Fundamentals of a Great Website

Welcome to this comprehensive introduction to websites, this article intends to give you the skills to empower you to make critical decisions regarding your website. Covering the essentials is not a small task because a great website combines core marketing, creative design and programming ability. Everyone intending to have a website should have a grasp of the basic concepts and this article goes some way to building your knowledge base. If you find this article of interest we welcome your comments, if you feel we can help you and your company please don't hesitate to get in touch, call us on 0845 094 6442.

What is a website?

Put simply, a website is a collection of web pages, often on the same subject. However, a website could offer a service which aggregates different types of information in the same fashion, for example thetelegraph.co.uk.

Most websites fall into one of two categories; either they are a resource of information or they aim to make money. The most successful websites are in fact both, and make money by providing information and products or services to users.

It is important to determine how your website will fall into this categorisation. It is your web agency's job to guide you through this decision. You may be thinking you have already made this decision and your website aims to make money for your company and has no concern with providing information except information about your company and its products or services. Google gets 90 million search queries a day However, before you set that in stone, consider this; Google gets 90 million search queries a day, many of the top websites returned in search results provide a considerable amount of information on those particular search terms. For example; simply by typing in 'recipe' into Google we get in the top 10 results (at the time of writing) a collection of information websites based on recipes. Now consider our website is for a cookery store and it has a large section of recipe books. It would be incredibly difficult to break into the top ranks, as competition is fierce, without providing a great deal of information on this subject. Providing an information and product focused balance can increase your chances of higher rankings in Google and as a result increase the number of visitors to your website, which means more sales for your cookery store. This is a very simplistic example, and achieving visibility on Search Engine Results Pages does require substantial resources, but this is an example of how a little guidance quickly changes the direction of your website. This is why its crucial that your chosen web agency dedicates a great deal of time to actually planning your website with you in order to achieve its maximum potential.

“ Providing an information and product focused balance can increase your chances of higher rankings”

Website goals

The goal of your website can depend greatly on the goals of your business, but they may also differ slightly. Many clients underestimate the potential of their website and this can lead to losses in terms of time or money. This is understandable, if you can't see the return on investment then making an investment is not going to happen. We have come across clients that feel they need to have a website but don't actually understand why. More importantly some clients think of their website as a minor consideration and miss revenue opportunities.

Using your business goals as a starting point your web agency should help you to develop these goals into practical, worthwhile ventures utilising technology only where it can help reap rewards for your business. Your web agency should empower you with the knowledge of the internet and its potential. With this knowledge you can, together with your web agency, make crucial decisions with regard to its direction, and if applicable enlighten colleagues or superiors in this marketing opportunity.

“ Your web agency should empower you with the knowledge of the internet and its potential”

Something which we often hear from clients is 'this website just needs to be a place for clients to get our contact details'. This is where many companies are failing with regards to the internet. Typically this single goal approach stems from two restrictions, tight budgets and incorrect assessment of the internet opportunity. DUSZA completely empathises with clients in this situation and believe that clear, honest guidance will allow clients to fully understand the prospective potential of their website even with restrictive budgets.

Your chosen web agency should be working with you to create a killer opportunity for your business on the internet, utilising your goals and empowering you with the knowledge you need.

Design methodology

A website's design will have a dramatic impact on your company's brand. Visitors may have never been exposed to your brand before, so first impressions are very important. A bad design will effect the success of your website and ultimately cost your business money.

Recognising bad design on the internet can sometimes be difficult. The problem is that there are so many poorly designed websites on the internet, often our clients take this as 'what websites should look like'. Every business is different,
every brand is different.
Simply copying another website's design will not create a great website. Following other website trends without fully understanding the thought process behind a website is a dangerous exercise and one we avoid. What works for one company may not work for another, and it is worth noting that a company's success may not solely be driven by their website. Identifying website goals, analysing the target audience and being guided by marketing principles will help develop a unique design which will work hard to achieve your business goals. If you want to have a look at some stunning website designs head over to our portfolio. Although this gallery of fantastic websites is great for giving you a showcase of beautiful designs many or all of these websites will not match your business. Every business is different, every brand is different. Simply copying another website's design will not create a great website.

