Things To Create a Great Website

Questions! That’s the game I’m in – well answers really are, but most of my day is filled with questions. Questions from clients, prospects, friends and relatives on how they can get this to work, or what sort of technology should they get next, or how to get more exposure on the web. But I must say the #1 question I get asked is “What do I need to do to have a great website?”

Over the past few years I have gathered, through personal experience and through reading the wisdom of others (a lot of it Seth Godin), a list of things that won’t guarantee you online success but will take you along way down the road. Now this list is not exhaustive and it will be controversial to some but most of it is plain common-sense wisdom.

• Make it about the reader (they are more interested in themselves than they are in you).
• Make it easy for the visitor, not for you.
• Organise your site the way a real person would use it.
• Let them look at all they want.
• Be clear to communicate why people would be there.
• Each page should have one primary objective.
• Make a different page for each important thing and make that important thing the most obvious thing on the page.
• Fight the urge to be all things to all people. Your choices won’t suit everyone but is that really all that important.
• Don’t make people jump through hoops to get what they are looking for.
• Most people don’t just hang around your site looking for stuff – just like they don’t turn up at your office just to shoot the breeze with you.
• Have logical steps that keep the visitor with you until they reach their objective for being there or your objective for the site/page.
• Have a customised page for error messages or failed searches that is more than the usual “can’t find the page” information. Provide some information that might keep the visitor with you, like top 10 things people download, articles or products.
• Use a “tell me you saw this error link” on your customised error page.
• Don’t ever have an under construction page. Use the space an have a static “flyer” with your contact information or don’t have anything.
• You may not be able to test everything but you MUST test the money path.
• Say thank you.
• Have a send this page to a friend link.
• Do something to start a conversation.
• DON’T use pop-ups.
• Find sites that work well and learn from their organisation.
• Don’t just create it and leave it – make sure there is regular updates to the pages.

What do you think? Are there any other tips that you would add to the list?