Secrets of Successful Websites: How to Create a Highly Effective Site

Every successful online business has a well-oiled engine: a highly effective website. It drives conversions, increases sales, and keeps customers returning for more; without one, your business is lost among the noise. 

The secret to creating a highly effective website? The truth is, there’s no secret; it just takes an approach steeped in website best practices. Want to know more? Read on.  

What is a highly effective website?

In short, a website that does the job it was built to do. Well. A highly effective website exists in that elusive space where form meets function, a space most websites fail to discover. Accessible, inclusive, engaging, and compelling; users will reach for these words if your site is highly effective. Under the hood, a highly effective website is fast, reliable, and safe. 

Piece of cake, right? If only. Like most recipes, gathering the ingredients is easy; it’s the cooking that makes or breaks the dish.   

The essentials: what your website needs to be highly effective

Creating a highly effective website can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. Like any project worth your time, the more forensic your attention to detail, the more elements you’ll deem essential. 

Here are some of our essential elements for a highly effective website. 

1. Assemble the right team 

The internet’s superpower is empowering us to DIY. Especially when it comes to tech. Sometimes though, it’s better to connect with the professionals and build a website together. For example, if you’re a local Melbourne business, consider using an agency that specialises in ecommerce website development in Melbourne. That way, if your website has a page count to rival Bunnings, you’ll know it’s in safe hands.  

2. Intent

Squad assembled, the next essential you must address is intent. Never mind your website; intent is why you’ve built your business in the first place. A website fuelled by clear, direct, and unwavering intent will always perform, trust us.  

Know your audience

Intent is understanding your audience intimately. It’s knowing how they speak and how they speak about your business. It’s knowing exactly how your business solves a problem for them. The more you relate to your audience, the more your website will resonate with them.

Clear call-to-action

A clear call-to-action (CTA) is arguably the most essential feature of any website. It compels the user to actively engage with your business. Your goal here is clarity; anything less and you risk a poor user bounce rate. 

A clear CTA is the first step; the next step is creating one for each webpage. An effective CTA is the logical conclusion to high-quality content, so tailor each one accordingly. The best place to start? Settle on your primary CTA. If you make and sell organic sunscreen, your primary CTA will compel users to buy your sunscreen. From there, every other CTA on your website should guide them toward that outcome.  

Consistent branding

Intent is reflected in strong, consistent branding. Knowing what your business is about enables you to create a visual identity that encapsulates this knowledge. Done well, consistent branding fosters recognition and trust with users, so make sure every page on your site aligns with your style guide. A website without consistent branding will look messy. And messy is the enemy of good user experience. 

2. Navigation 

Unlike the supermarket, when you find a website easy to navigate, you hang around. The key? Simple site navigation. Imagine a well-designed home. Every room is easy to find, easy to navigate, and easy to recognise. Your website should do the same. 

A concise menu structure. A clear search function. No more than three clicks between any two pages. Implement these features and you’ve climbed half the mountain. 

Make it mobile-friendly

Given the collective time we spend scrolling, it makes sense to make your website mobile-friendly; phones are nets that catch too many potential customers for you to ignore. 

Mobile-friendly is being compatible with different mobile brands, lightning load times, and touch-friendly buttons; anything that makes it easy for someone to navigate your site while they jostle for space on the tram to work.     

4. Engagement

Navigation is one side of the coin; the other side is engagement. For your website to be engaging, every decision must put the user first. Put yourself in their shoes and ask, do I find this content, this design, this webpage engaging? If the answer’s no, it’s back to square one. 

By making your website engaging, you take considerable steps toward making it accessible. A clean layout, pleasing colour palette, and readable fonts are just the beginning. Adding clear heading structures, keyboard navigation, and transcripts for audio and video, and you’re ticking critical boxes on the website accessibility checklist.   

In the end, it’s about creating a positive user experience for every user; the essence of a highly effective website.  

Creating a highly effective website is a non-negotiable in modern business; the internet’s ocean of data is too vast for anything less. By implementing these elements into your website, you give yourself a genuine chance at rising above mediocrity and achieving the goals you set out when you first started your business. 

Our parting tip? Be patient and open-minded. There’s no magic solution here; what makes another website effective might not apply to yours. Trial and error will work wonders, so keep at it.