If you are planning on building a successful website or wondering why your current website is not effective, our list below will help you. These are a few things which we think that all websites should have.
1. Unique, well-written, and fresh content. Useful content gives visitors an incentive to return and refer others.
2. Simple and obvious website navigation. Make sure your visitors are not getting lost.
3. A great domain name. A simple and easy-to-remember domain name will help you to build your brand and retain loyal visitors.
4. Pleasant and simple cross-browser-compatible design. It is important to make sure that your website is accessible for all users regardless of the browser or monitor that is used to view it.
5. High quality images. Poor quality images will make your website appear amateur.
6. Fast-loading pages. In the first few seconds of visiting your website, a visitor decides to stay or go. It is important that you site loads quickly enough for them to view your website and make the decision for themselves.
7. Unique titles, headlines, and meta descriptions for each page. Titles, descriptions, and headlines are important to search engine optimization.
8. Contact information or a contact form. It is a great idea to display contact information because it inspires trust. As an alternative, you can also provide a contact form which is a great way to capture leads, get feedback, or provide visitors with an easy way to contact you.
9. Custom error pages. Without fail, visitors will visit pages that do not exist. Perhaps an external website linked to a wrong page. Or maybe they mistakenly entered a url in their browser. By creating custom error pages, you can provide your users with a seamless user experience and provide them quick access to whatever they are looking for.
10. Integrated statistics package. Statistics are important because they enable you to determine how well your website is accomplishing its goals.
Some other things that you might consider adding to your website include a favorites icon, a copyright notice, and a sitemap.
by Velvetblues