Did you know that almost 2 billion websites exist today? Interestingly, only 17%, or 200 million, are active.
Still, 200 million is a lot, some of which are likely your direct competitors. Therefore, you’d want to ensure yours is a great website instead of only being “good.” Ensuring your site provides something the competition doesn’t gives it an edge.
This guide details what sets an excellent website apart from a good one, so keep reading.
Table of Contents
Responsive to All Devices
A good website displays well on desktop and laptop screens. However, it may not work well on mobile devices.
A great website displays correctly on desktops, laptops, and other screened devices. It does so by boasting a responsive web design.
A responsive web design ensures all pages fit the user’s device perfectly. It allows for the automatic resizing of web pages based on the screen size of the device used to access them. As a result, each page’s layout and contents also adapt to the user’s screen.
A responsive design is also essential to creating a user-friendly website. It makes reading content more convenient, as mobile visitors only have to scroll up or down. Because it automatically resizes pages, users no longer have to swipe left or right.
Designing your own website and making it responsive requires coding knowledge, though. So if you lack this, consider hiring a professional website design agency instead.
High-Quality Content Updated Regularly
While a good site provides quality content, it may not produce enough to keep visitors coming. A great website does so by uploading new informative content more often. Depending on the scope of your business, regular updates can include a new blog post once or twice a week.
A website update can also be as simple as repurposing existing blog posts. However, its contents should still be applicable and valuable to modern users. Adding something new, such as recent statistics, is also a good idea.
Last but not least, review links and replace old, broken URLs with new, working ones.
Faster Loading Speeds
According to statistics, 4 in 10 Internet users will leave a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
A good website considers that and, thus, optimizes pages so they load within 3 seconds. A great website, on the other hand, has pages that load in less than 2 seconds.
You can achieve that goal by removing unnecessary website design elements. Examples include pop-up ads, RAW image files, too many buttons, and auto-play videos. Removing such clutter can also help improve user experience and site appearance.
You can replace RAW files with JPEG, WebP, or AVIF image files. For buttons, organize them in a hamburger menu.
You should also consider hosting videos on a third-party platform like YouTube. Then, embed their links on your site and deactivate their auto-play feature.
Design a Great Website Today
Remember: A great website goes beyond expectations; a good website only meets them. So for your site to excel, make it responsive to all devices and share high-quality content once or twice a week. It should also load in less than 2 seconds, be clutter-free, and easy-to-navigate.
If you keep those qualities in mind, you can create an excellent site that can stand out from the rest.
For more website tips, check out our post on what to include in an effective SEO content strategy!