Website Best Practices
When it comes to building out your website, not just any website will do.
Web standards and user expectations are constantly changing. This means that your website needs to be up to these latest best practices, or you run the risk of having a site that looks amateur at best.
Below you’ll learn what these best practices are, and how they affect your overall design and site experience, so you can implement them with your new website.
1. Be Ready for Mobile
Mobile can’t be an afterthought. With more and more people using mobile devices to access your website every day, you need to cater these users – but, it’s not just about your users.
If your site isn’t mobile friendly, it won’t rank as well in the search engines. Google favors sites that provide a solid mobile experience. So, you won’t only be making it difficult for visitors to use your site, but you’ll be costing yourself traffic as well.
To cover all of your bases the best course of action is to have a responsive website. That way your site will look good and function properly, no matter what size screen it’s viewed upon.
2. Make Sure Your Site Loads Fast
A slow loading site will lead to a poor user experience and lower search engine rankings. If you want your site to succeed, then you need both of these on your side.
There are a lot of factors that influence the speed of your site. But, the most common causes of poor loading speeds are a bloated site, poor coding, and a hosting environment that’s not optimized to your current traffic levels.
There are plenty of things you can do to speed up your existing website. But, if you’re creating a site from scratch, then make sure you use a website builder that offers cleanly coded themes, and you’re backed by a host that understands performance.
3. Have High Security Standards
The security of your site isn’t related to how it looks, but it’s non-negotiable nonetheless.
You need to have strong onsite security, and high-security protocols built into your design, as well as any other apps or features you may add to your site.
Other privacy measures include having a strong account password, and ensuring that your hosting environment also takes security seriously.
4. Choose a Solid Domain
Some people don’t give their domain more than a second’s thought. However, your domain name is incredibly important.
Not only will it become the backbone of your brand online, but it’ll give people an immediate association with what your brand is about.
Spend time thinking about the goals of your site before you decide upon a domain name.
5. Have a Clean and Simple Design
Your website is a reflection of your business. Your visitors will form an immediate impression of your brand based on how your site looks and performs. Sure, you want your website to stand out and be different, but not at the expense of making it confusing or overly complex.
The moment a visitor lands on your site they should know what it’s about and if they’re a good fit for what your site is about.
Ideally, your homepage is free from clutter and includes minimal text to convey your USP. You should only have elements on your site that are adding value.
Think of it this way-every page on your site should have a goal. Inform users what your site is about. Get them to join your email list. Learn more about you. And on and on. Everything that’s on a given page should be working towards that goal; everything that isn’t should be removed.
6. Write Great Content
Your site’s content is made up of any written words that appear on your site, from your copy, to your about page, to your blog.
In terms of design, anything written should be highly readable. This means you should use larger fonts, a clean typeface, and ideally have plenty of whitespace and multiple formatting options in place.
This will make your site very readable and easy on the eyes. Trust us, your visitors will thank you for it.
7. Social, Email, and Analytics Integration
Finally, it’s important to have the ability to integrate social media sharing and email sign up forms into your site. If you’re using a website builder like GATOR, it offers both of these features.
This will make it easier for your readers to spread the word about your site, and collect visitors contact information so you can stay in touch.
Also, look for a builder that allows for easy analytics integration and reporting. This useful data will help you build a better website in time.
Hopefully, you have a better picture of what practices are employed today to create a well crafted website. Now, put them to work for your website! Get started with the GATOR builder.
Kevin Wood writes about technology and human potential. You can find him at his virtual homes Wooden Writing and Counter Culturist.