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Influential factors for a successful website

This article deals with essential factors for a successful website.  Its structure is:

1. The objective of the web.
2. The indexation and content.
3. The need for simplicity.
4. Analysis of web statistics.

1. The objective of the web:

A successful website is focussed on understanding your clients and in attending to your requirements.  To do this you must be very clear about:

• Who is your target audience, the people to whom you are addressing your website?
• The two or three most important tasks that those visitors come to your website to carry out.

People are browsing the internet to carry out concrete tasks in the least possible time. You must measure to what degree your users can satisfactorily complete what they have visited your website to achieve.

In order to become an effective marketing tool, each of the pages must be designed around a central sole objective and the content as well as the images must be subordinate to this objective.  You will come to know this focal point as a result of the analysis you carry out on your target audience and from the tasks they visit your website to carry out. 

It is not advisable to present a great range of options to website users.  It is much better to concentrate on what your preferred audience needs and not try and please everyone.

What interests people is what you have on your website for them, the benefit they might gain from it and the time it might take in order to achieve it.  You can only bring a significant value to your website when you finely tune it to address a concrete group of people.

2. Indexation and content:

As well as for visitors, a website must also be designed with search engines in mind, Google in particular.  It must be easy to index:

• Avoid links that are badly ranked. You must facilitate access for the search engines to your website.
• Find “external” links that other relevant websites link with yours.
• Frequently update your web content.

Writing for a website has its idiosyncrasies: the text must be brief and you must seek conversion, the step-by-step process towards your goal.  More than achieving a lot of hits, what is of greater interest is the number of conversions to your objective achieved?  This determines the benefit you achieve from your website.

A web page is a communication tool. You will benefit greatly if you encourage a dialogue with your users.  In order to do this, the web page must have a character both well-defined and adequate for the message it is to convey. Your e-mail address and contact telephone number must be easily identifiable.  At the very least the possibility of contact via e-mail must be present on each page.

Ask your readers, request their opinions about your website, and invite them to find faults and to tell you about them.  Make them feel that your website is their website.  Give them value for their time, relevant information, a PDF file with good content on your specialist subject and useful articles which will help them improve their businesses.

Provide clear proposals where the reader may see at a glance the return on investment they will achieve if they buy your product/service.  Put an end date on your special offers or indicate a finite quantity of goods/services available at a special price prior to increase.  Bring to your web pages a tone and personality to accompany your message.

3. The need for simplicity:

The most successful internet businesses are simple, going to great lengths to avoid complication.  Use a simple and elegant design. The use of Flash is only advisable in very specific locations to which it might bring a particular value.

The creators of a successful website use tried and tested formulas.  Your website must have a structure similar to all other websites, which will make it familiar and easy to use for your visitors.

Bear in mind that your website has a small screen to present itself upon and that each time you add a new element, you make your readers life more complicated.  Keep the design simple and focussed on your target audience, forgetting about all else.

The internet is a learning curve based on experience, as much your own as others.  You learn based on what other experts teach you and from the changes that you apply to your website as you go along.

4. Analysis of web statistics:

The best way to carry out constant tracking of your website evolution is to use a good web statistics system. The one which currently provides best quality-price ratiois Google Analytics, which provides much relevant information and is also free.

It really is worth it. As well as its capabilities, it integrates very well with Adword campaign details.

You can open a Google Analytics account in: http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html

The basic details that you must track on a day to day basis are:

1. The pages viewed.
2. Number of visitors .
3. Length of each visit.
4. The route your visitors take through your website .
5. The degree to which you achieve your objective.
6. At what point do your visitors "abandon" you: the specific pages where they leave you to visit another website.

The most fundamental part of the website data analysis is the trends, i.e. how the website develops over time.

With regard to testing, the best thing is to carry out changes slowly, one at a time.  Make a change, measure its effect, learn and put into practice the conclusions you arrive at.  And you thereafter move forward with a process of continuous improvement.

I hope this article on Factors influencing successful websites helps you greatly improve the results you achieve from your investment in the Internet.

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