10 Qualities of a Good Website:

In my last blog, I talked about the importance of  having a website, but before you create or redesign your website, take a look at these qualities of a good website and try to modify or create yours accordingly.

1. A Solid Domain Name

Choose a name that is easily recognizable as your business and quick for visitors to locate. If the name you want—like designershoes.com—is not available try something like designershoes.net. Or, you might make a change to something like designershoe.com. Wherever possible stay with a dot.com domain and avoid things like hyphens or apostrophes.

Your domain name is ultra-important. The name should identify your business like: SureFireKennels.com or RapidRoofers.net. It could gain or lose you customers so choose wisely! If you are unsure how to go about choosing a domain name, look at what your competitors have done. Do an Internet search and/or talk to an experienced web designer. Competition for good domain names is getting fierce. Use every advantage you can.

2. A Clear Identity

As Mary Kay said, “Less is more!” In web design this is true. Take some time to surf the Net. Look at what others have done with their sites, their logos and their titles. See which ones are clean, easy to read, uncluttered and attractive. That’s the look you should be aiming for. You don’t want a website that is filled with ads and banners. That means the important information about your company gets lost in the clutter! Think: clean, clear, concise when you are creating or redesigning your website. Don’t use a lot of buzzwords. Cut out the crap. Answer these questions for your visitors :

• What you are selling?
• Why they need this product or service?
• How it will help them?
• Why they should buy from you?

3. Use of Color and Animation Sparingly

While it is tempting to use lots of bright color and special effects, think about commercials and websites that do this. Does it help you remember the product? Often you can’t even remember what product or service was being promoted.

4. Easily Located Contact Information

Have you ever visited a website and searched in vain for an email contact, an address, a phone number? Website visitors and potential customers aren’t visiting your website for a long leisurely read. For that they have Kindle and the local library. They want the information fast and clear. If they have to search for your contact information, they are going to move on! A good place for your address, landline, cell phone number, Facebook or Twitter links and email address is in a “contact us” link. This is usually located in the upper right, or in the main navigation. These are good choices. Don’t try to get creative and put it somewhere else. This irritates surfers. They don’t think this is cute. Put your phone, email and snail mail address on every page. Also include a Google map for those who wish to visit your bricks-and-mortar location.

5. Trouble Free Navigation

A website should be easy to use. This means it must have easy navigation. Before you release your website to the general public, take it for a trial run. Try to locate your website on the Internet before you release it to the public. Look at all the pages to make sure they are all easy to locate. If visitors have trouble finding your products and services, or your contact information, they won’t buy from you and they won’t return to your website.

Get others to try navigating your site. Listen to what they tell you! If your site is not easy to navigate, you are literally sending visitors to your competition!

6. Well-constructed Pages

The information on your website should be accurate, free of errors, well-written and informative. It should engage visitors to your site. Good websites also make proper use of such things as back-links and callouts (More on this later!)

7. Quality Content

By quality content, I don’t just mean attention getting although that’s part of it! Good also means accurate, up-to-date and well-written. You will get only a few seconds to grab your visitors’ attention so your content must be clear, concise and error free. Update content regularly. Blogs and social media updates are also excellent vehicles for keeping your website current. Blogs will keep readers coming back.

8. Careful Advertisement of Others’ Products

In an effort to pay the bills many website owners take on too many advertisers. The result is a cluttered website that detracts from what you are trying to promote. Instead, choose advertisers who sell related products or services. For example: If your website sells skin care products, a site that has natural cosmetics or hair care might be a great fit. If you are selling in-home massages, websites selling aromatherapy products might be a great fit. Try to think about what additional services your niche market is likely to purchase.

9. Excellent Secure of Website

Your accounts need top-security passwords. Don’t be predictable and don’t use the same password for several accounts. If your site is built on a platform (like Wix, Weebly, Webs, Webnode, and Jimdo), ask your web designer about keeping the platform updated. These periodic updates can often address security issues discovered by other users and website developers.

10. Real Testimonials

Internet shoppers especially rely on the feedback from others shoppers. Unlike bricks-and-mortar shoppers e-business clients can chat with customers they’ve never met. Nothing is better advertising than word of mouth. Testimonials seem more real and authentic than web text written by the website owner or a paid web text writer. Use real, and I emphasize 'REAL' testimonials even if you have to give away free products to get them.

How many of these qualities does your website have?