Web Development

To date, it is unlikely to find a company that still does not have a website. But for a website to become a worthy representation of an organization on the world wide web and generate profit, it must meet certain criteria.

Content
Attractive Website Design
Adaptability for All Devices
Clear Navigation
Quality Content
SEO Optimization
Fast Page Load
Feedback Forms
Social Media Integration
Security
Analytics and Tracking

Attractive Website Design

First impressions are important. The site should be initially beautiful and, equally important, tidy. Without shifting blocks, texts falling out of their allocated places, and so on.

Today, there is specialization in everything. Thus, the development of a website’s appearance is a particular profession. It is not yet programming but requires no fewer skills and, above all, the talent of an artist.

The good news is that in many cases, you can buy a ready-made design. You can initially have a choice of how and what will look in the end. It is simpler and cheaper than developing from scratch. And at the second stage, any ready-made design can be customized to make it unique. But of course, the main thing is not to ruin it.

Adaptability for All Devices

It doesn’t matter if the appearance is developed from scratch or a ready-made design is customized, but the design should look attractive on all types of devices. Generally, this means on a large computer or even a separate large screen, as well as on tablets and, most importantly today, on smartphones.

Today, all layouts are created in at least three sizes: for large screens, medium, and small. This is already an industry standard. Moreover, it is now customary to make not the so-called “rubber” layout, where the size simply stretches or shrinks, as it was until recently, but adaptive. This means that different numbers of blocks are displayed in one row on different devices.

Clear Navigation

Sometimes you want to invent something unreal and unique, something no one else has. But you should always consider whether users need it. The user experience with the site should always be intuitive.

To make this work, the visitor’s actions need to be organized in a familiar way. That is, beautifully and unusually, but at the same time always clear and familiar.
For example, the user will likely look for language switching, the main menu at the top, additional blocks and widgets on the right or left, and the address and contacts traditionally at the bottom of the page. It is better not to change such things.

Quality Content

In our opinion, this is the most important. The content of the site is the king of any promotion. The appearance of the site determines the user’s attitude only in the first minutes. The content is why they came.

High-quality articles on the site should be written by experts and professional copywriters. It is unlikely to save money on this by purchasing some content on an article exchange or similar place. Judge for yourself, would you stay on a site where the content is written by amateurs and clearly not for people?

SEO Optimization

You must understand that deceiving search engines will not work, no matter what “specialists” in site optimization promise. Nevertheless, making the site friendly to search engines is possible and necessary. For this, it is essential to always fill in the appropriate fields when placing materials, which will be displayed in the Title and Description tags—this is mandatory. Keywords are optional, as it is believed that search engines pay little attention to this tag now.

There are several other points to consider. As a rule, full SEO optimization is not included in the contract for website creation. It is the subject of a separate long-term cooperation agreement if desired. Nevertheless, the site should be ready for future promotion work from the start.

Fast Page Load

Slow page loading is annoying and sometimes leads visitors to leave. Let’s assume the site is made on one of the content management systems. As a rule, it is a generally accepted system, not an exotic one. In most cases, the initial data is roughly the same for everyone. So what determines the speed in the end?

Usually, it depends on three things:

• The chosen hosting. Here it is important not to save a dollar a month but to choose a proper one. First, the hosting should be as close to its users as possible. The speed of light, with which data is transmitted, is fast, but additional communication nodes through which the signal passes still take extra fractions of a second, which can be important for a positive site experience.
• The second component is the chosen design. An abundance of elements is not always good because each one needs to be loaded and processed.
• The third and most significant is the images. Therefore, when uploading something to the site, we always manually optimize and compress each photo.

Whether others do the same, we don’t know. But it is not enough to replace a photo on a page, for example, in a blog or as an illustration for a product in a store. If the site owner does this later, which usually happens, they should not be lazy and always prepare the material beforehand.

Feedback Forms

As a rule, websites are not made for beauty but as a marketing tool to achieve specific goals. For example, to attract new clients, sell a product or service. And for this to work, feedback forms are needed.

Moreover, we usually create several channels right away, giving the visitor a choice of what is more convenient for them. A phone number at the top for those who prefer to call immediately. An email form on the contact page and wherever else appropriate. Also, a button at the bottom right for messaging apps for countries where their use is common.

Integration with Social Media

The website should be connected to social media, and links to them should be placed. But it is important not to overdo it. The main idea, in our opinion, is to build a path for the client from everywhere, including social media, to the website, and then to a real sale. Not the other way around, from the website to social media, especially with entertaining rather than selling content.

The website becomes the main, one might say, anchor tool. It provides all the necessary information for the client in a format convenient for visitors, so they can make the right purchase decision. Everything else is more of an addition.

Security

The website should be secure, that’s true. But unfortunately, increased security always comes at the cost of load speed. Therefore, it is worth considering whether it might be simpler to collect less data from visitors to avoid potential problems. And of course, have a backup in case hackers do manage to break into the site.

Anything can be broken into. Therefore, website protection is essential. But it is worth adhering to the principle of reasonable sufficiency. And not forcing new visitors to take additional actions, such as entering verification codes, without a specific need.

Analytics and Tracking

And lastly, but not least importantly. When the website is ready, it should definitely be connected to some form of analytics. To see who, from where, when, and how they came and what they did on the site. At least to build a more competent marketing strategy in the future.

As a rule, we recommend that the resource owner either figure it out themselves or hire specialists and start working with systems like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. It’s not easy, but in the end, it’s worth it.