While it’s hard to create a high-quality website without spending a considerable amount of cash, the amount of money isn’t usually a very important factor. The following ingredients have been proven time and again as vital in building successful websites.
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1. Clearly Defined Goals
One of the surest paths to failure is going ahead to build an elaborate sophisticated website without thinking about what the site is intended for. The importance of clearly defined objectives cannot be overemphasized. You could very well in building successful websites that generate huge traffic but if the traffic it draws isn’t one relevant to your product, you won’t get much out of it.
Define your product and target audience unambiguously and you’ll have a better shot at attracting the right traffic and generating high sales.
2. Earn Audience Trust
People don’t visit your site or buy your products just because you have what they need. Usually, there’ll be hundreds or thousands of websites offering a nearly identical product. Rather, most visitors will buy your product because they have developed a certain minimum level of trust as well as an emotional connection.
From the onset, let users know that you talk the talk and walk the walk. Make it clear what your website is about and the philosophy, culture, and values defining it. An audience that trusts you will have a domino effect. They’ll be powerful ambassadors of your business and won’t hesitate to let their social circle know how great your product is.
3. Stand Out
Competition for online eyeballs is intense. You won’t make much headway if you fail to differentiate yourself from everyone else. Your website should be functional but unique. Differentiation takes multiple forms.
Get creative in your communication, customer service, product development, corporate social responsibility, and pricing. Standing out makes your website linger longer in memory. Many of your site’s users will not purchase anything on the first day they visit but they intend to do so in the future. They are more likely to remember your site if it’s unique.
3. Prioritize User Experience
Users should find it easy to navigate your site. They should quickly locate whatever they need in as few clicks as possible. Develop intuitive menus suited for both desktop and mobile. Intuitive here means in both description and position.
For example, there’s an unwritten principle in website development that requires the ‘Contact Us’ menu to be on the top right-hand corner of the page. If you placed it in a different location, visitors may struggle to find it. Users who find your site easy to explore are bound to return.
3. Remember SEO
Search engines will be the primary source of traffic to your site. At the minimum, they will crawl and index your pages. They then rely on their proprietary algorithms to determine how high up in the search results from any of your pages will appear. Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the techniques used to make sure a website ranks highly on search results.
This is important because a Google Search user will rarely go past the first two pages of the results. There are many ways to optimize including backlinks, specific keyword phrases, PPC ads, improving page load speed, and linking your site to your social media accounts. Make the most of tools such as python logging to establish how effective your SEO strategies are.
The above ingredients are keys to building successful websites. However, such success is not a permanent outcome that you attain and forget about for good. Technology and user expectations are constantly changing and it’s important that you continuously refine your site to keep up.
