What A Proper Website Should Look Like
With millions of website strategies available, you may wonder what an appropriate website should look like. But, before that, do the looks even matter? Well, sure, pretty, you have clicked on some websites and gone “WOW” at first glance; plus, you didn’t have any problem getting what you were looking for, and it felt like what you needed. But, on the other hand, you may have experienced some websites that you couldn’t spend 10 seconds surfing. Why? Because it was not a good website. Well, the looks/appearance of a quality website can enhance or ruin the initial purpose of the website, as it is among the key factors determining a business’s success. Therefore, every website should contain the below features to be perceived as a good website. Primary Purpose The first and most important question is, “What is the primary purpose of this website?” No one wakes up on Wednesday morning and says, “Oh! Today I want to create a website for absolutely nothing….” Every website has a specific reason why it is created, right? So, within a few seconds of clicking a website, every visitor should be able to know the primary purpose of the website and what it has to offer. For example, every visitor should quickly notice the shopping cart feature if a website is created to sell products online. Simplicity and Design How simple but catchy the design of a website greatly influences user experience. The colours, typography and visuals all matter. First, you need to have a colour palette for your brand. This will make it easy for you to decide on the colour combinations to use on your website, not just jump on random colours. Moreover, a good website shouldn’t exceed five colours. Secondly, typography is a vital aspect of every website. It kind of controls the individuals’ attention and speaks for the brand. Therefore, a good website should have no more than three font types. The visuals of a website are all the imagery aspects that form the website. The visuals should explain/display the nature of the company/brand. This is important because it decides every visitor’s first impression. Easy to Navigate A good website should be easy to navigate. Nobody wants a complicated website. The easier a website can navigate, the faster it retains its visitors. If visitors find it hard to navigate a website, look at competitors’ websites. Consistent layouts and visual cues for functionality should be standard across a good website. Mobile Friendly We live in a world where people access the internet via mobile phones. You have no idea what device your next visit will use to access your website. So, you wouldn’t like your website to look scattered or unfriendly. There will hardly be an SEO ranking for a website without being mobile-friendly. Type Of Content The type of content on a website also contributes to its overall quality. A website can be A+ on the design, but poor content can ruin its whole purpose. Educative, exciting and entertaining content is the best. In addition, consistent quality content updates, whether video, audio or text, will make visitors come back for more updates and can easily convert these visitors to customers and enhance the SEO ranking of a website. Call To Action A key factor for almost every website. Not just e-commerce websites, but every website should ask visitors to do at least one thing. This may include sharing an article, following SM handles, signing up or downloading what they have to offer. Load Time Everyone seems to be in a hurry these days. No one can wait more than 5 seconds for a website to fully load. In today’s world, a good website should be able to access any of its pages within 3 seconds. With quality content and fast load time, no way that won’t leave a smile on any visitor’s face. Of course, the speed of a website starts with quality hosting. However, content optimisation has a strong effect on load time. Have our team of website designers create/design and maintain a website that ranks number one on search engine result pages and drives massive traffic.
Website Vs. Web Application
There is often confusion between “website” and “web application”, but they refer to two very different things. A website is a collection of static pages displayed to users in their web browser. On the other hand, it is a dynamic and interactive application accessed through a web browser. What is the difference, then? A website is generally used for informative purposes, while a web application is used to complete specific tasks. In addition, websites are often much simpler and quicker to create than web applications. However, it is essential if we understand that right from the development stage, these two are not the same; they both have different purposes of creation and function in various ways to provide solutions. In addition, web applications offer several advantages over websites, such as connecting databases, processing data, and carrying out complex tasks. If you’re unsure of what you need, keep reading to learn more about the difference between a website and a web application. Website A website is a set of accessible related web pages that may contain images, videos, audio, write-ups, or other information/data that individuals can read or retrieve through the internet. A website is made up of web pages. It can be single or multiple pages. Every website has a unique URL; for individuals/users to have access to a website, they must have/click its URL. An excellent example of a website URL is https://ravenandmacaw.com/ Websites are of different types. The six major types of websites include: Personal website Business Website E-commerce website Portfolio website Blog website Crowdfunding website. Different websites are created for various purposes. The way every type function is entirely different from the other. However, with all their differences, they still answer the name of a website. So this means that they have some characteristics in common. Features of a Website Creating a website is one thing; chipping in the core features is different. There are five must-have features for every website. Fast Load-time – before anything pops up, a website has to load after clicking its URL. The amount of time it takes to load is the load time. Nowadays, most people don’t have the patience to wait more than 5 seconds for a website to load. So, a good website should be able to load in not more than 5 seconds. Page quality/Appearance – This key feature will dictate how long a visitor will stay on a website. First impression matters. The design, appearance, and how everything is well-arranged and nice looking. Quality Content – the main reason everyone visits a website is to feed on its content. Whether