What are the top 10 things a website must do?

In this article, we will explore the essential elements that every successful website should possess. From user-friendly navigation to engaging content, we delve into the key factors that contribute to a website’s effectiveness.

Join us as we uncover the secrets behind creating a compelling online presence.

A Website MUST Load Quickly

Speed is of the essence in today’s fast-paced world, and website loading speed is no exception. Users expect websites to load almost instantly, with a maximum tolerance of about 2 seconds. Anything longer than that, and you risk losing a significant portion of your audience, leading to high bounce rates, low user engagement, and poor search engine rankings.

Several factors can affect the loading speed of your website, including the size and optimization of images and videos, the amount of content on the page, server speed, and the number and size of CSS and JavaScript files.

To ensure your website loads quickly, you should optimize images and videos, minimize code, leverage browser caching, and optimize server response time. It’s also important to regularly monitor your website’s speed and make necessary adjustments to ensure optimal performance. There are several tools available, such as Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix, that can help you assess and improve your website’s loading speed.

Optimize Images: Use compressed images in the most appropriate format (e.g., JPEG, PNG, SVG) to reduce file sizes without compromising quality.
Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML: Minimize the size of your code by removing whitespace, comments, and unnecessary characters.
Use Lazy Loading: Lazy loading defers the loading of images and other resources until they are actually needed, which can significantly speed up the initial loading time.
Enable Browser Caching: Browser caching stores website resources on a user’s device, which reduces server requests and speeds up page load times on subsequent visits.
Optimize Server Performance: Use a reliable and fast hosting provider, and consider implementing a content delivery network (CDN) to distribute content more efficiently to users around the world.
Reduce Redirects: Each redirect triggers an additional HTTP request, which can slow down your site. Minimize the use of redirects whenever possible.
Optimize for Mobile: Ensure your website is responsive and optimized for mobile devices, as they often have slower internet connections.
Limit the Use of Plugins and Widgets: Only use essential plugins and widgets, as each additional plugin can add extra load time to your site.
Prioritize Above-the-Fold Content: Optimize the content that appears “above the fold” (i.e., the portion of the site visible without scrolling) so that it loads quickly and users can start interacting with your site immediately.
Implement Asynchronous Loading: Load CSS and JavaScript files asynchronously to avoid blocking the rendering of the page.

Be Mobile-Friendly

With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, more and more users are accessing websites from mobile devices. In fact, mobile internet usage has surpassed desktop usage, and Google has implemented mobile-first indexing, which means it uses the mobile version of your website for indexing and ranking.

Therefore, it is crucial that your website is mobile-friendly and provides a seamless experience across all devices. This means having a responsive design that adjusts to different screen sizes, optimizing images and videos for mobile, and ensuring all features and functionalities work correctly on mobile devices.

Additionally, a mobile-friendly website is not just about the design and layout. It also involves optimizing the content for mobile users, who typically have a shorter attention span and are looking for quick and easy-to-digest information.

Use a Responsive Design: Ensure your website design is responsive, meaning it automatically adjusts to fit the screen size of the device being used.
Optimize Images: Compress images and use responsive images that adjust to different screen sizes and resolutions.
Use Mobile-Friendly Navigation: Make sure your navigation menu is easily accessible and usable on mobile devices. Avoid using complex menu structures or multi-level drop-down menus.
Avoid Flash and Pop-Ups: Flash is not supported on most mobile devices, and pop-ups can be intrusive and difficult to close on mobile screens.
Use Large, Easy-to-Click Buttons: Make sure all clickable elements, such as buttons and links, are large enough to be easily tapped on a mobile screen.
Optimize for Touch: Ensure your website is optimized for touch input, as most mobile devices use touch screens.
Test on Multiple Devices: Test your website on multiple devices and screen sizes to ensure it provides a good user experience across all platforms.
Use Mobile-Friendly Plugins: If you are using plugins or widgets, make sure they are mobile-friendly and do not affect the performance or usability of your website on mobile devices.
Optimize Page Speed: Mobile users are often on the go and may have slower internet connections, so it is crucial to optimize your website’s loading speed.
Keep Content Concise: Mobile users often have a shorter attention span, so it is important to keep your content concise and to the point. Avoid long blocks of text and use bullet points, headings, and images to break up the content.

