If you search online for the basic requirements of a new website which you are setting up the general feedback is that you should have a ‘great looking website’ but what does that really look like? The answer in truth is far too vague which is why I wanted to do a quick post about what you should be aiming for when you are setting up a blog or a company website. The key is to think about the user at all times, this is not a website which you will be using very much, at least on the front end, it is for the user, and here is where you need to focus.

Navigation 

Some people like to focus on the aesthetics of a website, but we’ll get to that in a minute, first we need to talk about navigation. Unless you are aiming for a simple one-page blog, you need to encourage the user to move around your site and in order to do that they need to be able to work out how, with ease. Take my favorite gambling site for example, www.novibet.co.uk, these guys clearly got the memo about user interaction on the site and whether you wish to bet on football, basketball or baseball, you can clearly see where those options are. Fancy using the casino? Well that is clear as day too, this is a perfect example of how to fill your site with options and maintain the ease of navigation for the user. 

Make it Pretty 

The aesthetics that I mentioned before are very important and once you have cracked the navigation side of things it is time to work on colors. I would do some research here to find out which colors work best with which type of business. For example green is often a great color for financial sites, red with gambling, yellow and pink for fashion etc. These colors provide a reaction in the brain of the user so this is an important area to look at. 

Speed

In this day and age people have no time or patience to wait for anything so if your pages are loading up in more than 3 seconds you seriously run the risk of losing viewers. Check out your page load speed at all times and work on making it as slick as it can possibly be. 

Broken Links

Nothing screams amateur website like a broken link, this should be a weekly check that you perform to ensure that every link on the site goes where it is supposed to. 

High Quality Content 

Always ensure that you lay heavy focus on the quality of the images, the videos and the written content of your site. You must provide value to the user, you must encourage them to both stay on your site and come back in the future, and you can do that by delivering high quality content to them which will make them laugh, inform them, teach them or question them. 

These are the keys to what makes a great website, and what you should be working on.