If you are thinking about having a new website built there are a few important factors that you and the team you work with should be taking into account. Obviously there is a great deal that goes into building a successful website, but here at F8 we think these 5 qualities are key.
1. A robust, goal oriented content strategy to convert your potential customers
The very first stage of building a website is to identify the goals it needs to achieve. This might be something as simple as the user of the site making contact, or it might be something more involved like making a booking, requesting a quote or even buying a product or signing up for a service. Once these goals are established, the content of the website should be crafted with care to constantly nudge or guide the end user in the direction of completing that goal.
This is often achieved through the use call to action buttons, navigational cues, positive content and emotive language.
The primary goal of the Aston’s Coaches website (above) is to encourage people to “get a quote”. In response to this goal we created a series of “get a quote” navigational buttons throughout the website. The primary call to action is fairly obvious at the top of the website. This button also sticks to the top of the page regardless of where you navigate (on desktop). Of course, often the user of the website will need convincing a little bit before they are willing to press the button to get a quote, so we help them along their way through the content with a series of read more and other call to action type buttons.
The content of the site has also been written to speak to the expected target audience. Take the Executive Coach Hire page as an example; on here we refer to “your clients or employees”. By using words like “your” we are helping the reader associate with the content, and obviously “clients or employees” as they are the likely guests for executive travel from a business point of view. We also talk about plug sockets for laptops etc, which are again relevant to the audience. Compare this to the Coach Hire for Schools page and focus is much more on safety, rather than quality. Whilst this might seem obvious looking at the Astons site, by comparison many websites make the mistake of not actually talking to their customers in a way that explains how the companies offer is specifically suited to them. By making sure all this is done, we ensure a much higher chance of converting the visitor into a prospective client.
2. Optimised for social media – let your followers spread the word for you
One of the best way to spread the word about your website is to get it out there on the social networks. It’s important to choose the most appropriate mix for your particular audience with a complementary strategy to get your website content under the noses of your potential customers. If your offering mainly business to business, then make sure to include LinkedIn as part of your strategy. If your website is built around great imagery then you might consider using Instagram to reach a larger audience.
Once you have your profiles established, you should regularly generate dynamic, engaging content on your site to gather likes, tweets, shares and most importantly customers.
Twitter is what WorcestershireHour is all about with the #WorcestershireHour hashtag forming a Twitter community every Monday night. We added Twitter feeds to the site in several ways to help to quickly explain the concept of WorcestershireHour and allow people to actually interact with the site rather than having to go to Twitter. Twitter cards are also integrated into the site to allow for rich tweets of news items from the website. Social media sharing icons are also available fro sharing directly from the site.
3. Built on the most appropriate platform, optimised specifically for your website
Everyone has a different problem to solve when it comes to their website. It is important to choose the appropriate platform for your website based on your individual needs.
For a lot of people, this platform will be WordPress, the most popular content management system in the world. What started off as a simple blogging system, has now reached a level of maturity where it is secure, competent and has literally hundreds of thousands of plugins to extend it’s functionality.
If your website requires a more tailored, customised solution, you might prefer a platform like Drupal or developing on a framework such as Symfony, or even coding the website from the ground up. Each platform and approach has it’s strengths and weaknesses so it’s important that you choose a developer that can help you make the right choice and is proficient and capable of building your website properly.
The Arboretum Residents Association needed a community based website with a notice board, survey functionality, various categories of news and other ways for members to engage and interact with one another. We were able to create all of these features using WordPress, several plugins, some custom development and an eye for detail.
David at MCRU sells thousands of different products to customers all around the world so needed an eCommerce platform capable of handling this level of sales. We selected Prestashop due to its security and our ability to customise it to do what we need. Every week we work with David to update and tweak the site to guide users to latest special offers, new products and maximise sales – often with a little help from Prestashop.
4. An eye catching, on-brand design to engage your audience
Website design is highly subjective with no definitive ‘right’ way to do it. However, there are guidelines that the majority of websites should follow.
Generally a simple, eye catching design will be more likely to engage a user that lands on your site. Fussy, cluttered layouts get in the way of the captivating content you’ve written for the site. If a company’s brand is well designed, it will generate a feeling that is completely appropriate to the purpose and message of the company. This brand image should direct the look and feel of the website to build familiarity and consistency.
It is common knowledge these days that a large portion of your website’s audience is likely to be using a mobile device or tablet to view your website, so your website should look and function appropriately on a wide range of screen sizes and device capabilities. A good designer will be aware of not only a different screen size, but how a user will interact with a website a little differently on different platforms. For instance, a mobile user is perhaps more likely to be looking for the company phone number so it must be prominent and clickable on smaller screens. A regular tablet user is likely to be very used to scrolling down through a website so content can be organised with a longer vertical layout.
Uhes, Warwickshire based Hifi retailer, demonstrate and sell the highest end Hifi from their beautiful home in the Cotswolds. Their brand is strong yet elegant which had to come through in the website design. With this in mind, we used video and photography throughout the site to showcase the lavish hospitality and beautiful surroundings that uhes provide, whilst giving plenty of opportunity and means for the viewer to contact uhes and organise their ‘uhes experience’.
5. Flexible secure hosting, optimised to traffic and bandwidth requirements
Each site will attract a different amount of traffic, from different sources, with users engaging in different ways when they land on your pages. A shopping website, for instance, has very different requirements when compared to a simple brochure site. You must ensure the host you choose will give your site the most suitable home to ensure it can support this traffic and the amount of bandwidth they are likely to require.
Security is very important, especially if your site takes payments or has sensitive user information. Take care choosing a host with the know how to ensure your site is safe and how to instil trust in your users by displaying the right icons and logos on your site.
It’s amazing how many people come to us with stories of how a previous website was lost along with months of hard work. Make sure your site is backed up offsite from the server and you can easily get up and running again in the event of a disaster.
What are you waiting for?
We are, of course, just scratching the surface of what makes a website successful.
At F8 we understand that the most important thing in our relationship with you is your relationship with your customers and prospects. After all, the goal of almost all websites is to attract people and either convert them into a client or retain them as an engaged user. Our team have been designing and building websites for a long while, have seen countless trends go by and various platforms go in and out of favour. Combined with our ongoing research and thirst for knowledge, this gives us a great understanding of not just what is going on in the world of websites, but why and how it’s happening.
Get in touch with us and we’ll meet up for a chat about your business and the website it deserves.
