recipes for spider soup

so what does it take to make a great website? a flashy intro...cool images...dynamic copy...???

 

recently i was asked the same question by someone from the media, writing an article for a small business publication. he wanted to know what essentials each site should have to be successful. 

the answer was not as simple as you might think. what defines a 'great site' has a lot to do with the goals of the people behind it. does your business need more sales leads? then the site should be geared around collection of visitor information. should the site bring in revenue? then maybe it needs a store. 

defining a great site for small business means first defining your business goals. your site should help your company reach those goals and should be a useful and expandable tool in achieving these as your business grows and changes.

are there certain core elements that most or all businesses need in their site? well, yes, to an extent...

...every site needs a home page, and that page should direct your visitors to the interior pages that help to meet your goals. 

...most visitors also want to know something about your company and possibly the people behind it. some pages dedicated to those efforts is usually a good idea.

...whether you sell products or services, your site should deal with helping visitors understand what you do. i usually recommend customer stories and testimonials to the quality of what a business offers, but that isn't always possible depending on the state of the business (new companies and products need time to develop a customer base) or the product/service (some are limited by contracts and confidentiality needs).

....usually business sites also need a way to connect with customers, either through a contact form, phone/email information and office or store locations. there are a lot of ways to do this, from email links to forms that dump lead information into your database, but again, your business goals should drive this.

so all that being said, a business site still needs more than just these elements to be 'great'. depending on your business model and goals, your site should communicate and connect with the visitor. this is achieved through the content, navigation, design and text that make up the site. it's the balance of these elements and defining how they work to meet you business goals that make a site 'great'.