD TIMES
Nothing is more annoying for website visitors than a website that takes long to load. It is also one of the main reasons visitors leave your site. Making sure your website loads within 4 to 6 seconds is important for good usability. It also affects your search engine ranking.
GOOD ERROR HANDLING AND FUNCTIONALITY
All the elements of your site should work seamlessly. You need to fix all the page errors and poorly constructed website elements. When visitors face such a problem, they can get frustrated and leave your site. Hence, you need to check proper functioning of internal and external pages, access to contact page, site search, site map, customer support page, help and FAQs page, subscription page and so on
Good error handling and description on-screen messages are very important for good usability. However it is often overlooked. Displaying the right error message improves the user experience and overall usability.
UNIQUE
The most successful websites will stand out from the crowd. There are a number of was that you can make your website stand out: better design, high quality articles, a blog, a newsletter, some type of resource or tool. Find something that would be appealing to your target market.
INFORMATION
Visitors are coming to your site for a reason. Whatever that reason may be, you want to provide them with what they are seeking. Are they coming to find basic information on your business’ services? Are they coming to read in-depth articles on a particular subject? Whatever the case may be, the information that your website provides needs to sufficiently meet the expectations of visitors.
GET HIGH SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS FOR TARGETED KEY WORDS
If you want to sell products through your website, you need to ‘optimize’ your site so it will have high search engine ranking like top ten positions. Doing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or hiring SEO expert is a good move to boost your ranking.
CONSISTENCY IN DESIGN
Except for the homepage which may have a slightly different appeal, all the other pages should have a consistent design. When navigating to other pages on the website, the users should not feel that have landed on a different website. The homepage and all the other pages of the website should clearly display the logo and its tagline.
SIMPLICITY
Simplicity in design and structure is one such website design feature that has been emphasized again and again by many designers. This may sound easy to achieve but it is not. More minimalism in the interface and page layout is becoming a trend nowadays. Simplicity of design makes the site pages easy to access while enhancing its usability features.
Results-oriented – no point having a website which isn’t serving its purpose! Define what you want your website to achieve (delivering a brand message, educating and informing customers or driving sales leads) and develop a site which delivers on your goals.
SOLID DOMAIN NAME
Competition for good domain names is getting fierce. So, be flexible, but use good sense when choosing a domain. If your “.com” address is already taken, resist the urge to add a hyphen, or to go with the “.net” version. In the end, you’ll lose visitors with these options, so take a little extra time to get creative and find the perfect “.com.”
SECURITY
Use strong passwords for your accounts. Also, if your site is built on a platform like WordPress or Magento, be sure to ask your web designer or web host about keeping the platform updated. In addition to adding new functionality, these periodic updates often address security issues found by other users and developers.
TESTIMONIALS
In today’s social world, shoppers increasingly rely on the feedback of others, even if they’ve never met them. Testimonials from a client or customer feel more genuine than sales copy written by the website owner. Resist the urge to make up your own testimonials — savvy visitors will catch you cheating.
If background colors or images are used, the text on top of the background should be in a color that can easily be seen. The right contrast between the background of the website and content is one of the most basic yet most important web design principles that should never be overlooked. Use a color scheme that complements and is pleasing to the eye. White space between images and sections of text make a page easier to view. Lack of contrast, on the other hand, makes it very difficult for visitors to read your content.
EASY TO NAVIGATE
A visitor should be able to find the information they are looking for without hassle and frustration. The site's navigation buttons should be grouped together. If image links are used, text links should also be provided for those people who have images turned off on their browser or are using an older browser that doesn't support images.
Simple HTML or JavaScript menus tend to work best and appear consistent on all browsers and platforms.
It is equally important for the navigation to be clutter-free. Try to limit the number of menu items as far as possible. A drop-down menu or sub-navigation may work better on large site with many sections and pages
COMFORTABLY VIEWED
A Web site should be easily viewable in all screen sizes without a visitor having to scroll horizontally (left to right).
QUICK TO DOWNLOAD
Graphics and sounds add download time to a Web page. Use them sparingly. Many web visitors simply quit slow sites, so rather keep things simple and slick. Not everyone has DSL or cable Internet.
AVOID DEAD LINKS
Make sure that links on all your pages are working, whether they are internal links to pages within your site, or links to external Web sites.
KEEP THE CONTENT FRESH
People are more apt to return to your Web site if they find new and interesting material. Post articles on your site, offer a newly updated "Internet Special" or provide fresh, helpful links. All these things cause visitors to bookmark your site as a reference tool.