videos, pictures, documents, or blogs, a good website contains quality content that either educates, entertains or benefits users. User-Friendly and Easy to Navigate – when a website is user-friendly, visitors find it easy to access from different digital devices and quickly understand what the website is all about. A good website is easy for users to navigate from one page to another to find what they are looking for. Is a Website Important? Whether for personal or business purposes, a website has so many benefits, some of which include the following: A website makes a company looks more professional It increases customer trust and boosts engagement A website enables a business’s marketing It is easier to sell products with a website A website provides social proof What Is A Web Application? A web application is a software that is accessed through a web browser. These applications are designed computer programs that function and interact with specific elements, using scripts from both the server and client to provide meaningful information. Some suitable well-known web applications include Amazon, YouTube, and email programs. Web applications can be customized to perform several functions. However, they are more complicated to build than websites. Features of A Web Application Web applications can easily be tested vis automation They can be run across all Operating Systems Web applications are hosted on the cloud and can be scalable. Is a Web Application Important? Similar to a website, you may be thinking about how vital a web application is. Good news; many successful companies nowadays have a web application in addition to their company website. You wonder why? A web application is easy to maintain, customize, secure, and update. In addition, there is no request for any app store approval because they run on browsers. Difference Between Websites And Web Applications WEBSITE WEB APPLICATION They have visual and text content that front-end users can only view and read. A user can interact and make some manipulations to its content Newsletters do not require authentication unless for regular websites All forms of a web application must be authenticated with usernames and passwords The entire public can easily access information Registered individuals can only access most data. A website can be built with basic knowledge of web technology. It requires advanced knowledge due to its security and functions. It is cost-effective. It is a bit less cost-effective than a website because it involves using so many components. In conclusion, the difference between a website and a web application is that a website is typically static, while a web application is interactive. If you want to build a website for your business, contact Raven and Macaw to get started. Keep reading our articles to learn how to manage a business in the digital space.
How To Optimise Your Website
Over 60% of Google users search for products and services online. Also, around 80% of these people end up in direct, in-store sales or another patronage. So this becomes a good reason to optimise your website. Optimising a website pops up in top searches whenever users search for a related keyword. It is a continuous process. The more you keep doing business and creating content, you must also keep optimising your website regularly. What’s more interesting is that the ways to optimise your website are primarily free. So, it is not a matter of who has the deepest pockets but who is ready to put in more time and effort. Below are some free ways to optimise your website: Optimise For Mobile Nowadays, smartphones and tabs are used for research more often than desktops. You have no idea from which device a user will access your website. That is why it is of enormous importance to optimise your website for all digital devices. Nobody enjoys surfing a website with cut-off edges and oversized content. So, don’t forget to scale all your images for responsive design, avoid long meta descriptions and take note of pop-ups that may obstruct your visitors from reading or seeing your content. When last did you check your website via a mobile phone? Well, do that now and see if everything looks good. Easy Site Navigations Most people don’t take site navigation serious because it is arguably a complex notion to understand. However, it is a vital step in website optimisation. Almost everything will fail if your website is challenging to navigate; your great content and offers will barely matter. The layout of your website should allow users to have access from one point to another without so many clicks and stress. So, initially, you would like to start simple and have an image of what your website should look like before building it. Then, look and feel for everything and ensure it is something users can easily navigate. Proper Keyword Research This is more like a trick in optimisation; the research for words and phrases that your audience would like to see and have interest in. so first, you have to understand who your customers are. This looks like an arduous task, and yes, it is. However, some tools like Google Keyword Planner make it all easy. These tools will show you words (related to your niche), how many searches the terms have, your competitors and more. So it would help if you considered going for talks with high searches but low competitors. Make Use Of Landing Pages Landing pages are almost a necessity for every website. All customers need a page to land. If you are driving traffic from social media handles, you should have landing pages for your customers to see more about your products or services. These landing pages should be similar in colour and verbosity to your social media post. Landing pages are excellent remedies for intricate websites that channel customers to the correct pages. Keep An Eye On The Speed How fast a website boots and functions is key to its success. Google has made a free tool known as “PageSpeed Insight”, which can assist you in understanding how fast it takes the pages on your website to load. In addition, it gives you suggestions for a better speed. See How Similar Websites Are Doing Undoubtedly, the best way to be ahead of your competitors is by looking at what they do and developing a better idea. You may find it hard to do a couple of things on your own; in situations like this, you can look at how similar businesses are doing it and have an idea of how to start. Things to look into may include articles, product pages, titles and more. However, it is more important to consider what works well for them. Visit the Raven and Macaw website now to learn more about optimising your website, or consult our experts to design and optimise your website for long-term effects.