The most important success factors for a good website

Creating a successful website starts on a technical level. If you focus on a concise domain that represents your company in the best possible way, your chances of having people visit your pages increase significantly. The domain can generate curiosity and trust at the same time.

It's a similar story with security features - especially the use of an SSL certificate. If one is not present, modern browsers will even issue a security warning before the website in question. This would not only have a very negative impact on visitor numbers, but ultimately on the perception of your entire brand.

Not to forget: The presence of an SSL certificate is absolutely SEO-relevant today and one of the ranking factors officially published by Google.

Web users usually have little time. They want answers to their questions as quickly and directly as possible. Therefore, when visiting your website, it should already be clear after a few seconds that your company can contribute to the solution of a specific problem or wish. Otherwise, they will promptly look at your competitors.

Answering the W-questions (Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? What for?) in the content of each page of your website can increase the chances of a claim (of what? Is the company meant in its entirety? If so, I'd write it that way - I'd find a claim of sub-pages strange) significantly increased. And the more your pages are used the better their ranking on Google will be.

Today's users expect websites to work in all major browsers and screen resolutions. You should ensure that your target group has no problems using your web offer.

Typical criteria for accessibility are text alternatives, such as images and videos, a uniform design and advantageous structures, a suitable contrast ratio and meta information. Especially the latter also form an important ranking factor for Google.

Today's web users are particularly looking for information that helps them solve specific challenges or needs. Content that does just that is particularly relevant and is therefore used intensively, which in turn makes up a significant part of the success of a website.

Here, the focus should also be on comprehensibility. Ideally, the wording of the respective target group is adopted exactly. Difficult technical terms should generally be kept to a minimum, as they can even make it difficult for corresponding professionals to understand the context. If you want to build up rankings with your website for certain technical terms, it is advisable to combine the technical term with the wording of your target group. This also applies to text entries such as a search function.

Many people who move around on the Internet are looking for orientation - and not only on the information level, but also with regard to the use of corresponding online offers. Call-to-actions (CTA) take on an important task here: They (ideally) tell visitors to a website what to do in the next step. Of course, they can be used in a first-class way to guide (potential) customers closer to the purchase decision.

Interaction opportunities are often associated with CTAs. For example, visitors are invited to leave a comment or use the contact form to request a quote. Interactions are very relevant on a website in that they are associated with many typical conversions. However, they are also capable of significantly increasing the intensity of web usage. Last but not least, they also promote the chances of a good ranking.

Usability is on everyone's lips as a success factor for websites. No wonder, because even an internet presence, no matter how attractively designed and equipped with the most relevant information, will of course never reach its full potential if it is not well usable.

A good company website, on the other hand, allows visitors to easily and quickly get to exactly the facts or features that are needed. This, in turn, is usually rewarded by heavy usage. For Google, this is a signal for a good user experience (UX), which can contribute significantly to the optimization of the ranking.

Web design, usability and user experience are inextricably linked. Of course, the design should always be unique in order to create a unique position - but it should also not deviate too much from the habits of the target group and should be easy to use according to the usability criterion.

If the web design is right, this usually has a great influence on the positive design of the UX - and this in turn has a beneficial effect on the perception of your brand and of course again on your SEO.

In fact, a fast loading time is one of the most important criteria for a good website. Here again, the typical hurry of today's Internet users plays a major role. If a page takes longer than two seconds to load, a significant number of users jump straight off again.

With fast loading websites, on the other hand, more pages are called up on average in the course of a session, which of course means an increased chance of achieving the targeted conversions. Last but not least, Google also rates pages with a high PageSpeed positively.

Those who search the web for solutions to wishes or problems actually do so particularly frequently via Google. The search engine giant has a market share of more than 93 percent in Germany. The fact that SEO is decisive for the success of a website does not need to be explained further with this factual situation.

As you have already noticed, almost all of the preceding success factors for a good website are also SEO-relevant in one way or another - and this also applies to the following ones.

The use of mobile devices continues to increase steadily. (also in the B2B context) According to Statista, the share of mobile internet users is currently at 80 percent. As a result of this development, Google today actually only accepts the mobile variants of websites for its evaluations. Quite similar to the previously described criterion of search engine optimization, these developments speak for themselves in terms of website success relevance.

The term "user centricity" describes a concept that focuses on the users of a website and not on the goods or services sold by the respective company in general. By adopting a corresponding centricity, the starting point of the value chain shifts towards the (eventual) customer.

Such an attitude naturally forms a particularly fertile ground for a good website design that precisely serves the needs of the respective target group.

A good website makes it easy for visitors to contact the company. If communication is sought, this means a lead for you, an actual interest in your distributed goods or services, which you should take advantage of, and increased chances of closing a deal.

It is imperative to consider the specific requirements of your target audience here. Does your target audience prefer to use the phone or perhaps live chat, WhatsApp, etc. are in demand in your field? If you offer exactly the contact options that your target customers want, they will actually use them more.

Full compliance with the GDPR is, of course, absolutely necessary on a legal level. Otherwise, there is a risk of severe warnings and other negative legal effects.

On the other hand, a strategically clever handling of the corresponding guidelines can also contribute to your website being used more and your branding being pushed. To do this, be transparent for your visitors and try to keep the barriers in the cookie settings as low as possible.

Through web analytics, you can learn how your visitors behave on your pages. Looking at key analytics factors such as traffic, visit sources, movements, dwell times or the adoption of certain content will help you see how you can make your website not just good, but better.