4 Steps to a Good Website

Written By Jen Strickler

There are many factors to consider when creating a website, and it is important to remember that your company website is often the first point of contact for many of your potential customers. Your site must make the right impression, portray your business and the products or services you provide positively, in an easy to read format and must have clear and easy to use navigation.

With that in mind, there are four main components to a well developed website. They include:

• Value

• Presentation

• Navigation

• Trust

VALUE

There's an old saying in the web world - Content Is King! And for the most part - it is. People utilize websites for many reasons, but because the have to consciously type in your web address (or click a link), they are likely coming there for a reason. The key, when it comes to providing value to your consumer, is to determine what that reason is up front. Who is your target audience and what information are they looking to get right away. What will help them make a decision? What are their goals and can they achieve their primary goal right from the home page? Other things to ask yourself about your website are:

• Is essential content and functionality available when needed?

• Are they given priority on the page?

• Are you providing the right information (and the right amount) at the right time?

• Are you helping to guide users down a decision-making path by delivering the right content?

When thinking of the content for your website, think of it like a 3-legged stool. Your content should be usable, useful and enjoyable to your audience.

PRESENTATION

The homepage is the most important page of your website. It sets the tone and expectations for the site's online environment. It's the face of your organization and brand. It should define who you are and what you have to offer. It should also allow users to easily and effectively complete their most immediate goals.

The homepage real estate is the most valuable. It should give priority to content and functionality that will provide the most value to the user. Keep in mind that your home page is not unlike the front cover of a magazine on a newsstand. It should be engaging. It should give users just enough information to want to dig in and read more. And once they dig in, make sure that content is presented in a way that helps people read it. Give them enough white space and imagery to allow for easy and enjoyable reading (and scanning). Make sure that text is legible and that interactive elements are consistent and easily recognizable.

NAVIGATION

Navigation is key to helping users complete their goals as well as your business goals. Strong, intuitive navigation will help guide users in completing tasks, as well as aid in their comfort level while using your site. A good navigation system can help promote the right pages to the users. It is extremely difficult to guess where relevant content might be located without the help of a well-thought-out, complete, consistent navigation system.

It is imperative that the website user have a primary, global navigation that is consistent on each page throughout the site. This primary navigation should be consistently titled the same and reside in the same location site-wide. This navigation guides users on their journey throughout the website, allows them to know exactly where they are, and gives them the freedom to go where they choose.

When designing a good navigation structure, think efficiency. What's the most efficient way for users to go to where they want to go? Also, consider your business objectives. What are the most important pages you want them to see? Make sure that page designs (not just the navigation at the top/side of the page) include directional navigation. Beyond that, make sure that page titles are titled logically and that hyperlinks are consistent, clear and informative.

Simple tip: Never use the word "click here" within your website. It forces the user to have to read backwards to find out what ‘here' means. Instead, make the action item the link. For example, instead of "To download our brochure, click here", consider: "Download Brochure"

TRUST

Your website is key in creating trust and comfort with your audience. If a user is exploring your site and consistently gets incorrect information, can't complete a task, or gets lost, he or she will lose trust that your website is a valuable tool. That ultimately leads to distrust in the actual organization. It's also known as the Halo Effect.

What's the Halo Effect"? It refers to a cognitive bias where the perception of a particular trait is influenced by the perceptions of former traits. In English, that means the first impression your website gives will impact the perception of your company, products or services. It's a hard to change a first impression if it's a bad one.

When thinking about trust, it is important to provide an environment that allows users to easily complete tasks, provides location cues, and helps them recover from errors. And don't forget about broken links or typos. Your job is to guide the user through their interactive experience.

In Summary

Your website can't be thought of as an online brochure like it was in 1997. People are much more demanding and web savvy these days. They are time conscious and demand efficiency, so consider that when you design your website. Think about what you can provide that will supply the most value to your user, then consider how you'll help them get around. It is a 3-D environment that they can navigate (and potentially get lost and frustrated). It's not as simple as a "turn-the-page" brochure. Beyond designing a useful, usable and enjoyable website for your users, you'll also want to consider doing the same for search engines, by ensuring your website is search engine optimized with useful keywords.