Peach Technologies (digital division)

If you have an existing site, or plan to develop one in the near future, it's important to understand the characteristics that can make or break the effectiveness of your online investment. An unattractive or poorly built site will do more to hurt your business than to help it. Lets touch on the five general components involved in making a website successful.

1) Appearance
A site must be visually appealing, polished and professional. Remember, it's reflecting your company, your products and your services. Your website may be the first, and only, impression a potential customer receives of your company.

An attractive site is far more likely to generate a positive impression and keep visitors on your site once they arrive. As businesses large and small continue to populate the web, your challenge is to attract and keep users' attention.

2) Content
Along with style, your site must have substance. Remember that your audience is looking for information that will help them make a decision, so it should be informative and relevant. Use this opportunity to increase visitor confidence in your company's knowledge and competence.

3) Functionality
Every component of your site should work quickly and correctly. Broken or poorly constructed components will only leave your visitors frustrated and disillusioned with your company. Across the spectrum, everything should work as expected, including hyperlinks, contact forms, site search, event registration, and so on.

4) Error-free copy
Remember the exposure your website will get. Double-check your facts and figures, as you don't know who may be quoting you tomorrow. Nor do you want to be recognised or remembered for typos, incorrect grammar and punctuation, or misspellings. Spelling mistakes and bad grammar are as unforgivable on a website as they are in other company materials.

5) Usability
A critical, but often overlooked component of a successful website is its degree of usability. Your site must be easy to read, navigate, and understand. Some key usability elements include:

• Simplicity
• Fast-loading pages
• Minimal scroll
• Consistent layout
• Prominent, logical navigation
• Descriptive link text
• Cross-platform/browser compatibility
• Screen Resolution

There are hundreds of rules and guidelines for effective search engine optimisation. For starters, follow these simple rules:

• Include plenty of written content in HTML format. Don't use Flash, JavaScript or image-only objects for your navigational items.
• Use your important keywords frequently and appropriately in your copy.
• Minimise the use of tables and use Cascading Style Sheets for layout and positioning; keep your HTML code clutter-free.
• Leverage your links - make them descriptive and use your keywords in the link text

We've barely scratched the surface of what makes a website most effectively. However, by following these simple guidelines, you will be headed in the right direction.

If you feel a little lost... don't worry we are a bunch of creatives, digi geeks and developers who love to create online awesomeness.