Getting a good website made: 8 components

Introduction

A good website is more than your company's online business card. Millions of people search search search engines every day, and as a business owner, you want them to find your website too. Tasmanic deals with making businesses findable online and there is no better time to start this than when creating the website. In this article we will explain how to make a good website.

A professional business website

Your company's website is often the first thing potential customers see of your company. And you don't have a second chance for a good first impression. Therefore, when getting a website created, it is advisable to prepare a few things thoroughly.

The 8 components of a good website

When creating or having a website created, there are 8 components to consider. These 8 components, in addition to ensuring that you have a website that works well, also help create a website that focuses on quality. Google (2019) has been stating since 2019 that you should always focus on the quality of your site and content. Algorithm updates from Google cause rankings to shift, mainly because other sites are a better match for searches and not because the website looks prettier. Therefore, also regularly check if your content answers people's search intent, we live in a constantly changing market where new opportunities arise every day. For this, as a company you should also regularly evaluate your SEO strategy.

1: Purpose of your website

To what business goals can the Web site contribute? When this is clear, many decisions that follow actually become quite logical. A website can be relevant on roughly 3 levels:

1. The website is an online business card that shows potential cooperation partners that we are a reliable company.
2. The website is an important marketing channel through which we bring in a significant portion of our new customers.
3. The website is our product. Think of platforms like Airbnb, Marketplace, comparison sites like Independer, etc.

As a business, it doesn't have to be that you only have one of three goals. A website is a powerful tool, use it wisely to meet your business goals.

2: Website matches search intent of searchers

As a business, it is important to know your target audience. Know what you can offer people so you can give them a reason to come to your website and do business with you. To do this, you need to know everything about your target audience: there's a difference between what they're clamoring for and what they actually need. Make sure your product/content is not a possible solution, but really adds value to the customer. In other words, make sure your website is built to answer your target audience's search intent. To do this, you can map out the user journey. By this we mean all the activities that users go through until they make a purchase. Make sure the user comes across your website more often in this journey by creating content that connects to the journey.

3: User-centric content

Good content helps not the company, but the users to achieve its goal. As a company, you want to offer the right content at the right time to the searchers. As we mentioned above, your content should match the search intent of the searchers. By helping searchers achieve her goals, they will thank you and come back more often.

4: Technical in order

Google uses crawlers to index your website. Make sure your website is easy to index, and that it is clear what should and should not be indexed (by robot.txt file). It is also important that there are (almost) no errors on your website such as a link to a 404 page or a button that is not clickable. Also make sure your website is fast, each page should load as quickly as possible.

5: Safe and reliable

Both search engines and users are looking for signs of reliability on a Web site. Why should they see your Web site as safe and reliable? Use up-to-date software, get an SSL certificate and protect your website from hackers with tools such as Cloudflare and two-step authentication.

6: Good design and user experience (UX)

We mentioned earlier that a beautiful website is not a good website, but we do believe that good design can contribute to the goals you have for your website. Your website should be clear and easy for everyone to use. As Krug (2014) would say "Don't make me think," don't make the user think. A good website ensures that the visitor quickly understands how your website works, and where to go to answer question. Besides making your website look good, it should also be a pleasant experience, something the visitor will remember.

7: Mobile first

When creating your website, it is very important for your online findability to think mobile first. Google (2020) indicated that as of September 2020, they will index about 70% of websites from the mobile version of the website. To do so, they use a "smartphone Googlebot. Therefore, make sure that your website is suitable for mobile, and that the mobile friendliness is in order. For this, you can use Google's mobile-friendly test.

8: Structured data in Schema format

With structured data, you can better describe your Web site for search engines. For this, you can use Schema.org. Schema can be thought of as a translator for search engines. It describes the elements on a page so the search engine understands that, for example, a review is a review.

As you can see, creating or having a website created goes beyond simply buying a domain, assigning a host and choosing nice colors. Creating a website takes time and effort, but it also requires the right expertise. That's why it's wise to get an SEO specialist in early, so your time and effort (and money) isn't wasted on a website that no one can find.

Resources

Google. (2019). What site owners should know about Google's August 2019 core update. https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/08/core-updates

Google. (2020). Announcing mobile first indexing for the whole web. https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2020/03/announcing-mobile-first-indexing-for

Krug, S. (2014). Don't Make Me Think, Revisited. A Common Sense Approach to Web and Mobile Usability.