So you want to get a website done for your business or brand? Here are some things that make a website successful.

• Getting the home page right is essential, it’s the most important page on your site. Users will decide within 5 seconds if they’re going to navigate the rest of your site purely based on your homepage.

• Keep the content minimal and impactful, summarise your brand promise and profile. Make sure your developers have optimized the site so it loads efficiently. Users don’t want to wait, sites that load within 5 seconds have a 70% more session time.

• Present your core services, people want to know what you do and what you can offer them.

• Create fresh content and keep the images, client list, testimonials or blog up to date. Fresh content reminds your users to always come and see what’s new. Show off how involved you are in your business.

• Speak to your developers/designers about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This will help your site grow visibility in organic non-paid search engines like Google and Bing. It will also increase your domain’s awareness rankings and help you drive traffic.

• Use high res images & videos to compliment your content. For great local stock images, you can consult brands like istockafrica. For a variety of others, I use Unsplash and Envato.

• Integrate your social media platforms onto your site, you want to have a two way avenue where your site drives users to your social platforms and visa versa. This should be part of your social media marketing strategy.

• Don’t have too many navigation pages, your user needs to be presented with simple choices. The experience you want to create online should be seamless and not overwhelming with unnecessary pages or links.

• Do away with pop-ups, one is great and that should most probably be the “subscribe to our newsletter or database” one. Don’t have music playing in the background, or videos that auto play, 80% of the time users view your site from a mobile device: DATA!

• Have a contact form on your contact page. It’s annoying when a user has decided they want your product or service but your email is only listed on the site – they now have to write it down somewhere, hopefully not lose it, retype it in their mailbox and contact you.

• Drive users to take action, have two or three “contact us” or “get a quote” button at strategic sections on the site. At the end of the day, your site should be used as a lead generation, sales, or marketing tool.

• Footers are important, include useful links, articles to your latest blog, contact details, scroll up buttons, search sections etc. Make sure your site is easy to get around by offering users accessibility.

• Please make sure your website is responsive when it’s completed. Responsive means it adapts to any device screen size, fitting the content, images, graphics correctly for a great user experience.