The ability to create a fantastic, unique design for every client should be second nature to your chosen web agency. The easiest way to spot whether your web agency can cut it or not, is to check out their previous work. If many of their websites look the same then they simply aren't up to scratch and won't produce a website which truly communicates the persona of your business effectively.

Design takes skill, time and practice to master, and it is an unfortunate fact is that website design over the past decade has left a lot to be desired. True programmers are rarely skilled designers and skilled designers are not true programmers, it's the difference between an artist and a mechanic. Now throw into the mix that a It is easy to 'have a go', whether it is good or not is another matter entirely. great designer can miss the website goals without comprehensive marketing skills, so profitable websites need marketeers and more importantly, marketeers that understand the web. The common perception that web design is easy is simply not true. It is easy to 'have a go', whether it is good or not is another matter entirely. We're not going to attempt to explain what great design is because in truth, there is no list of specifications that will make a design good. However simply looking at our portfolio should give you a good idea of what is possible with web design and how each website design should reiterate the individuality of each brand.

Web agencies should take considerable time in creating a stunning design for your website. To make a stunning design possible there must be design and marketing rationale behind their decisions. It's always worth getting a rationale from your web agency and asking the difficult question of why the design looks the way it does? From the design rationale you should understand the proposed design. A strong rationale should reinforce your decision to work with that web agency, it should prove to you that they have taken the time to understand your needs and taken them into account when creating the design. The rationale should also help you to suggest possible alterations to the design. In web design changing certain key aspects could affect other areas of the design or website functionality and your web agency should advise you on this. Your web agency should advise you on any changes you wish to make and how they may affect the balance, consistency and effectiveness of your website. That said, if after taking their advice into consideration you still want an alteration to happen, they should do it. For an informative read on creativity and innovation you may like to read our article 'Creative Concepts - The Ideas People'.

In this section we have established that perfect design should require time, refinement and exceptional communication between both parties. Design is often overlooked and that allows poor design to ruin websites, don't let it happen to you, take the time to see what's out there and make sure your web agency advises you all the way.

Accessibility

Website Accessibility has exploded in recent years, it should now be a major consideration for every website. Not only should your website look great and work brilliantly, but it should also degrade gracefully and work effectively for less able users. These issues should be handled solely by your web agency but if you understand website accessibility then you are ensuring your website does not discriminate.

An accessible website should be included at no extra charge to yourself. It does take a little extra time to ensure a website works correctly for less able users but if your web agency has integrity then accessible websites should be important to them. if your web agency has integrity then accessible websites should be important to them.
It also means, of course, that your website is available to the largest possible audience Making your website accessible also means, of course, that your website is available to the largest possible audience. You may have seen on some websites special text controls allowing you to alter the text size and change the colour to a 'friendlier' version. This is normally an added extra for websites as it isn't compulsory to make the website appear in high contrast for visually impaired users, but in some cases it can be desirable. The text size can actually be changed in all modern browsers, so having a button on the website is not necessarily required. Both Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 & 8 have extended their zoom capabilities which has really improved website accessibility without additional programming requirements, however it is worth remembering not all visitors have the latest browsers.

There are many different types of internet browser from Internet Explorer (IE) to Mobile Phone Browsers. Unfortunately for your chosen web agency, each browser will interpret your website code differently. You should not have to worry about this, your web agency should ensure your website supports the most common set of browsers (IE 6 and IE 7, Firefox, Safari etc). It is always worth asking your web agency what browsers they do support when comparing them to their competitors. The World Wide Web Consortium You don't need to worry about every browser ever made (for example less than 1.7% of internet users use IE 5), but concentrate on the most popular like IE 6+ (52.7% of the internet population use these browsers). There are two categories of browsers; standards compliant and non-standards browsers. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) set-up a specification list to ensure that all new browsers display websites in the same way. However this is not compulsory. Some companies (i.e. Microsoft) chose to ignore this specification, set out for the benefit of users, which meant their early browsers did not correctly interpret some websites. These browsers are considered non-standards compliant. Any good web agency will create your website to first support standards compliant browsers and then modify the website (behind the scenes) to work in non-standards browsers. From your point of view you have to either accept your chosen web agency has done this or test for yousrelf by viewing every page of your website on the browsers which your web agency support.

