10 tips for a good website

Consumers are increasingly orienting themselves on the internet in advance before making a purchase. A well-functioning, professional website is essential. But first, the consumer must be able to find your website at all among the abundance of websites. When someone is looking on the internet for a painting job in their new house, they are more likely to choose someone with a professional and well-maintained website. Even if you are still such a professional, without a good website it will be very difficult. How do you ensure that your website is findable and looks good? Below are 10 tips.

1. Responsive design

Due to the rise of smartphones and tablets, responsive design is becoming increasingly important in 2022. Until a few years ago it was special when a website was optimized for mobile devices, in 2022 it is a must. Responsive design refers to an intelligent website that adapts to the type of device on which it is displayed. The readability and layout remain intact because the website scales with the type of device. One of Google's new criteria to be found well is that your site has a responsive layout.

2. Good navigation

Simple and clear navigation ensures that website visitors click through easily and spend more time on your website. This makes it easy for the visitor to find the information they are looking for. Place elements in fixed, logical places and choose a clear layout. People read from left to right so the most ideal place for a menu is on the left side of the screen followed by the top of the website. Make sure that if you make a menu that is at the top of your website, it moves with you when you scroll down.

3. Breadcrumbs (breadcrumbs)

The breadcrumb trail is closely related to good navigation. A breadcrumb trail shows the steps that the visitor has taken within the website. When the visitor wants to take a few steps back, they can simply click on one of the steps in the breadcrumbs. Google loves breadcrumbs because a link to another page will be picked up by Google and included in your ranking.

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4. Layout (decoration)

One of the trickiest aspects of building a good website is the layout. Visitors decide in a split second whether they click away or not. It is therefore very important that the first impression is good. It is useful to know what the behavior of visitors to your website is. There are several plugins that measure the behavior of your visitors. By properly analyzing this date, you will find out where there are areas for improvement.

Handy plugin to measure the behavior of your website visitors
• Clicky by Yoast

5. Work with image

Sometimes a picture says more than 1,000 words. In the case of websites, this is certainly the case. If there is too much text, (potential) customers will get bored and click away. Therefore, use carefully chosen images in combination with a strong, concise story and clear call to action images that lead people to a goal, for example a contact form.

6. Keep your images as small as possible

There are few things more annoying than a website with a long loading time. It is the number 1 reason for visitors to click away. Research has shown that interruptions can last a maximum of 1 second before visitors tend to click away. Therefore, keep the images on your page as small as possible. To keep the loading time as low as possible, it is useful to work with CSS spirtes. By remembering the images on the website, they do not have to be downloaded again every time.

Useful WordPress plugins to keep the image small.
• Smushit
• Image Compressor
• EWWW Image Optimizer

7. SEO Search Engine Optimization

SEO stands for search engine optimization. In short, SEO stands for all settings, content and other activities that aim to have the page rank high in search engines. To make your website easy to find, it is important to be able to answer the following questions.
• Have the correct targeted keywords (keywords) been used?
• Do these keywords appear in the title, meta description and url?

Handy plugin to score better with search engines:
• Yoast SEO plugin

8. Look from the user's perspective

Before building a website it is important to determine what the target group is and what the purpose of the website is. After determining the goal and the target group, construction can begin. A common mistake is that the company then has the website built the way they like it. However, the target audience is completely forgotten here. The company is not the target audience. While developing a website, try to continuously think about what the target group wants? A design that appeals to you often does not appeal to the target group, so test a number of designs with your target group.

9. Link through

Linking is a useful way to introduce visitors to the entire website. If there is a section on your website about the importance of the right running shoes, it is tactical in this section to link to the webshop where the visitor can find the different running shoes described. Visitors experience the linking as good service and stay longer on the website.

10. Link to Relevant Content

To optimally inform the visitor, it is useful to link to relevant information on your website. When you explain in a blog what exactly viral marketing is, visitors will appreciate it if you link to a website with the best viral marketing campaigns. It is important to note that the linked page opens in a new tab.

In addition to the tips above, there are many other important aspects to consider when building a good website. Is your website missing any of the above tips? Please contact us to see what Green Creatives can do for you or drop by our office for a cup of coffee.