A successful website is a key part of any business and is vital in driving business. It has never been easier to get yourself online and you could have literally get a website created and live on the web in a matter of a few hours but there are several key considerations to take into account. Follow these points to ensure your website will be a success for years to come:

Design

First impressions are important and never more so than when somebody lands on your website for the first time. If they don’t like what they see they could be leaving quicker than you can say “bounce rate”. A good design can wow potential customers, help to build trust and make it easier to get people to take the action you want them to on your website.

UX

Often overlooked or playing second fiddle to the aesthetics, usability is probably the most important aspect of any website. You must keep visitors to your site happy or they well leave and probably never come back! Design and structure your site so that it is easy for the end user to find the information they need or to complete the action they need to and, more importantly make sure they take the action YOU want them to take. Great usability starts in the early stages of website design  and is a constant testing process. Use feedback from users, heatmaps, analytics and A/B testing to streamline your user experience. Use this UX checklist to make sure you usability is on point.

Content

There is a well-known phrase regarding websites; “Content is King” and it is definitely true. No matter the purpose of your website you need to provide good quality content for your visitors. This includes engaging copy, high quality images, use of videos and other multimedia and generally anything that will be beneficial to the end user. Your content should cater to the needs of your website users so if they are looking for a piece of information then you should provide it in a comprehensive manner, if they are looking for a product then you should give them as much information as possible about that product. Learn about creating great content here.

Branding

Some people just build a website, what you really should be building is a brand. Consider the details when designing your site: what colour scheme are you going to use? What is the tone of the copy? What is the message you are trying to get across? How will you deal with customer complaints? These elements should be consistent throughout you site and will help to build up a perception of your brand.

CRO

There is almost certainly a specific purpose for your website – what is it? What action do you wish every user would take? It could be filling in a form, signing up for a free trial, buying a product, submitting their e-mail address for you mailing list, watching a video or a number of other things. You need to design and structure your site to give make sure as many people as possible carry out the action you want them to. Call to actions should be in obvious places and every key area of your site should have conversion in mind. Get some great CRO tips from this guide.

SEO

Once your website is looking beautiful, designed with the user in mind and set up to convert, the last piece of the puzzle is to get visitors to it. SEO is key to driving traffic form search engines such as Google and the first steps are taken in the code and content of your website. Do proper keyword research to find what words people would potentially search for to land on your site then use these keywords in the content and key elements of your site such as headings and page titles. To get started with SEO have a look at this beginners guide.