Five Things Your Website Must Have For Success

For optimal website usability, there are some basic rules or guidelines your website needs to follow. While every site is unique, certain features are universally essential. Several aspects come together to make a website successful, but here are five key usability elements you’ll want your website to have.

Be sure the framing around your content is large enough for the viewer to read the text easily. A helpful tip to ensure this is to only include information you know your customers need and want to know. Users should be able to resize their window for the easiest view of your site’s content. If content is in a small box or hard to read, people will leave your site very quickly.

Avoid music on your website, especially music that plays automatically. That goes for video, too. The user is just going to mute or pause it anyway, because frankly, it’s annoying! If music or video is part of the message of your company, make it optional to play or have it on a separate linked page. Remember, no user likes being forced into anything.

Be sure to have a balance between pages that open in a separate window and pages that open in the same window to replace the page they were on. For the most part, separate windows are not needed, unless the page contains something that not every user will read, but some will, such as Terms and Conditions or a link to your Twitter page.

You may have heard this before, but it is vital that your site’s animated features are built in HTML rather than Flash. Flash does not work on mobile devices and will break down on the computer of anyone who does not have the very latest version of Flash. (Beyond Custom Websites doesn’t use Flash and knows how to create the same “wow factor” with HTML so it will actually work!)

Finally, include a site map feature and navigation bars with shortcut links to other pages so that users can easily jump around your site and find exactly what they need. An all too common mistake is to only include such links at the very bottom of pages or hidden on the side somewhere. Users need to get where they want to go quickly.

Beyond Custom Websites focuses on usability and our experts are savvy enough to balance your unique company image with features that get your site traffic, and in turn, increase sales. Contact us and we’ll be sure to create a website with an attractive design and effortless usability for your customers.