A website is a foundational point in starting a business. It must be creative, vibrant, appealing, informative, and easy to navigate. A business website, in many cases, is a first impression to potential customers. It is a tell tale sign of what the business is about and how the business operates to fix the needs of its customers. Below are five aspects of a website that are essential to the success of a business.

Effective Planning

Yes, a website does need to be aesthetically pleasing, but its main goal is to be useful. Before deciding the websites server or its HTML tag, a business should map out how it would like the website to work. Google considers the content and structure of every website that is ranks for a search and if a business hopes to be the first link provided once a search is enabled, it must map out a design for the site (called “wireframing” by designers). Have an extra pair of eyes look over the site before it runs to make sure it makes sense and is intuitive.

Content

Josh Frankel, an online designer, said “The biggest failure that people have is that they try to build the website they want, not necessarily the website they need”. People are too concerned with visually pleasing potential customers and not focused on what matters, the about of the business. In a mission statement, keep text to a minimum, because a business doesn’t want to scare potential customers away before they even get to see what the business is all about. It should be written for people to skim through, time efficient and neat, because everyone has a relatively short attention span. Don’t underestimate brevity, because one or two sentences can be extremely powerful if worded correctly. Proper information is a websites most powerful tool. A business should tailor its site so that it offers the information users what they’re looking for.

Easy Navigation

A car is useless without its engine and a website is useless without clear navigation. A business must make sure to use easy to understand and coherent names for the various pages of a site: contact information, what the business is about, etc. Getting cute or attempting to be clever will scare users off. When designing an easy navigation strategy, a business must ask, “What is it that people want to do on our site?” Are they placing orders? Researching investment plans? Becoming a member? Wishing to get in contact with a customer? A business must ask all these questions to be prepared for the answers users will ask. To understand what a potential customer wants, a business must put itself in the shoes of a customer. Think about the goals of a potential customer and meet them, make your goals clear and out in the open.

Being a Good Host

As everyone knows by now, being a host is all about being welcoming, accommodating, and hospitable. Think of a businesses website as your home and pretend you're having a few friends over for dinner. You must ask for your company’s jacket, provide food and beverages, and make your home presents itself as a home for all. The same goes for a website because not having good hosting could cost a business in many ways. A slow site is frustrating and ineffective. A website that fails to load is obnoxious and will turn users away. If frustrating and obnoxious hosting is bad, poor hosting can also affect a businesses rank on search engines and submit a company to Google purgatory. So remember, guests always come back if a host takes good care of them.

A Responsive Website

Smartphones and tablets are replacing computers through easy accessibility. Numbers are going through the roof as mobile devices and tablets are becoming cheaper and more mainstream. Customers are browsing the web with intent and where better to reach them then in their pocket? They’re looking to buy something, look something up, or to go somewhere. If a customer looks up a business on their phone the chances of them pursuing that search are much higher than searching via a computer. As a business designs its online website, it should focus on responsive design to fit the smartphones screen, keep its message short and sweet, and make it easy to understand and navigate. Consumers are buying products more and more via smartphones and tablets so a responsive website is necessary for a businesses online success.