What makes a website a good one?

One word: design.

Design doesn’t just mean how pretty it might look, the depicted colours and fonts or determine picture placement (though these are certainly elements); design should be much more fundamental. The design of a website should go deeper than aesthetics and incorporate how a customer may use the website (the required call to action helps to depict this, i.e. is it a brochure site, an online shop, does it need an integral booking system, for example – we could go on and on). Good design assesses how easy a website is for visitors to navigate, so that they can quickly and easily get to the information/solution they’re looking for. It involves good, relevant content, which can again mean different things, depending on the site’s objective. The best websites move with the times. Even though the internet hasn’t yet been with us for a full generation, it’s already ingrained in our lives and our habits. Early websites were no more than digital flyers, whereas today, they’re much more responsive, interactive, fluid and optimised, adapting to different users’ needs and points of access, e.g. desktop vs. mobile. A well-designed website also addresses the subject of security. That doesn’t mean that good websites should cost the earth, even if they do need to counter all the above. Website design from Novus Marketing Solutions, for example, can produce an eye-catching, functional, successful site for around £500 or less. Perfect for even the smallest of budgets. However, a web design agency can only get you so far towards your destination. Even the best sites still need traffic to them (“if you build it, they will come”…is a myth), and this is where marketing comes in. The two go hand in glove, and it means Novus Marketing Solutions is the perfect provider for any small or medium-sized business owner, as we can help in more ways than one. Your marketing is typically where new customers will hear of you. Depending on the message your potential client sees, they may already have an assumption about your business as they click through to your website; the design of this will either confirm or contradict this assumption. You can picture disappointment, of thinking that a company is one thing then you click through to their under-par website to find they’re not all that. Let us demonstrate the opposite: imagine a client being interested and impressed by one of your promotional posts/tweets/blogs, etc., so much so that they click on the embedded link. They’re then led to an impressive website, one that not only takes them from A to B (and on to C, D, whatever…), but which is evocative in some way they’re not even aware of. It might make them smile. Beautiful images may stir their emotions. Compelling content turns their interest/enquiry into a definite sale. They encounter a checkout/booking procedure that’s simple and secure. Or all of the above.