Top seven common sense tips for website excellence

Thursday, January 26, 2012

When was the last time you lingered longer than you needed to on a website simply because you enjoyed being there so much? 

If you have a favourite site, why do you like it more than similar sites that do or sell the same stuff? Is it because it looks better, sounds better, is full of useful stuff or a dream to navigate compared to competing sites?

It's worthwhile analysing your favourite and least favourite websites to see what you can learn, then applying your conclusions back to your own site. 

Here's seven top tips to help you achieve website excellence:

1. how fast does your site load compared to your competitors, favourite sites and least favourite sites? If it takes longer than average, the usual culprit is football pitch-sized images. Take a look at your images and cut the file size right down so they load like s*it off a blanket. Or so the saying goes! 
2. is your layout a nightmare of complexity compared to other sites? If your site has got out of control and you can't see the wood for the trees, it's probably time to pare it back and simplify your online offering. There's an added benefit: simple sites load and perform better on mobile, smartphone and tablet screens than complicated sites
3. check your site code using a free tool like Html Tidy, which cleans up extraneous bits of code, corrects mistakes and formats your pages so they're optimised for search engines 
4. how many words do you have on each page? Does your sales message go on and on or is it so short it doesn't give the full story? A good average to aim for is 350 words per page, which seems to suit human readers and search engines perfectly, but at the end of the day you need to make your sales argument in as many words as you need to do a great job of it... no more and no less. What does 'a great job' entail? It means expressing what you need to say clearly and succinctly, in as much detail as people need to make a buying decision
5. what does your site sound like? Are you using Plain English, with a capital P, as dictated by the Plain Language Society? Or has a load of jargon and business speak crept in? It doesn't matter whether you're operating in a business-to-business or business-to-consumer landscape. People are people, whether or not they work in business, and plain language always sells better than gobbledegook
6. how fresh is your site content? Very few of us work in a sector that stays static as the years go by. Most businesses go through changes and your site should reflect the changing landscape, promoting the fact that you're on the ball and keeping up with the likes, dislikes and demands of your target market
7. ditch Flash content. Adobe has stopped supporting Flash and it's time to stop using it altogether. Which is no bad thing since flashy, whizzy bits of animation aren't anywhere near as important to buyers as good, basic, solid, commercially powerful content