No aspect of marketing is more critical than an outstanding website. It’s the face of your business, and the front door through which you welcome new visitors. A “good” site isn’t good enough to break through and convert users into avid fans. What you really need is an exceptional site.

This begs the question: What makes a website outstanding? For us, there are five things that make all the difference.

1. Easy to Use

We’ve all been to a website that’s just plain hard to use. There are too many clicks, or you have to click through a maze of links, or you have to register to get access to key information. The one thing that always makes us leave a website immediately is when we have to try to find a contact phone number for a company. It’s either not there or extremely hard to find – like buried in the 5th or 6th page of a contact form or buried in the website’s “About Us” section. That is a killer mistake.

The best solution to this problem is to keep it simple. If you can fit all your most important information on one page, then do it! Make the contact information easy to find and your pages easy to navigate through.

2. Engaging Content

Content is king, as they say. But that doesn’t mean you should fill your website with content just for the sake of having content. In fact, the content of your website should be laser-targeted to your target audience. Why should they care about your content, after all? You should build your site around your content, or around the information that’s most valuable to your prospects.

Don’t just copy and paste a bunch of filler content and then call it a day. Think about what your target audience wants to read, and create content that they’ll actually enjoy reading.

3. Professional Design

Presentation is the name of the game, and the look and feel of your site should make a good first impression. It should enhance your brand and create an overall feel (form and function) that your visitors will remember.

We don’t expect you to have a super-pro designer on staff, but you do need someone who has good design sense and can produce a professional-looking site that doesn’t duplicate or clash with your brand and keeps the focus on your key messages.

4. Fast Loading

Nobody likes to wait for a website to load. In fact, most people will simply turn away and go somewhere else, even if they’re really interested in your company if it takes more than a few seconds to load a page.

We all know that speed is one of the most important elements of a great website. If your site loads quickly and runs efficiently, it shows that your company cared enough to put in the effort to make sure it’s on the cutting edge of technology. This also shows that you’re not just out to “cash in” with a quick profit but are looking to establish a strong and loyal customer base.

5. Make It Easy to Share

This is a biggie. Your site should be easy to share. More than 60% of people share content from third-party sites on Facebook and Twitter. No matter how good your website is, if it’s not easy for people to send it along to their friends, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, then you’re effectively limiting your reach and the effectiveness of your site.

Just think about how much easier your site will be to share if it’s got social media “share” buttons right on every page. The more times you can get your content shared and viewed, the more your business will benefit.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the most important components of a great website. With these five elements in place, you’re already on the right path to creating an outstanding website that your audience will appreciate. Of course, there are other elements that factor into a winning website, such as search engine optimization and social media integration, which are topics for another post, so stay tuned.

If your goal is to build a functional and well-designed website, then you’ve come to the right place. Honeycomb Creative is a Vancouver web design company specializing in building custom websites that drive results. What’s more, we develop effective strategies to maintain the security and functionality of your website, so you know you can depend on our team to keep the traffic flowing for your website. Contact us today to learn more about our services.

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