Be Secure

Website security is a top priority for both users and search engines. With the increasing number of cyberattacks and data breaches, users are more cautious than ever about sharing their personal information online. Therefore, it is essential to ensure your website is secure and that users feel safe when interacting with your site.

One of the most fundamental aspects of website security is using HTTPS, which encrypts data transmitted between a user’s browser and your website. This is especially important for websites that handle sensitive information, such as credit card details and personal data. Additionally, regularly updating your website’s software and plugins, implementing strong passwords, and using a reputable hosting provider can also help enhance your website’s security.

Google has also indicated that HTTPS is a ranking factor, which means having a secure website can also improve your search engine rankings.

Use HTTPS: Secure your website by using SSL/TLS certificates to encrypt data transmitted between the user’s browser and your website.
Keep Software and Plugins Updated: Regularly update your website’s software, plugins, and dependencies to ensure you are protected from known vulnerabilities.
Implement Strong Password Policies: Require strong passwords for all users and implement two-factor authentication where possible.
Regularly Scan for Vulnerabilities: Use security tools to regularly scan your website for vulnerabilities and take necessary actions to fix them.
Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF): A WAF can help protect your website from various attacks by filtering and monitoring incoming traffic.
Protect Against SQL Injection: Use parameterized queries and prepared statements to protect against SQL injection attacks.
Secure File Uploads: If your website allows file uploads, ensure that only safe file types are allowed, and implement proper file size limits and scanning for malware.
Implement Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) Protection: Use anti-CSRF tokens in forms to ensure that submission requests are only accepted from authenticated and authorized users.
Protect Against Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Attacks: Sanitize user input and implement proper output encoding to protect against XSS attacks.
Regularly Backup Your Website: Regularly back up your website’s data and files to ensure you can quickly recover in the event of a cyber-attack or data loss.

Provide Clear Navigation

Clear and intuitive navigation is key to providing a positive user experience and keeping users engaged on your website. Users should be able to quickly and easily find the information they are looking for, without having to click through multiple pages or scroll endlessly.

A well-structured navigation menu, with clearly labelled categories and subcategories, can help users easily navigate your website and find what they are looking for. Additionally, including a search function, breadcrumb navigation, and clear calls to action can also help enhance the user experience.

It’s also important to consider the user’s journey and organize the content and navigation in a way that guides them through the desired path, whether that is finding information, making a purchase, or signing up for a newsletter.

Keep it Simple: Avoid clutter and keep the navigation menu simple and straightforward. Limit the number of items in the main navigation menu to the most important ones.
Use Descriptive Labels: Use clear and descriptive labels for menu items to help users quickly understand what each section or page is about.
Follow a Logical Structure: Organize your content in a logical manner and group related items together under broader categories.
Make it Consistent: Ensure the navigation is consistent across all pages of your website. The main navigation menu should appear in the same location on every page.
Use a Sticky Navigation Menu: A sticky navigation menu remains visible at the top of the screen as the user scrolls down the page, making it easy for users to navigate your site at any time.
Highlight the Current Page: Clearly indicate which section or page the user is currently on by highlighting the active menu item.
Use Familiar Patterns: Stick to common and familiar navigation patterns, such as a horizontal menu at the top of the page or a vertical menu in the sidebar.
Make it Accessible: Ensure your navigation is accessible to all users, including those using screen readers or keyboard navigation.
Include a Search Function: For larger websites, include a search function to help users quickly find what they are looking for.

Optimize for Mobile: Ensure your navigation is easy to use on mobile devices by implementing a mobile-friendly menu, such as a hamburger menu or a collapsible accordion menu.

Have High-Quality Content

Content is the cornerstone of any successful website. High-quality, relevant, and regularly updated content will not only keep users coming back to your site but will also improve your search engine rankings.

When creating content for your website, it’s important to consider your target audience and what information they are looking for. Your content should be valuable, informative, and engaging. Additionally, it’s important to optimize your content for search engines by using relevant keywords, creating compelling meta descriptions, and using proper heading tags.

Visual content, such as images and videos, is also important and can help enhance the user experience. However, it’s important to ensure that all visual content is optimized for the web to ensure fast loading times and a positive user experience.

