When you hear the term “high quality” attached to an item, you probably think it took time and loads of benjamins for that item to be high quality. That may be the case for diamonds, Bentleys, and a good meal. But when it comes to a website, it’s easier than you think and much cheaper than you imagine. This will come to you as a surprise, but you don’t have to spend a lot to get a lot. In reality, a high quality website can be cost free assuming you are a type of person that pays VERY close attention to detail. Judgment of quality is a subjective task since one person may judge a website as low quality and another may judge as high quality. Some will disagree with me when I say that the three key elements to a high-quality website are professionally written content, fast loading times, and a user-friendly layout. So disagree with me all you like, but I am affirming that professionally written content, fast loading times, and a user-friendly layout makes a high-quality website.
Professionally written content provides visitors with trustworthy information that is void of grammar and spelling mistakes. Before you write anything, invest some time to research and fact-checking. If you write like you know what you’re talking about, then visitors to your site will likely believe what you have written. Always make sure you check your work for grammar or spelling mistakes. If a visitor reads content on a website that provokes their inner grammar Nazi to burst forth, then you have annoyed your visitor and will lose credibility as a website. Any sensible person would never stand for the misuse of “their” for “there” or “do” for “due.” Write like a pro, be read as a pro.
Nowadays, speed is everything because people have very little patience. I have a friend that grunted for having to wait more than 3 seconds for a page to load and my friend isn’t the only one grunting. A fast loading time will silence all would be grunters. The easiest way to speed things up is by reducing the quality of all images to a minimal setting. If the minimal setting for a cover photo is 400×400 and your photo is 1280×1280, reduce the size of your photo to 400X400. Smaller quality photos will load much faster than higher quality photos.
The layout of your website is like the furniture in your home. If you organize your furniture accordingly, the house will look fantastic. Also, no one wants to spend their time figuring out how to navigate through a website and some people aren’t tech-savvy. Best way to know if you have a user-friendly layout – can your grandparents or someone that’s not tech-savvy navigate through your website?
If your website possesses these three key elements, then you have a high-quality website. Oh, and Google’s Penguin and Panda algorithm programs will give you a thumbs up.