KEEP YOUR TARGET AUDIENVE IN MIND
Think about the people who would be interested in visiting your Web site. If you are designing a web site about razor blades and shaving cream for men, the site should have a masculine feel to it. Decorating the page with pink hearts and roses would not be a good idea!
PROVIDE A FORM FOR VISITORS TO CONTACT YOU
Visitors are more likely to fill out a form to contact you than clicking on an e-mail link. Always make things easy for your visitors... especially contacting you.
COMPATIBLE ON DIFFERENT BROWSERS
Check your Web site in the most popular browsers to make sure everything is displayed properly. After your website designer has created a site for you, you should test your website on different versions of various internet web browser such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer.Also, you should check whether your site works flawlessly on stock internet browsers available on platforms such as Windows Phone, Android and Symbian.
MOBILE COMPATIBILITY
As more and more people use their mobile phones to access the Internet, creating a mobile optimized website has become a necessity.
The first step is to check how your existing website appears on mobile. You can use Google mobile site tester to find this out. If your website cannot currently be accessed on mobile, you can create a mobile version of your website for free with the help of web-based mobile website builders.
WELL-FORMATTED CONTENT THAT IS EASY TO SCAN
Clear and to the point. Visitors should have a clear understanding of what your Web site is about when they visit.
Web visitors have short attention spans, so: be clear and succinct, use proper grammar, spell your words correctly, be accurate, be relevant, and update your content regularly.
The average Internet user skims through the content on a web page instead of reading each and every word from top to down. Users tend to scan through key parts of the page quickly to determine if it is relevant to their needs.
FAST LOAD TIMES
Nothing is more annoying for website visitors than a website that takes long to load. It is also one of the main reasons visitors leave your site. Making sure your website loads within 4 to 6 seconds is important for good usability. It also affects your search engine ranking.
GOOD ERROR HANDLING AND FUNCTIONALITY
All the elements of your site should work seamlessly. You need to fix all the page errors and poorly constructed website elements. When visitors face such a problem, they can get frustrated and leave your site. Hence, you need to check proper functioning of internal and external pages, access to contact page, site search, site map, customer support page, help and FAQs page, subscription page and so on
Good error handling and description on-screen messages are very important for good usability. However it is often overlooked. Displaying the right error message improves the user experience and overall usability.
UNIQUE
The most successful websites will stand out from the crowd. There are a number of was that you can make your website stand out: better design, high quality articles, a blog, a newsletter, some type of resource or tool. Find something that would be appealing to your target market.
INFORMATION
Visitors are coming to your site for a reason. Whatever that reason may be, you want to provide them with what they are seeking. Are they coming to find basic information on your business’ services? Are they coming to read in-depth articles on a particular subject? Whatever the case may be, the information that your website provides needs to sufficiently meet the expectations of visitors.
GET HIGH SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS FOR TARGETED KEY WORDS
If you want to sell products through your website, you need to ‘optimize’ your site so it will have high search engine ranking like top ten positions. Doing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or hiring SEO expert is a good move to boost your ranking.
CONSISTENCY IN DESIGN
Except for the homepage which may have a slightly different appeal, all the other pages should have a consistent design. When navigating to other pages on the website, the users should not feel that have landed on a different website. The homepage and all the other pages of the website should clearly display the logo and its tagline.
SIMPLICITY
Simplicity in design and structure is one such website design feature that has been emphasized again and again by many designers. This may sound easy to achieve but it is not. More minimalism in the interface and page layout is becoming a trend nowadays. Simplicity of design makes the site pages easy to access while enhancing its usability features.
Results-oriented – no point having a website which isn’t serving its purpose! Define what you want your website to achieve (delivering a brand message, educating and informing customers or driving sales leads) and develop a site which delivers on your goals.
SOLID DOMAIN NAME
Competition for good domain names is getting fierce. So, be flexible, but use good sense when choosing a domain. If your “.com” address is already taken, resist the urge to add a hyphen, or to go with the “.net” version. In the end, you’ll lose visitors with these options, so take a little extra time to get creative and find the perfect “.com.”
SECURITY
Use strong passwords for your accounts. Also, if your site is built on a platform like WordPress or Magento, be sure to ask your web designer or web host about keeping the platform updated. In addition to adding new functionality, these periodic updates often address security issues found by other users and developers.
TESTIMONIALS
In today’s social world, shoppers increasingly rely on the feedback of others, even if they’ve never met them. Testimonials from a client or customer feel more genuine than sales copy written by the website owner. Resist the urge to make up your own testimonials — savvy visitors will catch you cheating.