Know Your Audience: Understand who your target audience is and what kind of content they are interested in. Create content that is tailored to their needs and interests.
Be Original: Create unique and original content that provides value to your audience and sets you apart from your competitors.
Do Your Research: Make sure your content is well-researched and accurate. Use credible sources and provide references where necessary.
Make it Engaging: Create content that is engaging and keeps the reader’s attention. Use compelling headlines, visuals, and interactive elements to make your content more interesting.
Use Visuals: Incorporate images, infographics, and videos to break up the text and make your content more visually appealing.
Optimize for SEO: Optimize your content for search engines by using relevant keywords, creating compelling meta descriptions, and using proper heading tags.
Edit and Proofread: Make sure your content is well-written and free of typos, grammatical errors, and awkward phrasing.
Make it Shareable: Create content that is shareable and encourages social sharing. Include social media buttons and make it easy for users to share your content.
Update Regularly: Keep your content fresh and up-to-date by regularly updating it with new information or revising existing content.
Provide Value: Ultimately, your content should provide value to your audience. Whether it’s informative, entertaining, or solving a problem, make sure your content serves a purpose.

Be SEO Optimized

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial for the success of your website. It involves optimizing your website’s content and technical elements to improve its visibility in search engine results. This includes optimizing your website’s meta tags, headings, images, and content, as well as its site speed, mobile-friendliness, and overall user experience.

Additionally, it’s important to regularly monitor your website’s SEO performance and make necessary adjustments to ensure optimal results. There are several tools available, such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console, that can help you monitor your website’s performance and identify any issues that need to be addressed.

Conduct Keyword Research: Identify the keywords that your target audience is searching for and incorporate them naturally into your content, meta tags, and URLs.
Optimize Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Create compelling and relevant title tags and meta descriptions that include your target keywords.
Use Proper Heading Tags: Use heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content and highlight important sections.
Optimize Images: Use descriptive file names and alt tags for your images, and compress them to reduce file size.
Create High-Quality Content: Create valuable and engaging content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience.
Use Internal and External Links: Include internal links to other relevant pages on your website and external links to authoritative sources.
Optimize for Mobile: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and responsive, as mobile-friendliness is a ranking factor for Google.
Improve Page Speed: Optimize your website’s loading time by compressing images, minifying code, and using lazy loading for images and videos.
Use Schema Markup: Use schema markup to provide search engines with structured information about your content.
Monitor and Analyze: Use analytics tools to monitor your website’s performance and make necessary adjustments. Regularly check for broken links, crawl errors, and other issues that could impact your SEO.

Be Accessible

Website accessibility is the practice of making your website accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. This includes ensuring your website is accessible to people with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive impairments.

Accessibility is not only a legal requirement in many countries, but it is also the right thing to do. Additionally, making your website accessible can also improve its SEO, as search engines, like Google, consider accessibility as a ranking factor.

To make your website accessible, you should consider various factors such as colour contrast, font size, keyboard navigation, alt text for images, and captioning for videos. Additionally, it’s important to regularly test your website for accessibility and make any necessary adjustments.

Use Semantic HTML: Use proper HTML elements for content structure, such as headings, lists, and buttons, to ensure your website is properly interpreted by screen readers and other assistive technologies.
Provide Text Alternatives for Non-Text Content: Provide alt text for images, captions for videos, and transcripts for audio content.
Ensure Keyboard Navigation: Make sure all interactive elements, such as links, buttons, and forms, can be navigated using the keyboard.
Use ARIA Attributes: Use ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes to provide additional information about the role, state, and properties of elements.
Ensure Color Contrast: Ensure there is sufficient colour contrast between text and background colours to make the text readable by people with visual impairments.
Avoid Reliance on Color Alone: Do not rely on colour alone to convey information. Use text or other visual cues in addition to colour.
Use Descriptive Link Text: Use descriptive text for links that clearly indicate the link’s purpose.
Provide Multiple Ways to Navigate: Provide multiple ways to navigate your website, such as a navigation menu, search functionality, and a sitemap.
Make Forms Accessible: Label form elements properly, provide error messages, and ensure all form elements are keyboard accessible.
Test for Accessibility: Regularly test your website for accessibility issues using automated tools, manual testing, and user testing with people who have disabilities.

Have a Clear Call to Action

A call to action (CTA) is a prompt that encourages the user to take a specific action, such as signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or downloading a resource. Every page on your website should have a clear and compelling CTA that guides the user on what to do next.

A well-crafted CTA should be visually prominent, use compelling language, and provide a clear value proposition. Additionally, it’s important to test different CTAs to see which ones perform the best and make any necessary adjustments.

