There are currently over 1.5 billion websites on the internet, and although a majority of these are inactive, there are still many reasons to make sure your website is successful (and stands out from the bunch). For small businesses and tradesmen (in this case electricians), jobs are made through phone calls and referrals and there isn’t necessarily a need for an office. However, to be an established business, owning a website will benefit your business and has become even more important due to the increase in technology, and just as there are elements to having a successful business, there are also elements to a successful website.

One of the key elements to a website’s success is the design. There are many areas that are crucial for a successful website;

• Design
• Navigation
• Responsiveness
• Content

This article looks at the key elements needed to have a ‘good’ website and how these play a part in a website’s success.

Design

Your website reflects your business, which is why the site design is just as important as functionality. When designing, there are a variety of elements to consider:

• Visual Hierarchy
• Imagery
• Colour
• Typography

With all of these areas considered your design should be uncluttered, functional and easy to navigate which will all play a large part in the website’s success. Using simplicity is a great way to guarantee that customers using your site won’t become overwhelmed or distracted by unnecessary information. Utilise clear calls to action (CTA’s) to help your audience navigate through your site, and use the design to build brand awareness and reflect your business goals.

As is demonstrated in this website section below, there is a clear hierarchy of content, any questions customers might have are answered and they are given the opportunity to take action. Furthermore, should customers be scanning your site quickly the image gives a quick and clear prompt into what this section might be about.

High quality images on an ecommerce website can effectively demonstrate what a section is about and showcase your business.

Ultimately, design plays one of the most important roles when considering what makes a website good or bad. Click here to see some good examples of website design.

Navigation

Navigation is another important part of your website.

So what is it? Simply put, navigation is how your users will get around your website, so making the design for this as clear and concise as you can will play a larger part in whether a website is considered good or bad.

There are many benefits to having good navigation:

• Positive user experiences
• Increase in sales

All of your business information will be available through the click of a button (rather than having to search for it). With now easy navigation your customers will be able to get around your site easier, which can in turn lead to an increase in sales and positive user experiences.

Furthermore, good navigation will help search engines better understand the hierarchy of your content and indexing your site, as it will be easier for ‘crawling’, where information from pages and metadata will be gathered to rank your site.

Here is an example of successful navigation.

1. Here are the links to the website’s internal pages, which are easily accessible through a simple menu.
2. A call to action button to encourage customers to book an appointment – this prompts customers to book an appointment without the hassle of having to search through the website (which is unlikely to happen)
3. A simple ‘Find out More’ button that takes customers to a page with all of the information they need. Once again, customers don’t have to search for information as there is a button that actively takes them to it.

Responsive Design

Responsive design is the way your website will change depending on screen size, so for example, it will alter how your site changes appearance on a phone, tablet or desktop.

A bad example of this would be if you were scrolling through a website on your mobile and all of the information was scattered around, or words were too large or too small for the screen. Technology is advancing and responsive website design is becoming more and more crucial.

A study found that in 2020 68.1% of website visits came from mobile devices. And so, with the vast majority of traffic coming from mobile, having a responsive website means you are opening your business to more opportunities, creating a positive user experience for your customers over different platforms and improving your SEO ranking.

Content

Content is crucial for gaining and keeping customers, search engine ranking and more. Whereas the design of a website is significant in first impressions, your website content is what will keep your customers coming back for more. For example, what are your USPs? (unique selling points) are they enticing enough to draw in and retain customers?

Some USPs you may see on other websites include:

• Award winning
• Local
• Free Shipping

When writing the content for your website it is important that you know your audience. This will help you to know what sort of content you should post and how the tone of your content should sound. A few ways to do this is to look around at your competitors – what are they posting and who is replying?

It is important to note that just like design, with content less can be more; especially when you consider that your site visitors will be very unlikely to read all of your content. Your content should be original, engaging and define your goals without being overbearing to the point where customers will simply skip through it. From this, it is also important to ensure your words create meaning and therefore result in action. Instead of ‘Telford based Electrician’ you could write ‘Award winning Electrician in Telford with over 10 years of experience’. This shows your achievements, location, and presenting your experience creates trust, which could work towards gaining a new customer.

Having good content will tie hand in hand with your navigation, therefore benefiting towards your search engine ranking and usability. Ultimately, a website with good content will increase traffic and work towards customers returning to your site.

The example presented below demonstrates a good content hierarchy. The title summarises what this section does for a client and encourages them to fill out the form, important links are highlighted to encourage action, and including a testimonial from a customer is a great way to build trust and attract potential clients.

Thoughts

Overall, with such a large competition there are a range of things you can do to have a successful website. Of course, when designing your website the areas above will all end up overlapping. For example, an alteration to design could change where your CTA (call to actions) are placed affecting the navigation, or a change in content could boost your SEO. Overall, so long as the points mentioned above are implemented you will be one step closer to having a successful website.