How to Build a Successful Website

When you think of successful websites what are the first websites that come to mind.

Google? Netflix? Spotify? Youtube?

When building your very own website the most important question is: How do I make it as successful as these?

There are 5 identifiable steps in order to make your website have the potential to be the next big thing. The steps are as follows:

1.Design for usability

2. Conversion-Centered Design

3. Customer Segments

4. Mobile First

5. Conversion Rate Optimization

In order to have a successful website it must be attractive. Users are not going to click on a link unless it benefits them in some sort of way. For example, when a user wants to watch a video of a trailer for an upcoming movie, where do they go? The answer to that question 9.9/10 times is going to be Youtube. Why? Youtube is a free site in which users can look up any video they could possibly want to watch while also getting suggestions for more videos of the same category. These types of sites have something that draws the user in to make it better than anything else. When your site is more attractive (i.e. more images, more suggestions) the user will prioritize this site of any other.

1.Design for Usability

This brings us to the first principle in building your website, Design for Usability. Users want to be visually drawn to a website in order to attract more interest in what you're willing to offer. Users want to see that your website contains things that interest them. For example, if you go to Youtube the very first videos you see will be of trending videos that many other people are also watching. This draws a user in and baits them into watching what everybody else is watching.

Boom you're hooked!

Other things that make your website have more usability is making links obvious to the user, eliminating distractions, breaking things up into categories, and following website conventions.

After all these things are completed you move to stage 2 of the process.

2. Conversion-Centered Design

In step 2 of the process you want to make sure that your website follows these guidelines:

Attention, Context, Clarity, Congruence, Credibility, Closing, and Continuance.

For example, when you go to amazon.com you will notice that everything on the site is easily accessible with just a few clicks. When you visit the site you will notice a personalized message for the visitor(attention) you will notice a personalized list of items based on previous searches and purchases(context) you will notice personalized categories listed in order of importance to you(clarity). In just the first page of the site you can see that half of the requirements are already fulfilled. If you were to then click on an item of your choosing you will get more information on the item as well as the price along with any potential sales(congruence). If you add the item to your cart you then see messaging based on an upcoming purchase(closing). Finally, if you purchase this item you will see a message that says thank you for your purchase and just below it it will say, continue shopping(continuance).

3. Customer Segments

Websites must appeal to all different types of consumers. Your website should contain different segments in order for different customers to take different actions based on their needs. For example, when you open most websites you will be prompted to create an account. Just below this prompt it will also say, if you already have an account, log in. These 2 sections of a webpage are examples of customer segments. Other examples may include having a search bar to quickly navigate your site, making an option to have different profiles on 1 account(streaming services), or even having an option to contact you(the website owner) for any needs the user has.

4. Mobile First

Almost every person in the world today has a smartphone or mobile device that has easy access to look up any website at any time. Typically people are more active on a mobile device rather than computers of other technology. To build a successful webpage you must appeal to consumers by having different format for different devices. For example, if you build a website to only fit to a computers screen than consumers visiting on a smartphone will have a hard time seeing all the information on your page that they would have if using a phone. Building a format for mobile devices that is different than the format for other devices is just one other way to attract a user to your page.

5. Conversion Rate Optimization

The final step of the process is definitely the most important. Users want to see change and the the same old boring website you uploaded years ago. Continuous changes to a model is what keeps consumers wanting more. In any industry there is constant change so that customers see more products, more services, and different ways of doing the things they want to accomplish. When you make a website, you must always track consumer data to see what the user is responding to the most but also what they respond to least. If you notice in the data that consumers don't really visit a specified section of your page, Get rid of it. Replace the section with something new that consumers want to see. Constant changes to a page is one of the best ways to get consumers to want to use your site.

Building a website is easy. Some would say its the easiest part. Getting users to actively visit and use your site is the hard part. By using these guidelines to implement different strategies will optimize the success your website builds. Like many other things you need time and effort to really succeed and creating an active and successful webpage is no exception to that. By implementing the 5 steps you have increased your chances of success.

Now get out there and start designing!