Make it Prominent: Place your call to action (CTA) in a prominent position on the page where it is easily visible.
Use Contrasting Colors: Use colours that contrast with the rest of your page to make your CTA stand out.
Be Clear and Concise: Clearly state what action you want the user to take and what the benefit will be. Avoid jargon and keep the text concise.
Use Action Words: Use strong action words that encourage the user to take action, such as “Download,” “Sign Up,” or “Get Started.”
Create a Sense of Urgency: Create a sense of urgency by using phrases like “Limited Time Offer” or “Sign Up Now.”
Make it Clickable: Make sure your CTA looks like a clickable button or link. Use design cues such as a border, shadow, or hover effect.
Test Different Variations: Test different variations of your CTA to see which one performs best. Test different colours, text, and placements.
Consider the User Journey: Consider where the user is in their journey on your website. A first-time visitor may not be ready to make a purchase, but they may be willing to sign up for your newsletter.
Use Multiple CTAs: Use multiple CTAs on your website, but make sure they are not competing with each other. For example, you can have a primary CTA like “Buy Now” and a secondary CTA like “Learn More.”
Measure and Optimize: Track the performance of your CTAs using analytics tools and optimize them based on the results. Experiment with different variations and make changes based on user behaviour and conversion rates.

Have a Professional Design

The design of your website is one of the first things a user will notice, and it plays a crucial role in their overall perception of your brand. A clean, professional design will help build trust and credibility with your audience.

When designing your website, it’s important to consider your brand’s visual identity, including its colour scheme, typography, and imagery. Additionally, the design should be consistent across all pages and provide a cohesive user experience.

It’s also important to consider the user experience when designing your website. This includes ensuring the site is easy to navigate, the content is easy to read, and all features and functionalities work correctly.

Use a Consistent Color Scheme: Choose a colour scheme that reflects your brand and use it consistently throughout your website.
Choose Readable Fonts: Use clean, professional fonts that are easy to read on all devices.
Use High-Quality Images: Use high-quality, professional images that are relevant to your content and brand.
Keep the Design Clean and Uncluttered: Avoid clutter by using white space effectively and keeping the design simple and focused.
Pay Attention to Detail: Pay attention to the small details such as button styles, icon design, and typography.
Use a Responsive Design: Ensure your website design is responsive and looks good on all devices and screen sizes.
Consider the User Experience: Make sure your website is easy to navigate and user-friendly. Consider the user’s journey from landing on your site to completing a desired action.
Use Professional Branding: Include your logo, use your brand colours, and maintain a consistent style across all pages.
Avoid Using Too Many Different Colors or Fonts: Using too many different colours or fonts can make your website look unprofessional and cluttered. Stick to a limited colour palette and font selection.
Test on Multiple Devices and Browsers: Test your website on multiple devices and browsers to ensure it looks good and functions properly everywhere.

Be User-Friendly

Ultimately, your website should be easy to use and navigate. This includes having a responsive design that adjusts to different screen sizes, clear navigation, and an intuitive layout. Additionally, all features and functionalities should work correctly, and the content should be easy to read and understand.

It’s also important to regularly test your website on different devices and browsers to ensure it provides a seamless user experience for all users. Additionally, gathering feedback from users and making necessary adjustments can also help enhance the user experience.

Easy Navigation: Create a clear and intuitive navigation structure that allows users to easily find what they are looking for.
Mobile-Friendly: Ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices and is easy to use on all screen sizes.
Fast Load Time: Optimize your website for speed to ensure pages load quickly, even on slower internet connections.
Clear Call to Action: Make it clear what action you want users to take on each page, whether it’s to fill out a form, make a purchase, or sign up for a newsletter.
Readable Content: Use clear, concise language and break up text with headings, bullet points, and images to make it easy to scan.
Consistent Design: Maintain a consistent design throughout your website, including colours, fonts, and layout.
Accessible: Make your website accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, by following web accessibility guidelines.
Search Functionality: Include a search bar that is easy to find and use to help users quickly find what they are looking for.
User Feedback: Provide a way for users to give feedback on your website, whether it’s through a contact form, survey, or social media.
Error Handling: Provide clear and helpful error messages and make it easy for users to correct mistakes, such as filling out a form incorrectly.

In conclusion, creating and maintaining a successful website involves a combination of factors, including fast loading times, mobile-friendliness, security, clear navigation, high-quality content, SEO optimization, accessibility, clear calls to action, professional