What Makes A Good Website: 10 Must-Have Features

When you’re getting your business up and running online, it can be challenging to figure out what makes a good website. Now, more than ever, it’s essential to have a website that showcases everything your business is about, even if you have a brick-and-mortar store. Since I began freelancing, I’ve created numerous websites, but the … Read more

The post What Makes A Good Website: 10 Must-Have Features appeared first on Goats On The Road.

When you’re getting your business up and running online, it can be challenging to figure out what makes a good website. Now, more than ever, it’s essential to have a website that showcases everything your business is about, even if you have a brick-and-mortar store.

Since I began freelancing, I’ve created numerous websites, but the most important one is the one that showcases my services. Without it, I would not have received as many clients as I have.

I owe a lot of my business success to implementing the features of a good website listed in this article. This post covers everything you’ll want to know about elevating your website to the next level.

What Makes a Good Website?

These are the main things to consider when creating a website.

Don’t forget, having a website is an essential part of your brand’s ecosystem. This gives you klout and proves you’re a real business. If you feel overwhelmed by the whole idea, we can build your website for you, simply contact us. Or, when you start a website using this link, you receive our free website in a weekend course which shows you step by step how to get your website up and running.

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

How do you make a good website? Well, you make sure that it has SEO implemented, or else it’s never going to get any traffic from any search engine, especially Google. In order to have your content seen, you’ll need SEO.

SEO can take time to build up, so make sure that you start implementing it when you start your website for good measure. If you don’t know a whole lot about it, I suggest investing in an SEO course or using free resources that you can find online.

2. Design

Without a strong design, you aren’t going to have an appealing website. Design is what sets your website apart from others so that it doesn’t look so cookie-cutter.

Truth be told, the design does not have to be as in-depth as you might initially think. It can be as simple as using a free template and changing out the colours to make sure that it doesn’t match other websites that use the same template.

3. Calls to Action

To know what makes a good website, you have to learn what a CTA, or call to action, is. Essentially, this is any time on your site that you prompt your visitor to do something.

For example, “download now” is a simple CTA commonly used when talking about freebies on a website.

The best way to make these recognizable is to have them be designed the same way every time there’s a CTA. So, maybe every CTA has a green background so that your visitor knows where they’re prompted to do something.

4. User Experience

At its core, your website was created to help, educate, or inspire a visitor. So, you want to make sure that users can quickly get around your website without much hassle. 

Think about what would make the most sense as someone visiting your site. What do you want them to see first? Would they be more likely to look for your social media links at the top of your site or in the footer? 

User experience will be different for every industry.

5. Links

Links are essential when it comes to having a strong website. Not only is it good for SEO, but it makes your user experience a lot better too.

When I say links, I don’t only mean links to other websites but also other pages or posts within your own site. Interlinking your content is key for navigation, and having readers see more of your content.

If you mention a freebie or a downloadable that you offer, be sure to link to it. 

6. Easy to Read

When you write your website copy, you want to think about how easy it is to read. Keep in mind that legibility and readability are two different things; legibility is discussed later in the ‘what makes a good website design’ section of this article.

Readability refers to how easy your writing is to read by someone else. You don’t want to oversimplify your copy, but you do want to make sure that anyone who visits your website will be able to read and understand, what you have to say.

7. Simplicity

When it comes to a website, simplicity goes a long way. Never go overboard. Don’t have a million pages with a ton of colours that don’t go together at all.

At the end of the day, you want a minimal website that gets the point across without being too flashy (learn more about design below).

8. Security

Without security, people aren’t going to feel safe doing anything on your website. This includes making purchases or even just visiting your most recent blog post.

It may sound simple, but make sure that you have an up to date SSL certificate. When someone visits your site, they should see a locked padlock in the top left corner by the URL if they are on Google Chrome.

9. Consistently Fresh Content

Consistently creating fresh content is what makes a great website.

You want to make sure that you are always updating your site and adding new posts when necessary. This doesn’t mean you have to do it every day, but you should be posting something new at least once a week.

By consistently posting, you help your SEO rankings and show visitors that your site is still active and frequently used.

10. Mobile Optimisation

What else do you need to make a good website? You need to make sure that your website is responsive on all screen sizes, including mobile, tablet, laptop, and desktop.

If your site is not responsive, you miss out on reaching a lot of potential website visitors. If someone is on their ph