8 Proven Tips On How To Build an Effective Website

A brand or business without an optimal website is like sailor without a ship in the sea. - Miles Udemezue

Key Sections:

1. Make The Content Rich
2. Have a Compelling Design
3. Use of Adaptive Tech
4. Use of Visuals
5. Audience and Niche
6. SEO Optimised
7. Responsive
8. Audits & Analytics

1. Content Rich:

Without a second thought, this reaches the top of our list. Over everything else, what is perceived on your website must be valuable. The top 2 most visited websites are Google and Youtube. This is because they are both sources of valuable information, with 85.1 billion visitors and over 33 million visitors respectively. A simple way to implement valuable and rich content into your site is by making blog content. Websites with blogs generate 55% more traffic. Depending on the type of website you have, you can further diversify your content to make it stand out from your competitors.

2. Have a Compelling Design:

The design of the website will largely contribute to if it is a memorable experience. Have you ever seen a majestic piece of art and remembered it for some time after? A good website will have the same effect.

The design begins with the Hero section, it is the section that visitors initially see, making it the most important part of any website. Here you need to have a bold, concise and clear title. People often make the blunder of trying to be too clever with their titles, instead you should be trying to appeal to a plethora of people. For instance, a property management business could say, “We know what it means to move.” This instantly relates to a pain point of any visitors on their site.

There should be a very obvious call to action visible and located close to the title.

If you use photos in the hero section, ensure that the photos are not stock and the individuals in the photos are forward facing with a welcoming look.

Studies have shown that websites laid out with a left hand side priority will perform better eg, key information is on the first half of the screen. Users spend 80% more time on the left hand side of websites.

3. Implement Adaptive Technology:

The use of Artificial Intelligence in websites can be very versatile. A few potential use cases are the following: improving search algorithms to enhance the way information is shared to users; customer service chat-bots; predictive analysis of the end-user and optimisation; real time analytics of user interaction & finally increased engagement and user satisfaction.

In 2024 and onwards you can expect to see some major changes in each area - you should select one that will be beneficial to you and reach out to a specialist who can implement it.

4. Use of Visuals:

The use of high quality visuals enhance the aesthetics of a website. These visuals can consist of Images, Videos and even 3D Graphics. As mentioned earlier, stock photos should be avoided as they perform the worst. If you have an especially important point that you wish to convey, the use of visuals will be perfect. The human brain processes visual information 60,000x faster than written information.

5. Know your Audience:

With anything, niching down and tailoring your website specifically for your audience will drastically improve your authority when compared with a generalised website. Everybody loves a specialist, we see it time and time again in life.

For instance,

• a Blog Website
• a Sports Blog Website
• a Football Blog Website
• a Manchester United Blog Website

Now imagine and compare how a generic blog website would look in comparison to a Manchester United Blog website. Very different? Correct.

Studies show that 72% of content creators on websites attribute their success solely to their niche.

6. Optimise for SEO:

Search Engine Optimisation is crucial to every website to ensure they rank on search engines such as Google and reach a wider audience. The keys to SEO are as follows:

• Having a content strategy for your website, this will allow you to remain consistent and build momentum.
• Clever linking - linking to pages within your website and other webpages
• Showing off your expertise in detail - let the world know that you know what you are talking about
• Having the website excellently formatted - well organised websites are favoured in the eyes of search engines
• Focusing on long tail key word phrases that are low competition for your niche - if you can find these and dominate them then you can begin to see a lot of volume
• Making use of Backlinks are also an overlooked metric - they are links from one web page to your web page. The top pages in google have 3.8x more backlinks.

7. Responsive Site:

63% of all web traffic is through a mobile device.Your mobile website is even more important than your desktop website. Depending on your niche and audience, this figure will either be larger or smaller. The navigation should be friendly and easy on all devices to allow for a good user experience on your website.

8. Audits & Analytics:

A good website isn’t made overnight, they are projects of continuous improvement. You should have analytics & audits running on your site to measure metrics such as speed, click rates & to identify unimportant areas of your website. The audits should also test the integrity of the security of your website in the following areas: SSL certificates to encrypt data transmission, implementing strong authentication methods, and regularly updating and patching any security vulnerabilities.

For a deeper take into each of these sections, you can consider professional help.