March 28, 2022
Talking about a website audit, it’s important to consider that there are approximately 400 million active websites on the World Wide Web today.
1. Speed
You’ve probably heard this rather scary statistic: 53% of mobile users typically click off a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load! Needless to say, speed is essential to how well your website performs with users.
A high bounce rate is most often caused by low website speed. Although WordPress websites tend to run pretty fast, it’s still a bit tricky to get optimal speed for every region users will access your site from.
You need to ensure that your website is speed-optimized for every region possible, so whether your target audience is in your country or on the other side of the globe, your website opens and runs quickly!
Another top priority for website development is web security. That green lock icon next to your URL is important! It shows users that your website is secure and thus, their information is secure with it. Search engines also prefer secure websites when ranking them on search engine results pages.
Your website needs to be secure from potential hackers, which means having an SSL certificate. An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. SSL forms an encryption barrier between the link server and the host on a website, protecting data. This makes online transactions on your website secure, protecting user data from hackers and malware software.
Accessibility shouldn’t be overlooked when creating a website you intend to be widely used. A good website has capabilities that allow differently-abled users to access it and use its features as fully as possible.
Additionally, your website needs to have a responsive, ‘mobile-friendly design. That means your website looks just as good on a mobile as it does on a desktop, with no compromise on its features or speed. Search engines like Google rank mobile-friendly websites higher than non-mobile-friendly websites.
So not only do you risk losing traffic through disappointed users, but you also risk losing traffic by simply losing visibility on SERPs.
Creating a speed-optimized, secure, accessible, and responsive website is better left to the professionals. We recommend hiring a web design agency or web design services to do the job right.
Alright, now that we’ve discussed the key characteristics that qualify a website as ‘good’, let’s explore how you can achieve this and most importantly, maintain it.