What makes a great website?


There is nothing more important than a high quality website; it is your organisation’s shop window and ultimately what influences a visitor to take action. The quality of your site is critical and in order to stay ahead of competitors you must ensure your website is up to date, interesting, easy to use and informative. But what makes a great website? A ‘great website’ can be defined in many different ways and will vary for each business depending on what their end goal is, however there are some staple elements that every website must include in order to do well. 

Well designed and functional

It takes 0.05 seconds for a user to form an opinion on your website meaning you must ensure it is visually appealing, easy to use and reflects your company from the very first click – first impressions are crucial. Having an exciting and contemporary design is going to make your site memorable; it should be built around a theme that matches your brand and market and caters for all audiences. You want to grab visitors’ attention with a design that is on-brand, well thought-out and fulfils all the goals you set. Not only should it be visually appealing but it must also be clear and easy to use. Your site needs to work quickly and correctly on every page; any areas that are poorly constructed will lead to frustrated visitors who leave straight away. Put yourself in their shoes and consider the user experience; think to yourself, would I be happy if I was visiting this site? Users need an enjoyable experience – this includes how it looks and how it feels. 

Fresh, quality content 

Your website must include fresh, unique and up to date content; this can be done by combining interesting copy, video and imagery. The content that you offer should be clear and easy to understand by using language your users are familiar with. Focus on accurate spelling, staying precise and keeping content relevant and up to date; using blogs and social media are a great way to add fresh content to keep your visitors returning and help your SEO strategy. It’s important that your site is user centred; you must take the time to understand your users and their behaviours and focus on that. 

A mobile friendly site 

It’s easy to see that the growth of mobile and tablet devices is going nowhere; it’s now 2022 so if your site isn’t mobile friendly then that is where you’re going wrong. You never know how someone may be accessing your site, it could be on their phone in a coffee shop queue, on their laptop on the train or scrolling through their tablet sitting on the sofa – so your site must be prepared for all. Optimising for mobile will improve the experience for users and increase your SEO rankings; not having a mobile friendly site will limit you greatly as people will quickly leave your site and go elsewhere. 

Optimised for search

Not only does your website need to look good but it needs to earn traffic; you must ensure that your website is optimised for search to help new users get to the site. You can start off by growing your site organically through search engine optimisation (SEO) and conduct keyword research which can then be inserted into your copy to ensure you are including relevant words that people are searching for. At a bare minimum your site must be indexed correctly, feature descriptive links and include relevant keywords. It is also beneficial to ensure you make everything easy to share; socials can drive large volumes of traffic to your site and positively impact your search engine ranking. 

Clear call to action

A clear call to action is a key element to your site; it acts as a signpost to show users what they need to do next and helps to guide them through the buying journey and directly impact your conversion rates. You must establish what the purpose of your site is and if that is clear to your visitors on the site. Clear contact details must be featured on the page including a phone number, email address, social media links and a contact form; if necessary you can also add in Google maps so people can find you easily. 

So what makes a great website? A good website will include a variety of elements to ensure it is attracting new visitors and ranking highly in the search engines. By keeping content fresh, having a mobile friendly site, optimising for search and having a clear call to action you can ensure success for your site. Your website is so important for your business and it’s marketing so ensure you are putting the time and effort into making it great! 

Here at Worcester Web Studio, we have extensive expertise and knowledge in website development and marketing solutions. Contact our expert team today on 01905 347400 or email us at info@worcesterwebstudio.com to discuss how we can help you!