There’s an old saying in business that says you get what you pay for. Here’s a compelling question for you: is the saying always true? Before you answer, consider all of the products and services you have purchased over your lifetime. It is a safe bet you could recall some purchases for which price did denote quality and others for which it did not.
Now, let us apply the same thinking to web development. There are companies that charge thousands of dollars for the most basic website. Charging in excess of $10,000 is not out of the question. The more complicated the site, the more money it costs. But there is a dirty little secret in the web development world: it’s not about money.
Defining a Good Website
Website4Good, a company specializing in website design services in Tulsa, says that the characteristics that constitute a good website have nothing to do with the amount of money spent. Anyone with enough knowledge and skill can put together a very good website without spending a fortune.
When you pay a company like Website4Good to build your website, you are paying for their skill and expertise. And by the way, that is a good investment. But at the end of the day, whether or not your website is good is defined by how well it functions and whether or not visitors have a good experience. That is really the long and short of it.
What Makes a Website Good?
Hiring a web developer to build your site doesn’t mitigate the need to know what constitutes a good website. Below are the five characteristics that all good websites possess. If your site demonstrates all five, you are doing fine. If not, there is room for improvement.
1. Aesthetic Appeal
Human beings are visual creatures. As such, a good website is aesthetically pleasing. Aesthetics include everything from font choices to colors and layout. As an example, black text against a white background is the easiest to read. A website with grey text on a white background is difficult to read and, therefore, aesthetically unpleasing.
2. Easy Navigation
Internet users hate having to waste time clicking around websites to find the information they need. What they want are sites that are so easily navigable that information can be found with just a few clicks. Ideally, it is best to be able to get where you want to go in three or fewer clicks.
3. Fast Sites
Hand-in-hand with easy navigation are fast sites that load quickly. Load speeds are so important these days that Google is now ranking them. Slower loading sites do not do as well in search engine results as faster sites. It goes without saying that a website has to be fast.
4. Topical Relevance
A good website is one that is topically relevant. In other words, all of the content found on the website pertains to the mission, vision, and products and/or services offered by the organization behind it. Irrelevant content harms search engine performance and turns visitors away.
5. Quality Content
Last but not least is quality content. Internet users are savvy. They know the difference between high quality content and the online equivalent of junk. A website populated by junk content is one that will not attract repeat visitors or inspire people to share. On the other hand, quality content is more than capable of building a loyal audience.
Whether you need website design in Tulsa or elsewhere, Websites4Good encourages you to remember that it’s not about money. It’s about building a website with the characteristics necessary to produce results.