Introduction
These days, a business needs a site. It doesn’t matter if you’re an electronics store, a local restaurant or even Dunder Mifflin–a website is a must. Though, you may want to hold on creating one, as it’s not an easy task.
Sure, you could go out and hire someone to create you a site, but they’re only going to create the site based off your wants and needs, but do you know what you want from your site? How about what you need? If you do, then feel free to click off this article, but if you don’t and need to know what makes a business site good, then continue reading.
(P.S. Different businesses require different functions and features, so for the sake of length, we will be keeping tips to the core user experience–UX for short–and to basic business tips.)
Responsiveness
Nothing will make a user click off your site faster than an unresponsive site. But wait, what qualifies as unresponsive? Well, for example, your site should,
- Respond to a user’s input
- Be compatible with different form factors (phones, PCs, tablets, etc.)
- Use a layout that is easy to read and accessible to users.
As long as you heed these basic tips, you have a head start against a lot of the competition. Believe it or not, a staggering amount of businesses don’t take time to create a responsible and functional website. Don’t skimp on this.
Accessibility
I mentioned this when talking about responsiveness, but accessibility is too important to not center around it for a minute.
When a user clicks on your site, you don’t want them confused by it. For example, if your business focuses on PC hardware, make sure your site avoids any type of slang or jargon that someone not “in the know” will be confused by.
When everything is clear and simple, a user will feel sort of…”safe” on the site–comforted by their lack of confusion. This is your end-goal.
Search Engine Optimization
Now that we’ve covered basic UX tips, it’s time for the real lesson: search engine optimization, or SEO for short.
SEO works by analyzing your site’s contents and evaluating where it lands in the browser’s search results. But how does SEO determine what is and isn’t worthy of a spot in the search algorithm?
The main factor in determining the ”ranking” for a website relies on keywords and key phrases.
Let’s go back to our PC hardware site example. To rank high in SEO placement, it may be wise to use keywords such as “computer”, “PC”, “memory”, etc., as users tend to use these words when searching for information on computers. Use these on your site, and Google may rank you high up in the search results.
Same rule applies no matter what your site contains. If your business is VPNrelated, focused on geo-blocked content on Netflix, you’ll want to mention VPNs and Netflix a good bit.
However, SEO becomes upset when you attempt to take advantage of it, and if you use too many keywords or phrases, your SEO ranking will be negatively affected. Moderation is key, so don’t go overboard.
Conclusion
Building a good, accessible site is not difficult. Worst case scenario, you pay a programmer/UX designer to build you one. However, knowing what you want and what will attract a consumer base is difficult. But, with these tips, your site will be light years ahead of many others.