What a good website needs

As mentioned everywhere on this website, every business, no matter how big or small, MUST have a website. The days of thinking that you don't need one, are long gone!

Now, we've been in the web design industry for several years now, and have learned a few tips and tricks of what websites must have to be considered good ones.

Good, quality content on your home page

This is not only to please the search engines, but, for the few people that do take the time to read the actual text, make sure that it is quality content that they are reading. Also, don't try to sound too corporate - the internet is notorious for being very impersonal, and having very corporate sounding copy for your homepage is not the best idea (in our opinion, that is!). Be natural and laid back, let the person know that there are actually PEOPLE at your company!

Calls to action

This is also a very important thing for any website. You must guide your visitors, if they don't get what they are looking for real quick, they're simply going to leave. If they want to contact you, or get a quote, make sure to make it easy for them to get to that parts of your website.

A good call to action stands out when you view the website - I always say that if you close one eye, squint and tilt your head, you must sill be able to see the call to action :)

Prices

So many times I come across websites that don't have prices on, especially websites in South Africa - people just seem to have this mindset that they want people to make contact with them to get prices. If I come across a website with the product I want, and I don't see prices, 9 out of 10 times I simply leave and look further.

This is fine for something that doesn't have fixed prices, like a website for example, but you can still give a rough guideline of what the pricing will be.

Is your company a person?

As I mentioned above, the internet is a very impersonal place, so make it personal - let your visitors know they are dealing with real human beings! Don't be afraid to add photos of you and your staff to the website - it's much nicer to deal with someone, than something.

Check your email

This doesn't really have to do with your website itself, but if someone sends you an enquiry through your website, be punctual and get back to them in a timely manner! Even if it is just to say "Thank we got your message, will respond in full tomorrow" or something like that. 

So many times it has happened that I enquire about something on a website, and never get a response (and when I phone, they say, "Uh, our email is down at the moment" - that is not cool, most hosting providers allow you to check your email online via a webmail tool - so you don't have excuses! Lots of cell phones even allow you to check your email!)

The internet has made the world a much smaller place, but, it seems, that there are much less interactivity between people. If you represent yourself on the internet with your website, be sure to let the world see that your company is a great one to do business with!