10 Things Successful Websites Have In Common

Introduction

Why create a website for your business? What will its main purpose be? I suppose it will be to help you get new leads or new clients and to help you grow your business. That’s what a successful website should do. If you don’t yet have a website for your business, check out this list, we have created, with 10 reasons why having a modern website is a must nowadays.

So, is your website helping your business grow? Or is your website just an online brochure? If it doesn’t, don’t worry, there are things you can do. You can make some changes to your site here and there or, why not, do a full website redesign.

And what changes should I make? – you will ask. Before starting to modify your current website, or before talking to your web designer to arrange a website re-design, let’s see what things successful websites have in common. We have studied the subject and came up with 10 things you may consider incorporating into your website design, to make it work for your business.

1. Successful websites inspire trust

Have you ever went on a company website, looking for a service, and decided to look somewhere else because you did not trust that particular site? You sure did. A study made by researchers at Stanford showed that 75% of users make judgments about a company’s credibility based on their website’s design. This should not be shocking, as we all do this. Add to this the fact that 85% of B2B customers search the web before making any decisions to buy and you can easily understand how important your business website is.

Even if we don’t like to admit it, first impressions matter a lot. And when it comes to business credibility, first impressions are 94% design-related. This means that the way your website looks and the ease of navigation is very important. You can increase the credibility by adding testimonials from previous customers, but if it’s embedded in poor design, it will not do much.

2. Great websites are built with a strategy in mind

Before building the website, some things need to be taken into consideration. Things like the target persona, branding, the flow of the information, and the funnels through which you will get new clients, content is written based on keyword research, sitemap, navigation, website features (like contact forms for example), and more.

If you want a successful website for your business, having all these things figured out from the start will be very helpful. It will help in reducing the required time for the website building phase and your website designer will love you. Without a strategy in mind, you will not be able to measure if the website adds value to the business or not.

3. Exceptional websites put customers in the first place

Have you ever landed on a website and struggled to figure out what services the company offered? Or were you confused about what you were supposed to do next? I know I did. That’s because the website was not made with the customer in mind. When you visit a website, you should understand immediately what the business is all about.

Sometimes, when we build websites for small businesses, the feedback from the client may come in the form of “I like this image better” or “better use this color”. We then explain that we have chosen the images, fonts, and colors with the customer in mind and the website should be all about the customer. Most of the time, they understand and decide to go with our choices or we switch to similar options.

I see a lot of websites that put the business in the first place, they brag about this and that, they add all kinds of fancy words and put the wrong images on the hero area. The customers want to know how you can solve their problems. They don’t care about your mission statement and most don’t care to see the team.

4. Great web designs are optimized for conversion

Remember what I was saying about strategy? When building your business website, you should know what is the main call to action. What do you want people to do after they land on your site? Submit a form? Call a number? Buy something? This should be very clear and the flow of the information should lead to this call to action. Having multiple options available can confuse the customer and can even lead to analysis paralysis (the client will have too many options so he will decide to do nothing). If you have longer pages, with multiple sections, make sure you add a call to action here and there.

Let’s talk a bit about pop-ups. They can help, if you want to build an e-mail list, or if you want to offer some discount, but they need to be used correctly. If you bombard users with pop-ups as soon as they land on your page, you will probably drive them away. I am annoyed when I visit a site and I get a ton of pop-ups and I don’t even know which one to close first, especially on mobile. That is a bad user experience. You can add one just before the user wants to close the page, to remind him/her about your special offer.

5. Successful business websites follow the brand identity

This one is especially important if you run ads on Facebook, Google, or other platforms. If you present your brand one way in the ad and completely different on your website, people might get confused and think it is a scam or that they are in the wrong place. What do you think they will do? More than likely they will leave your site immediately.

It is important to be consistent on all platforms: website, social media, Google My Business, and even on print. If your brand has a style guide created, it should be used when creating the website and advertising campaigns.

