However, it is easy to overlook the ‘small’ details such as how good is your website structure? After all, you have a functioning website; its prettiness is the least of your concerns.

A good website design, however, is more than just about looks. The design of your site is what speaks volumes about your business at first glance.

It will inspire confidence because of its professional image and set you apart from your competition. If you let optimize it, your website could be your most trusted weapon in your arsenal of revenue generating tools.

But what makes a good internet site? Here are the characteristics of a good site and how you can use them to your advantage.

Is Easy to Use

Even though the website should have an above par design, the visitor should have a smooth experience using the site. Keeping a consistent layout throughout the website while adding navigation tools and convenient buttons will make it handy while the user is browsing through your site.

This ease of use will encourage the visitor to spend a little more time on your website. Also, avoid using corporate speak or advanced vocabulary as it looks like you are intimidating the users.

Is Well Optimized

The whole purpose of the site is to attract visitors and gain potential customers in the process. Hence, you should optimize the website for search engines.

Ensure that you keep yourself aware with the keywords that your clients are likely to use and incorporate them into your site terminology.  You should consider learning the basics of SEO or hiring an SEO agency to increase the traffic to the website.

Compatible With Mobile Browsers

One of the most common mistakes with most small business owners’ websites is that they fail to be responsive for mobile browsing. That could prove to be a costly mistake because mobile browsing has surpassed desktop browsing if we talk about the number of users.

To avoid this, you should consider optimizing the website for mobile browsing as well. Hence, making it friendly for small screen devices.

Eye-catching

Looks do matter to a certain point, and that is why an aesthetically pleasing site will appeal to potential customers. One of the biggest challenges to website designers is finding appropriate and high-quality images.

However, it is not difficult to find free stock photos that can boost the aesthetic appeal of your site. It is important to mention that you need to check yourself not to go overboard; each element of conception needs to serve a purpose. Getting carried away and employing too many styles could prove to be counterintuitive.

Has Social Sharing Features

What’s the purpose of having a website if it cannot allow your users to share your product on their social media pages? Social sharing is, of course, an excellent way to boost traffic to your website.

Employ the use of these tools on your sites (NoPassiveIncome is using Warfare plugin for the social sharing buttons feature and much more!).

We’ve seen the characteristics that a good website should have. So what benefits do properly design websites reap?

1. A Consistent Brand Identity

A quality design will be unique to your business thus forming a brand. Your brand will then flow to other outlets such as social media, business cards, and logo.

Easy identification of your brand is important because a user might go to your page and leave without interacting with you. If they do remember something about your product and they happen to have forgotten your site’s name, it is in your best interests that they can quickly identify your brand.

2. Users Spend More Time on the Site

A good web design which is easy to use and has good content is more than likely to have a high user to client conversion ratio.

People do not like to waste time on web pages that are giving them a difficult time loading or are unprofessional looking. Eliminating these flaws will attract more visitors to your page.

3. It Becomes Distinct from Your Competition

The problem with many business websites within one industry is that they look too similar, post related content, and target the same market. For your business to be profitable, it needs to make a lot of sales.

You can accomplish this feat only if you get significant traffic trickling into your website. You will only achieve this if your site stands out from the pack. A quality website design will see this happen.

4. It Will Have More Customers

A good design incorporates appropriately placed the call to action features. This will help in converting casual users to customers.

Image Credit

5. Build’s Financial Value

As stated earlier, your brand is one of your most valuable assets. It will take years to develop the brand up to a point where it takes on a life of its own. Of course, the brand identity must be appealing for it to be accepted by the masses. That will highly impact your business’ value especially if you decide to sell it.

For instance, Apple’s brand estimates at $154.1 billion, and this is probably a lot more than what the company is worth. That goes to show how a good website design can make you a brand that is of great value.

6. Can Sell Without Trying Too Hard

A good website design has flow. The content is where it is for a particular reason and use.

Content optimization for websites is a skill that enables content to sell to the audience without appearing to be forced on them. The problem with not having invested in website design is that your page will look like one big sales pitch and this will tend to push people away.

