Now, let’s discuss each topic/feature one by one in detail.
UI is related to User Interface and UX is related to User Experience. Nowadays, UI/UX plays a very important role in web designing. In simple terminology, UI/UX is related to the appearance and usability of the website.
The website design should be simple and easy to use. There should be easy navigation for moving from one item to another.
The site should load quickly otherwise use will not like to stay on your site even if the site is best in design or others.
Your website should be compatible with different browsers because various users are using different browsers. Hence, if you do not support all browsers, than particular some users may not use your site and you may lose user(s).
Today, most users have smartphones with internet connectivity. Hence, they mostly access websites from their mobile instead of laptops and computers. Hence, it is very important that your website must be mobile-first. The design should be focused on responsiveness and fluid web design.
Content (Original, Relevant, and Updated/Fresh)
Remember that audience is looking for information that will help them to make a decision, so your website should be informative and relevant.
Search engines such as Google, Bing, etc. gives rank to your website based on various parameters and one of them is content. Websites having original content and which are updated regularly will be given higher rank by the search engines.
Hence, content plays a very important role in your website for your audience and search engines.
Original Content
Content should be original otherwise your audience or search engines will not like your website. It may benefit you to hire a content writer to write proper content according to your organization/business for your targeted audience.
Relevant Content
It is very important that website content must be relevant to your domain. For example, your school website should contain all the information which is commonly and frequently required by the students and parents. Hence, they can access it easily and quickly.
Update Regularly
No one likes to read the same content over and over again. So, update your website content regularly and make it fresh.
Functionality & Target Audience
Everything on your website should function properly and you have to design your website keeping your targeted audience in mind.
Current functionality working properly
All the pages, links, etc. should work properly. In case of error, proper exception handling should be implemented. So, users can get an appropriate message instead of an error page.
Keep your target audience in mind
Website content should be relevant to your target audience. For example, your school website should contain all the information which is commonly and frequently required by the students and parents. Hence, here your targeted audience will be students and patents.
Contact, Feedback Form, FAQs, News, etc
Point of Contact
If you have provided contact details such as office address, location, emails of sales/service, phone numbers, etc. various contact details clearly than users can easily contact you in his suitable way such as by mobile, email, etc. Hence, provide multiple contact details clearly.
Feedback Form
Feedback will be useful in case if the user would have some feedback that he/she can directly provide the feedback from the site and you can get it on your relevant email. So, this is one of the best ways to collect client/user inputs effectively and quickly.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
There are some common questions asked by most of the users which are known as frequently asked questions. For example, for a school website, all parents/students would have some questions like school timing, new admission process, and checklist, fees, term, etc. Hence, if you provide FAQs than it will be very easy for them to get the desired details quickly and easily.
News, Events, Awards
These are the key components of your website which make your site live, updated, and fresh. These will also do some kind of advertising about your news, events, and awards received.
Your website must be secure and reliable otherwise users will not trust you and they will leave. Hence, make your site secure by commonly used techniques such as encryption, SSL, captcha, etc.
Encryption
Using encryption you can store data in encrypted form instead of plain text. Hence, for confidential details, it is recommended to store details in encrypted form. For example, for your school website, you have provided a login facility to your students. Therefore, you have to store password details in encrypted form.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
SSL is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network. Hence, using SSL your data can be transferred securely over the internet. Your website credibility and search engine rankings may be affected, if your website is not using HTTPS/SSL.
Captcha
It is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human. It is used to identify human interaction and otherwise stop access further. For example, it can be used while submitting the form such as contact us, registration, etc.
Good Hosting - Reliable (running 24/7)
Users can access your website whenever they like and from wherever otherwise they will not like to use your website and they leave the site. Hence, your website must be up and running 24/7.
There are various things that are not directly related to the website but very important for a website. For example, tracking users, high rank your website in search engines, etc.
Tracking
It is very important to track your users from which locations the website is being accessed, when was accessed, for how much time accessed, etc. Hence, you can know your website usage. It can be implemented using Google Analytics.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
It is a technical thing but in simple words, if your site is properly SEO, then your site rank will be higher in search engines such as Google, Bing, etc. So, it is very important to design your site with proper SEO.
Modern
It means your site should be developed with modern current/future technologies. For example, your site must be developed using HTML5, CSS3, etc.
Summary
Now, I believe you know how to make a good website.
Following is the key summary or checklist of a good website:
- Easy to use, easy navigation, great user experience and load speedily
- Compatible with various browsers and mobiles
- Contents are original, relevant and updated regularly
- Current functionality working properly and keep your target audience in mind
- Contact, Feedback Form, FAQs, News, Events, Awards, etc. are provided
- Secured by encryption, SSL, CAPTCHA and reliable by running 24/7
- Tracking by Google Analytics
- Effective SEO implemented
- Modern and professional design