6. Thriving businesses have easy to navigate websites

A user might land on your website after searching and he/she has an intent in mind. There are four types of search intent:

• informational intent – when someone is searching to find some specific information, like, for example, how to remove whine stains from the couch;
• navigational intent – when someone wants to visit a specific page and they search the domain name (for example amazon: people might type amazon into google, instead of typing the entire URL);
• transactional intent- when someone is searching online, to find the best option for their purchase (for example, searching for the best smartphone in a given budget);
• commercial investigation – this is similar to the transactional intent, but in this case, people need more information before deciding on purchasing something and they are in the research stage.

Now you may ask yourself why do you need to know all this stuff. Well, your website pages must align with the search intent of your future customers. If someone is looking for information, before deciding on a purchase, creating only product pages will not be so helpful and people might leave your website very fast. On the other hand, if people want to see what products you have to offer, having long, informational pages might bore them and the effect will be again negative.

7. Successful websites use great images

You know that saying – “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Even if it sounds like a cliche, it has some truth to it. It is much easier for people to memorize visual information. Here are some interesting stats: 37% of the population are visual learners and 90% of the perceived information, that is transmitted to our brain, is, you guessed it, visual.

This is why images should be an important part of your website design. And I don’t mean any type of image. You should use only those images that support the content on your website. For example, the faces of other humans draw our attention and we even follow their line of sight. It is a good strategy to use images with people with whom your clients can identify.

Take your time when choosing the images, especially the ones to be used in the hero area. Avoid cliches, like handshakes, skyscraper buildings (unless you are a construction company), or forced smiles. In general, avoid images that can be easily tagged as stock.

Graphics and icons should also be included, but only if they are in line with the overall design of the site. Stock sites offer a great variety of graphics and icons that can be easily adapted to fit your brand.

8. Awesome websites offer all the necessary information

These days we have plenty of options in terms of products and services. What does this mean? It means that if a potential client is looking for some specific information and your website is not offering it, he/she is very likely to start looking somewhere else. It may vary from business to business, but these are some types of information people usually want to find:

• Address (if your business has a physical location);
• Working hours;
• Pricing;
• Contact information;
• Portfolio.

9. Great websites are responsive, secured, and optimized for speed

At this point, I think it is obvious that any website should be responsive, and by responsive I mean that your website should look good on any device. Think of how many people use a smartphone to search for information or to buy things and services. There is a wide variety of devices that could be used to access the web and it is important to have a responsive website for your business.

It is also important for the site to be secure, especially for websites where people fill in sensitive information. Would you buy from an online store, knowing that all your information may get into the wrong hands? This is why a successful website is secure.

Last, but not least, the website should load quickly. How quickly? My opinion is that it depends. There are a lot of people out there pushing out numbers like 1s or 2s max, but I think they are focusing on the wrong thing. Sure, if you don’t have a lot of information on your website and you can afford a top hosting package then you can obtain very fast loading times. But, if you have a lot of high-quality images or a store with many products, I think focusing on a specific number is not a good approach. I think it all comes down to user experience. If the user does not feel like he/she is waiting a long time to see your information/service/products and the website navigation is smooth, then you may have a successful website.

10. Valuable websites offer a great user experience

Did you ever search for a recipe online, using your phone? If you did, chances are you ended up on a recipe blog, filled with ads, pop-ups, and other annoying things. If you didn’t, you were lucky. Every time I end up on such a blog I notice how bad of a user experience that website offers. And it’s not only the case with recipe blogs.

A bad user experience may also be caused by a messy website, where you are bombarded with a lot of information and different calls to action. Or by a contact form that is hard to fill and that does not offer information on how to do it.

There may be a lot of other things causing a bad user experience and the main idea is that, if you want to have a successful website, you should put the customer first. It should be very clear what you offer, what the customer should do next, and don’t annoy him/her with all kinds of pop-ups and ads.