Conclusion

A good web design is simple, practical, and professional; following these attributes will draw an audience to your business.

Try optimizing the website structure in a way that gives the user an excellent interface and a great experience.

When visitors load your site, they have goals. If your website manages to meet these requirements efficiently, users will return.

What Site Usability Is About

Photo credit

Creating and maintaining a site takes money and effort.

Don’t let that go to waste by not investing in usability.

Here’s what to think about when you’re designing a website with the user in mind:

Availability and Accessibility

Make sure your site works – it’s as simple as that. Fix all instances of broken links, speed issues, and downtime, amongst other things.

If your website caters to a global audience, you’ll want to ensure it’s available regardless of where they’re located. You can do that with a website audit tool.

Explicitness

Don’t make things confusing for your visitors.

Your job as a site owner is to meet your users’ goals with simplicity and consistency.

Clutter won’t make people return.

Intuitiveness

The internet is full of standards and design concepts.

People shouldn’t have to learn how to navigate your site and it certainly shouldn’t require instructions.

If you intend to test a new design concept, make sure to include tips and instructions.

Trust

Credibility is crucial in site usability.

Aside from great content, people should know who you are and what your brand represents.

Relevancy

Have a clear intention in mind when you’re designing your site and who your potential visitors will be. By doing so, you’ll be able to fit your website to the people who matter.

For example, if you’re targeting an older audience, use a bigger font. 

Test and Refine

Site usability involves a lot of research, testing, and refining. Naturally, this won’t happen overnight.

A good website audit tool will work wonders in helping you figure out what needs fixing and what works. 

But what languages ​​does your site speak?

Whether you already have a consolidated customer base or you are starting a new business, the first step to reaching a global audience is the creation of a multilingual website that has the tremendous benefit of expanding your boundaries and making your business services and products more accessible to an international audience.

In other words, investing in translation and localization services allows you to internationalize your brand and promote its visibility globally.

Easier to say than to do it, right?

To help you in this venture, here are 5 tips for a successful multilingual website.

1. Language and Localization

During the creation of a multilingual site, one of the crucial moments is definitely the decision of the languages ​​that your site will speak. A choice that can only be made after making assessments on the relevant markets of your business.

It is important to have the focus on the market targeted before choosing the language: American English is different from British English, French is the national language of culturally diverse countries.

Which one do you want to go to?

First, evaluate the market you want to reach, and then the languages ​​you want your site to be accessible. After this, look for some website localization services, in order to have granted results.

2. Create Quality Content

For your multilingual site, it’s crucial to create quality content.

Managing a multilingual site involves treating texts in other languages, offering professional and specific content translated for your target audience. To do this, it is crucial to have a good mastery of the language, to know the reference market in order to use vocabulary and effective expressions that reach visitors.

In addition to create the content, keep in mind all subsequent updates – a rarely updated site is not appealing to anyone, not even Google!

3. Write Relevant Content

Relavent content adds value to the website, positions the brand as a trusted advisor, and is authentic and believable.

Whether it’s a blog post or promotional information, your site’s content must be relevant to your audience. It should help you establish a link with the one who is reading your website.

If, for example, the Catholics expect ad hoc content for Christmas in December, Russian visitors would like to read about the Orthodox New Year in January. And maybe, for the U.S. public do not forget to write about the Thanksgiving Day.

4. Interactions and Language Communication

Writing in many languages ​​means taking care of different customers for each language.

Be prepared to respond to emails, comments on your site, and maybe your Facebook fan page.

Social media are definitely good channels to divulge your site’s content, and can be a great channel for customer support (of course, in the languages ​​spoken by your international audience).

5. Navigate, Observe and Test

Last but not least, keep in mind this important point for each of your projects.

Search for successful sites in your niche, look for inspiration on those multilingual websites that are particularly well-structured.

Navigate and observe, your experience as an average user on other sites is a crucial step in interpreting your audience’s needs and behaviors.