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5 Key Elements to a Successful Website
By f4group, December 22, 2014
A successful website makes a successful business. Force Four have created this guide to 5 key elements to a successful website. Make sure to apply these tips in your website.
- Good Visual Design— Design is an all encompassing word for all the visuals elements of your website — logo, font(s), white space, theme/template, layout and colors. Using a theme that relates to the topic of your website can help to keep you/your content on track. When it comes to design it is important to remember to use white space and think about color usage and meaning.
Remember – clarity is key. The key words are simplicity, familiarity and consistency. Don’t distract your customers, stick to what people know and keep the flow through your site.
- Content— The key to a good website is providing relevant content that your readers want. Content should answer the question “what’s in it for me?” for your customers. If your customers have found what they have looked for, they will quickly accept it.
Remember – Last but not least, relevancy contributes to good website usability.
- Navigation— Navigation is the “GPS” of your website. Navigation or Nav Bars are the buttons that get your visitors where they need to go to get information or do certain things. Usually this bar is along the top, as we in this one, or along the left side of the site. Should be simple to use and uncluttered. It is always a good idea to group like pages under the same topic to streamline navigation.
Remember – If your site is difficult to understand and hard to browse there is one button they will press and that is the back button to get them off your site.
- Call to Action — The Call to Action is a set of words that urge your website visitors to take an immediate action on your website. There is no magic formula to a good Call to Action. The key is to continuously test what works best for your website and your audience. Test the placement, size and color of these…make sure you use actionable words.
Remember – Do not irritate your customers, make sure they know exactly how to move forward.
- Credibility — A good website instills trust from visitors. Good website design takes this into consideration by incorporating items that help identify that you are a legitimate resource. One way you can do so is by utilizing
verified links, clearly stating your identity and contact info, good grammar and employing social proof.Remember – Credibility is key not for a successful ROI, but also for customer retention.
- Mobile site — More and more people are looking at your site from a mobile phone or web enabled device. It seems like anything with a screen and a microchip in it is capable of getting on the internet these days. Make sure your site is viewable on a mobile internet enabled device.
Remember – Always cater for your customers, if the demographic is now mobile users, make sure you offer the solution.
Visitors come to your site with certain goals in mind. It is your job to help them reach these goals as quickly as possible. If you can manage to do that, your visitors will be pleased and you have laid the groundwork for a positive experience.
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