What Every Website Needs to Be Successful

This article was written by one of our amazing contributors! Content may include promotional links.

Regardless of whether you’re operating a business, solo entrepreneurial endeavor, or anything in between, your online presence is the most important component when it comes to captivating and retaining your target audience. Your website is now essentially your business card and the first point of contact your audience will most likely have with your business or brand, so you want it to leave a good impression.

There are a few key elements every website needs to have in order to be user-friendly, easily findable, and generally successful. If you already have a website, make sure to compare against this list to see how it holds up. If you don’t, consider using this list as a guide on where to start. 

1. Have a cohesive design

If you’re relatively tech-savvy or are diving into a WordPress or Wix website you can build yourself, there’s a lot to consider about the design that can become overwhelming. From choosing different color schemes to fonts and layouts, it’s easy to get lost in choice and start to try and incorporate everything. 

The key is to keep it simple and cohesive. Figure out what the proper aesthetic for your brand is and try to stick to it. Keep these design components in mind:

• Keep colors consistent throughout
• The Rule of 3: no more than 3 different fonts, 3 font sizes, or 3 colors
• Keep all your pages consistent so the site feels cohesive throughout
• Have a strong contrast between font and background color

2. Have a clear purpose

Your website needs a clear purpose so visitors don’t get confused and leave. The goal of your website should be apparent right away, whether it’s to sell clothes, push your blog content, or promote a service. You can do this with a short-but-sweet, easy-to-find “about” page that explains who you are and what your business is, and also by adding a byline or slogan under your website header. 

3. Be easily findable

If your audience can’t find you online, they may never even know your business exists. You want to appear in online searches when your target audience is looking for a solution that you offer, and in order to do that, you need good search engine optimization (SEO). Make sure to stay up-to-date on Google’s best practices so your website doesn’t get penalized and ranked lower on search results pages. If you need help with your SEO efforts, working with a team like GetRankedFirst.com can help alleviate the workload for you and ensure you get the results you want. 

4. Have good UX

Your user’s experience (UX) while on your website is critical to maintaining a low bounce rate. The easiest way to keep visitors on your website is by making it easy and logical to navigate. Having a clear path for information as well as a purchasing path is critical – the less work you make your visitors do to find or buy what they need, the better. If your website is confusing or hard to navigate, you can bet your visitors won’t stick around long. One tip is to include an always-visible search bar somewhere obvious on your site so your web visitors can always do a quick search if they can’t quickly find what they’re looking for. 

5. Be mobile-friendly

Most people view websites from a mobile phone or tablet these days when doing initial research on a brand or product, so to ignore your mobile users would be like leaving money on the table. Make sure your website has an adaptable design so it can be viewed properly on a smaller screen. Moreover, having a mobile-friendly design is a necessity when ranking on top search engines’ results pages, so if you don’t want to lose out to your competitors, you’ll consider your mobile experience as highly important.