What Makes A Good Website?

I can’t tell you how often I get asked, what makes a good website?

Now what constitutes “good” is very subjective, we all have different tastes. But I think we can all agree that certain principals need to be followed when setting up a website to make sure you’re not putting your good time to waste.

After all who would want to visit a site like this

Yes this is a homepage of a real site.  I swear, even in my wildest dreams I couldn’t have dreamed up this monstrosity…shessh!

So lets break it down so we can save the eyesight of future generations.

THE PLAN

I like to use the PLAN approach when setting up a website.
After all, we all need a plan….don’t we

PLAN is an acronym for Purpose, Look, Audience, Navigation.

Over the next few posts, we’ll take a a closer look at each of these components and how it relates to setting up a website.

So lets start the ball rolling today with Purpose.

Back in the day, most sites were single page advertising brochures for offline business. Today our websites are full blown content management systems capable of being a business in itself.

While your site as a whole may have a range of functions, its important to understand that when setting up a website you have a clearly defined purpose for the site as a whole and each page as it is created.

If you’re not clear, its unlikely your audience will be either.

Some of the main reasons for developing an online presence are as follows:

Customer Support
Relationship building by offering support to your client base via FAQ’s, support desk operation, email, Q&A’s, & follow-up.

Direct Sales
Solution fulfillment – people buy solutions, outlining benefits of your product, service or idea to your marketplace & create product recognition and sales.

Brand Building
Create certainty for your client base by developing recognition and position yourself within the market, creates trust and builds relationships.

Lead Generation
Create curiosity & interest, reinforce value proposition via superior offer, content, & participation.

Education/Information
Create loyalty by providing great content relevant to your market, be generous & deliver consistently.

Its highly likely that your website it going to encompass some if not all of these purposes. But whatever the purpose, how you present it to your audience is what makes a good website in their eyes…and they’re the ones that count, because you want them coming back.

If you’re only just starting out with setting up a website, then mapping out your site’s objectives is the best place to begin.

Maybe on the other hand, you’ve been online for a while and its time to revamp an old chestnut. Rather than tweaking colors and fonts, perhaps its time to take a deeper look at your website as a whole, and see if your purpose has been watered down just a tad too much for your audience to care.

Information should always be presented clearly, so that it’s a natural progression to move through the site and take action where required.

Too many options provide too many chances to click away, but that’s a subject for another day. Catch you in the next post where we cover the next phase of the PLAN…the look of your site.

So what makes a good website in the eyes of your customer?…leave me your thoughts and comments below. If you enjoyed this post, then be sure to share it around the interwebs

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