What Makes A Good Website?
Updated: Feb 10
There is no getting around the fact that in 2023 your website is a direct reflection of your business or practice. If it doesn't work well or looks a bit tired, people may assign this negative impression to your services no matter how good they are.
If you want to know if your site is fit for purpose, take a look at the following checklist to see if you are fine as is or need an upgrade:
Functionality
Speed - your website should load quickly (within a second or two) when visitors arrive and move between pages.
Responsive - IT HAS TO BE MOBILE FRIENDLY. Most of our research is done on mobile phones so your website has to work well on different devices. Not just the design - every link needs to be clickable, every form needs to be accessible and menu item available.
Optimised for Search Engines / Google - You will likely get most of your free traffic from Google so make your site can be found by using SEO / Search Engine Optimisation (more on that here).
Design
Back in the day, websites were packed with content in a effort to cover all bases. This is no longer that case as its not a very nice experience for visitors to have to wade through everything. It also looks bad. Your site design should be professional, impactful and most importantly, fit the tone of your practice or business. It should 'feel' like an extension of your practice and include the branding you carry across your signage and materials.
Content
Your website should have all the essential content needed - information about your services, information about your practice / business including credentials, contact methods, links to social media (if you have profiles), google map (if you have a location that people visit). Additional resources such as FAQ, Blog, Testimonials or Case Studies will help visitors to see the value in your services over other providers.
Experience
Can your visitor find what they are looking for in a couple of clicks? Avoid having layers of menu options, and make good use of your homepage so that visitors can easily navigate the site and locate the information they need quickly.
Here is a simple example of a practice website that meets these requirements:
https://aermarketing.wixsite.com/psychotherapist