Marketing

The importance of traditional marketing techniques and strategies can be overlooked by web agencies as they perceive online and offline to be worlds apart. From reading the previous sections we have learned that a website can be as important as a new high street store and subsequently, adequate marketing for the 'new store' should be conducted as well as thoroughly planned product, service or information layout and navigation.

Marketing should be a consideration in all aspects of your website. Ensure that your web agency has made reference to marketing in their design rationale. For example, they have placed a featured product near the main logo in the top left hand position because it creates It can be worth questioning the web agencies pitching for your website about their marketing background and credentials a strong brand-product relationship and English speaking consumers read top-left to bottom-right. It can be worth questioning the web agencies pitching for your website about their marketing background and credentials, as marketing experience is hugely beneficial to every web project. When we talk about marketing in this sense we refer to traditional marketing. Many web agencies will boast search engine marketing skills, and so they should, as this is very important, but ensure they also have experience in and understand the importance of traditional marketing.

It is this traditional marketing which actually generates you business, traditional marketing methods allows your website to convert your visitors into clients. Search engine marketing involves drawing users to your website, it does not necessarily convert them to clients, which is ultimately why your chosen web agency should have credentials in both areas in order to maximise your traffic and conversion rates.

“ Search engine marketing involves drawing users to your website, it does not necessarily convert them to clients”

Content

Content is king. A beautiful website needs quality content to back up its stunning looks. Fantastic copy can increase visibility on search engine result pages. The more honed your web copy the more captive your audience will be.

When you select your web agency, you are putting your faith in another company to aid you in getting your message across on the internet. It is your web agency's responsibility to aid you in writing fantastic web copy as they should have superior experience in the internet as a medium. This coupled with your in-depth knowledge of your company's offerings, should enable you to work with your web agency's guidance to fill your website with perfectly targeted content.

“ Perfect content normally aims to do several things, it attracts the attention, poses a question, answers it and finally presents a call to action.”

Writing great copy goes beyond just filling the pages of your website. It should fit perfectly in the context of the page, for example a resource should educate and a product description should sell. However this is the internet, you can't just write content for humans. Writing copy for your website in the beginning and then not committing to regular updates will not generate consistent users and business You have to write content with Search Engines in mind, if you want to use your website to its full potential. Writing copy for your website on a regular basis makes a big impact on the likelihood of success. Writing copy for your website in the beginning and then not committing to regular updates will not generate consistent users and business for your company. Users and Search Engines must have a reason to return to your website, so frequently adding relevant content to your website is essential.

Writing perfect web copy is in itself a big subject and we haven't even touched the sides. There is so much to consider when writing content for the web, so much in fact that DUSZA have authored a paper dedicated to this practice and should you choose us as your web agency, you will receive a copy for free.

Architecture

Architecture is the structure and organisation of your pages as a collection of information. Your users should breeze through your website finding the information they want with ease, as if it were second nature.

Ease of use in websites is not something which happens naturally. It takes considerable planning to achieve an intuitive information structure for medium to large websites. Your web agency's expertise in this area is invaluable. They should be able to create a structure that suits your information. It should be a collaboration between you and your web agency to refine their proposed structure to achieve perfection. It is also important to note that refining your website structure before your web agency commences build will avoid functionality amendments in the future which could save you money.

“ refining your website structure before your web agency commences build will avoid functionality amendments in the future which could save you money”

With all the planning that goes into the architecture of the website it would be inappropriate to ignore the structure at a later date. Many websites have content management systems allowing you (or any member of your team) to update your website. You need to ensure your team members understand the structure and only add content within the appropriate context. For example; a resource to 'Resources' and not the 'About us' section. Sounds simple, but consider adding an article on 'car mechanics' to an 'applied mechanics' category, the two categories are similar but vastly different.

