Your website is the direct representation of your company and your personality online. In this view, website creation and maintenance becomes a main tool of information if you want to have a professional, precise and knowledgeable impression online. The truth is that the success of your business online relies on the website design which could make or break it. The importance of having an online presence is highly recognized but the importance of having a good website design is still a rather subjective concept.
The following are some characteristics and component of a website with good functionality;
A good website should be easy to navigate.
A website that is easy to use is crucial because if the visitor finds it difficult to navigate from one page to another, he or she will get frustrated and leave the website. Attracting frustrated visitors to come back to visit the site is extremely difficult.
Have a clear indication of where the user is
The website’s visitor should always have a clear indication of which site page they are on and how they got there, thus making navigation easier.
URL should be easy to remember
One of the most common mistakes in website design is choosing a proper domain name. Your domain name should be easy to remember and easy to spell.
Website should be easy to find/look up/search for
Although, once upon a time, the ‘if you build it, they will come’ mantra worked for websites – it no longer does. Due to the fact that there are millions of websites on the Internet, it becomes important for you to ensure that your website ranks high in search engine results and is easy to find.
Website should work on multiple browsers
Gone are the days where the only Internet browser that everybody used was Netscape. Today, there are various Internet browsers that people prefer to use. Thus, it becomes imperative that your website be able to load on any browser – whether that you are using Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome.
Content should be updated often
The real factor that drives a website towards becoming successful is the content. If content is not updated often, visitors of the website have no reason to visit the site often. Updating content on a regular basis becomes difficult if one does not know HTML and has to rely on a webmaster, which may not always be available.
Layout consistency is Key
It is important for all your website pages to follow a certain layout in order to maintain a theme and uniformity. If the layout of your website pages is not consistent with one another, your website will look untidy and disorganized, thus not properly reflecting your club’s image online.
Eliminate Clutter
Another common mistake that many people make is placing as much content as they can, on one page. Often, many people place so much information together that the visitor has an information overload.
Layout consistency is key because it allows the website designer to then organize how the content will be laid out in the website. By choosing a certain layout template, you can then place certain widgets
With drop down menu features, you will never have to worry about overpowering your website visitor with too much information, as you’ll have the opportunity to lead them to the information they need.
Website should be quick to download
In today’s fast paced world, patience is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Website visitors want the website to load fast and want to be able to look at photos, articles, and watch videos immediately. When a website has too many large images within it, it will take longer to load. This leads to frustrated visitors who end up leaving your site.
We hope you will find this article helpful and implement these functionalities to give your visitors a better experience when visiting your website.
Source: Online Thinkers
