10 tips for creating a successful website
Whether you are a simple blogger, a small business owner or part of a large company, you just need to follow some fundamental tips to create a successful website .
Many people in the world find themselves having to create a website every day , it is no coincidence that there are currently around 2 billion in existence . These are many websites which, in most cases, for various reasons are not suitable for achieving the objective desired by their owners by converting simple users into paying customers.
10 tips for creating a successful website
To succeed in converting, however, improvising is not enough. Each page of the website requires careful planning and a specific implementation strategy . By following these 10 tips you can create your own successful website and sell online.
1. DEFINE OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS
Before launching your web project on the market, you will need to take into account the objectives you have decided to achieve with your site. Ask yourself what the ultimate purpose of this choice of yours is and use it as a point of reference for any updates or changes to your platform. Do you want to sell the products from your physical store in an online store Always remember that your goal is sales and not getting views.
Faced with the enormous numbers of the web that we mentioned earlier, trying to direct the contents published on your site towards the entire population of surfers would also be highly counterproductive in economic terms. As well as the objectives, it is also important to define the target audience of your communication activity. A piece of content might be suitable for a specific audience but totally inappropriate for another. Do you have a business that sells lipsticks online Adapt your company website to a dialogue with the female population, who is more inclined to this type of purchase.
2. CHOOSE AN EFFECTIVE DOMAIN
The decision to create a website brings with it the need to choose a domain that best represents your project . Both the domain name, i.e. the central part of the URL (e.g. www. netsons .com), and the domain extension, i.e. the final part of the URL (e.g. www.netsons .com ), must reflect the the essence of your website .
The domain name does not necessarily have to contain the name of your company, but could also refer to the products or services provided. To register a winning domain name , it is important that it is easy to write and memorize , as well as unpublished and not covered by copyright.
The domain extension, or top-level domain, could also be chosen to reflect the company and its goals. For example, an swiss tailoring e-commerce site could choose to register a .ch extension and not a .com to highlight Made in Swiss as a characterizing element of the quality of its products.
3. SELECT A GOOD HOSTING SERVICE
A good domain name must be accompanied by the best possible hosting service . Hosting is the space within which your website is hosted and must be able to guarantee you an almost perfect service in terms of performance and security .
The ideal hosting service must provide you with the resources you really need ( CPU , RAM , SSD web space, database, e-mail, IO , Inode etc.), based on the type of business you carry out. An e-commerce of objects with 5 thousand products in the catalog will need more space than a showcase site for a dental practice.
The presence of tools that increase the loading speed of your website ( CDN , caching system, code minification system, etc.) is fundamental. The slowness of the site is one of the most serious situations from which to escape with high legs. A platform that takes a long time to load negatively influences both the users’ browsing experience and the positioning of the site itself on search engines.
Finally, security is one of the most relevant elements in choosing the right hosting service. Always check the presence of tools such as DDoS protection or a Web Application Firewall (WAF), to promptly stop all attacks that aim to exploit vulnerabilities.
4. LET UX AND UI GUIDE YOU
Sometimes, even the fastest site in the world proves useless in achieving the set objectives. This is the case of web platforms that do not have a solid graphic and operational structure aimed at improving the user experience . One of the main tips for a successful website is therefore to pay close attention to colours , images and texts , building the browsing experience by trying to satisfy the tastes of the previously identified target.
A very relevant element is that of responsiveness, i.e. the adaptability of the website content to the device used to visit it. In recent years there has been an increasingly strong presence of navigation via smartphone, so much so that today more than half of the world’s web traffic comes from mobile. Don’t forget, therefore, to create a responsive website you will notice the results both in terms of session duration and in terms of SEO.
5. CHECK THAT YOUR WEBSITE IS COMPLIANT WITH THE LAW
Owning a website entails, in addition to the burdens relating to the creation and maintenance of the platform, also legal obligations .
The transmission of data is increasingly frequent on the internet , which generates rights and duties inherent to the protection of the processing of personal data . Specifically, data controllers of a website must comply with the now famous GDPR ( General Data Protection Regulation ) legislation. This is the European Union Regulation n.6792016 which, integrated into the so-called Privacy Code ( Legislative Decree n. 1962003 ), regulates the processing of personal data and privacy .
It is therefore essential to create a website that is perfectly compliant with the law , to avoid incurring harsh sanctions from the Privacy Guarantor , following current legislation also in light of the Cookie Guidelines recently published by him.
6. UPDATE THE WEBSITE WITH VALUABLE AND SEO ORIENTED CONTENT
We will never stop repeating it, creating updated and useful content for users is one of the most important tips for having a successful website . It is essential to publish unpublished content that has real value for readers , that helps them get more information or solve a problem they have on Google.
The contents you publish on your website, as well as those you publish on a company blog or personal blog , must be SEO oriented , that is, be designed to position your site as high as possible among search engines. Doing SEO with content marketing and SEO copywriting is the best strategy to wink at Google .
7. MAINTAIN YOUR BRAND CONSISTENCY
The website is the business card of your company and should be used as such. Use it to best present your brand while maintaining the logo, colours, graphic style and tone of voice that characterize your company.
All the elements of your website must be absolutely consistent with your brand , to allow users and potential customers to get to know you and recognize you much more easily. Everything on your platform must be easily traceable to your company.
8. ALWAYS PLAN AHEAD
Having a professional website does not just mean publishing content every now and then, but creating a real communication strategy to be structured in advance and respected on a daily basis .
Designing, creating and publishing content for last minute programming updates will only increase the working time necessary to achieve the set objectives. Planning publications in advance by drawing up an editorial plan and software updates through projects will help speed up times and improve organization within company teams.
9. SPREAD THE CONTENTS OF YOUR WEBSITE
The technologies that exist today are no longer those of the early years of the web, today we have many useful tools for spreading your brand . Starting from the website as the main platform on which to insert information relating to the activity covered by the site, the numerous existing social networks can be used to convey this content .
Within your communication strategy for social media, include the scheduling of posts re-sharing articles and web pages with the right calls to action . You could simply opt for an organic reshare, or rely on sponsored campaigns that increase the reach of your posts.
10. TEST AND ANALYZE YOUR WEBSITE RESULTS
Remember that all changes or updates regarding your website can be evaluated and, if necessary, corrected.
The era of improvisation is over, giving way to the era of testing. Achieving corporate objectives on the web requires careful planning first and then careful analysis . Each change must be made following a precise study and must be evaluated following its implementation . The right tests can really make the difference between a failing project and one destined to take off.
Conclusion
In summary, to create a flawless website you will need to define the objectives and targets of your entire project. These will guide you towards choosing the ideal hosting and domain for creating a structure oriented towards the best possible usability for users.
Check that your website complies with the law and fill it with useful, SEO-oriented content that is consistent with your brand, which you will convey through your social pages.
By carrying out careful studies, remember to plan each update or change in advance, which you will always have to test and analyze once completed.
After reading these 10 important tips, you too are finally ready to create your own successful website.