Development

development is the stage in website production where the design and structure come together into a prototype website. We have briefly discussed how your chosen web agency should ensure your website works across many browsers, but the quality of their code is also very important.

Up until this stage the visual you should have seen will have been designed in Adobe Photoshop (this practice is common across many good creative/web agencies). Development involves taking this design and converting it into the real thing through complex coding.

Lets look roughly at what happens when you visit a website. You type in the address for that website and you are sent a web page by a server in what is called HTML and CSS (front-side code). For most websites the server takes the websites server-side code and turns it into HTML and CSS, before sending it to your computer, which your web browser displays.

The quality of the code is what you should be concerned with. Your web agency should take care of quality when it comes to the server-side code; all you need to worry about is that everything works how you expect it to on the front end. Your web agency will produce your website in their chosen programming language. all you need to worry about is that everything works how you expect it to There are different types of programming language, for example; one website may be built in PHP, another in ASP, both these websites could look identical and have the same functionality, but will appear different to a developer. Normally each web agency specialises in one programming language. This means that if you were to move your website from one agency to another you should ensure they are able to program in the same language. DUSZA have chosen PHP as their programming language of choice but also are skilled in ASP, just in case we find a client who needs our help!

The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) has created several specifications for HTML and CSS. At the time of writing, the best specification for your website is XHTML Strict 1.0, your web agency should be able to advise you on this specification and what it means. The W3C has developed a testing program where you simply enter the address of your website and it validates your HTML and CSS. The importance of ensuring your pages validate means screen readers used by less able users and search engines will interpret your information as intended.

“ The importance of ensuring your pages validate means screen readers used by less able users and search engines will interpret your information as intended.”

The performance of your website also hinges on the quality of the code developed. Good quality code is error free and very lean. This means servers translate and send the HTML pages to your web browser very quickly. The volume of users you are expecting on your website is also something you need to discuss with your web agency. The server architecture behind your website can differ if you are receiving 100 unique visitors or 10 million. It's your agency's job to take care of this for you, ensuring that your website can cope with millions of users if necessary.

It is also important to discuss the procedures your web agency has in place if your website were to fail. if you have high volumes of traffic, a ten minute website failure can have a huge impact; so ensuring you have a 24/7 fail-safe may be mission critical The value of this point weighs heavily on the volume of users you expect to receive, as solutions for 24/7 redundancy can be expensive. However if you have high volumes of traffic, a ten minute website failure can have a huge impact; so ensuring you have a 24/7 fail-safe may be mission critical to your business. Your web agency should be able to advise you on this, the best will produce a bespoke hosting and support solution to fit your requirements.

Conclusion

OK, this may have seemed an extensive article but really it is only an overview. You should now be ready and have an understanding of a website which enables you to ask the right questions of your web agency.

This article serves as a great introduction to creating a brilliant website. However its only the start, your chosen web agency should be your North star throughout your website journey, guiding you every step of the way.

Hopefully you now appreciate that a fantastic website takes time, refinement and doesn't stop once it goes live. Constant additions to content and ongoing search engine marketing can rocket your website to success providing your company with a massive revenue opportunity.

“ You now appreciate that a fantastic website takes time, refinement and doesn't stop once it goes live.”

Obtaining the perfect website often means selecting the best web agency to work with. Sometimes it can be the most expensive, sometimes the cheapest, but more often than not its those who are willing to bend over backwards to provide you with a service beyond your expectations. They provide the opportunities for your business to expand via the web and sometimes the extra budget goes a long way to getting the most return value.

DUSZA are not the cheapest agency, but we believe we offer outstanding value. Before you get in touch with us have a quick read of our vision and mission statements. These offer you an opportunity to find out the personality behind DUSZA. Alternatively get in touch now on 0845 094 6442 or email hello@dusza.co.uk and book a free, no obligation web consultation with the lovely people at DUSZA.