Despite being tuned with the latest trends in design these days to attract the most variated audience worldwide, successful businesses know that there are a certain number of implicit rules to follow if our aim is to create a website that goes viral within months.
There’s no need to have a further advanced knowledge to create a sleek website if you have a low budget and can’t rely on the services of expert web designers. That’s not the recipe for fame, and you can find some killer resources for crafting your website for free at this post, but the importance relies on knowing how Google works and how to attract users.
So, what to do in order to create a successful website? Let’s state those facts:
#1 – Loading speed:
Even if it looks visually appealing to have tons of images displayed or using third-party plugins, the truth is that there’s nothing that Google loves more than a website that loads quickly. Keep an eye on conflicting plugins and instruct your content managers to use image compression software to avoid heavy sized files that can slow down your loading time.
#2 – Dot com domains will rank better:
As you can check in the following infographic courtesy of Domain Name Sales, the popularity of .com domains goes as far as 20 times more than its immediate competitor, .net domains. Don’t use dash or hyphens in between words of the domain name, unless strictly necessary.
#3 – Secure your website from hacker intromission:
With the ever growing trend of cyber kidnappings, hackers need to innovate their techniques and there isn’t a best practice pool than to attack small, starting websites. Fortunately for us, most hosts do automatic backups of your site for you, although if you plan big and set off for an online store or trending blog, DoS protection is essential. Cloudflare services are one of the examples of secure website protection mostly used these days.
#4 – Keep an eye on broken links:
There’s nothing more frustrating to the user than finding out that the article they wanted to check isn’t available. Either because of you fixing the URL for SEO purposes or because just normally things tend to mess up (especially after hosting upgrades or plugin revisions), a wise approach is to do:
• Weekly checkup for broken links at most trendy post of your website
• Monthly checkup for broken links at all website
#5 – Social media interaction success:
Start with one platform, Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook, and set off for success. It’s best to start one by one and build an audience rather than doing a poor performance at the three of them.
#6 – Feature a reliable customer service:
Contrary to the belief that this only applies to online stores, blogging websites should also feature a 24/7 customer service to rank better. Why? Because it’s quite common for users to contact authors or editors regarding to content they read, either with doubts or just wanting to praise you/join your team as a writer.
#7 – Define traffic leading articles:
Top list articles are loved worldwide, regardless of their content, but product review articles can also get you quite the selected audience if you’re interested in building a niche of your own.
#8 – Build your email list:
Reach your audience through mail marketing. A visual appealing newsletter with links to the top-rated articles of the week, trendy products, etc. can become the second most important element in your to-do list for securing a loyal audience these days.
Keep an eye as well on mobile optimization, as it is the most common mistake beginner websites tend to do and why they lose followers.
In the end, it’s all about taking risks and proving that you can give something different to the internet. There are several inspiring stories of success for giving us strength in this process worth checking but remember: Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor your star website.
