There are many tips to building an effective website that even the professionals sometimes miss, and it is important to build yourself a solid checklist to ensure that you include all the key components.
Decide who the target audience is, and what they are looking for. What age are they? What terminology will appeal best to them? You must also be knowledgeable on the subject matter to ensure good search engine optimisation.
For example, if you are building a website for a tourist site, you must have a good working knowledge of Travel SEO , and understand what search terms potential visitors may be using.
Use the keywords descriptively, but do not overuse them. The text has to be engaging for the reader as well as being attractive to the robots! In order to be effective, the site needs to be easy to navigate. Any first time user will leave the landing page within seconds if they cannot find what they are looking for.
Many people will visit your site looking for contact details, and yet it is incredible how difficult many sites make it to find even this basic information! Likewise, if the links are difficult to navigate or if the whole design is just too complicated, it will put people off. Keeping it focused and simple is the key.