How to Make the Best Website Possible
By: Matt Saunders
Tags: Content Writing, Web Design, Web Development, Nonprofit, Branding

How to Make the Best Website Possible

First off let me get my credentials out of the way: I created my first website in 2001 and have built hundreds since then as a professional developer for over 15 years.

That might sound like a lofty introduction, but I feel I need it to qualify what I’m about to say: most websites are terrible.

Awful at engaging users, or even knowing who the user is

Badly coded making them inaccessible for users with impairments, on mobile devices or who are not tech-savvy

Put together by teams who haven’t done their research or lack much-needed passion for the project.

My hard-learned experience has taught me that successful website projects need at least three core ingredients, and I’m going to share them with you now.

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

What makes a website actually *effective*?

Effective websites provide answers to questions. They add value to businesses. They exist for a clear purpose. After 15 years I can confidently say that to succeed, websites need:

A comprehensive brand identity

A well-planned content strategy

A team that gives a damn.

Without these three things firmly in place, your website will most likely not deliver a return on your investment. Let me explain why.

#1 Your brand identity is what makes you… you

Allow me to wax lyrical for a moment on the subject of brand.

Brand is the expression of your organisation’s values. Most people confuse a brand with a logo, thinking it refers only to the visual symbol that represents a company. Whilst this is certainly a core part of brand identity, how you get to the logo is where the brand experience lives.

Brand is the expression of your organisation’s values. Most people confuse a brand with a logo, thinking it refers only to the visual symbol that represents a company.

For my website clients I work with Will, a brand designer for social-purpose organisations. His process involves taking the client through a number of workshops to uncover the meaning behind the organisation. Why do they exist? It is a powerful, introspective exercise that fosters a good conversation.

How can an organisation effectively present itself to the world without first knowing who it is?

You might think “we’re only small so we don’t need a fancy logo” but the process of understanding your own brand positioning is worth going through because it goes well beyond aesthetics. It can lead to some interesting discussions around how you’re perceived by others, and what you feel about yourself.

And on a practical level, having a robust brand simply makes websites more effective. Don’t cheap out on it.

#2 Content is everything

What do you think when you hear the word “content”?

Sometimes it feels like all we hear about. Content is nebulous but let’s keep it simple and refer to the tangibles: text and pictures.

As a cost-saving exercise it’s often tempting to write your own content. It makes sense: you know your services and audience better than anyone else.

But the problem is that most people aren’t professional copywriters. There is a real art to distilling the core services of an organisation and presenting them in an accessible and engaging way.

Professional copywriting can seriously level-up your website.

Over twenty years ago(!) usability consultant Jakob Nielsen wrote:

“The biggest problem is that most people are (and always have been) bad content creators. That’s why we have professional writers, graphic designers, filmmakers, speakers, musicians, and other types of media professionals. When an average person tries to create content, they typically don’t have much to say and what they do say is often said badly” — Jakob Nielsen

I work with clients to develop a top-level overview of their website content. This architectural document gives us something tangible to make sense of how pages hang together and how users may flow through them. But a copywriter will add significant value by:

Writing effective page headings, ensuring the content that follows remains true to the subject of the page, eliminating waffle

Producing “snippets” — brief overviews of each page which can be used elsewhere in the website or presented as summary text in Google

Creating compelling calls to action on each page, prompting the reader to do something.

The bottom line is this: every piece of content on your site needs to serve a purpose. This means clearly articulating who the reader is, and what they are supposed to done once they’ve consumed that content. Do they get in touch with you? Subscribe to your newsletter? Make a donation? Buy a product? Or simply walk away with peace of mind, knowing it’s you they can thank?

The bottom line is this: every piece of content on your site needs to serve a clear purpose.

Far too much of the web lacks this fundamental clarity. Most content is confusing, incomplete or simply wrong, left to stagnate and go out of date. Investing in your content is central to making your website work for you.

#3 All you need is love

This is the secret ingredient.

It is what is lacking from so much of our working lives, of our society. Sturgeon’s Law applies to website design as much as it does everything else.

It’s really hard to do good work that produces good results if the delivery team doesn’t really care.

I spent years working with clients who’s businesses I had little interest in, with teams who were in permanent conflict trying to get one over on each other.

Projects like this are going to be uninspiring and lead to burn-out. What we need to do is develop symbiotic relationships between all components of the project: the problems we’re trying to solve, the individuals within the team, the end users of the product. This works best when there are people, or at least a leader, who cares passionately for the outcome.

When a piece of work has been put together by a team who deeply respect the project, it has a finesse that you can just feel. Care manifests in attention to details — spacing, typography choices, good photos, a coherent tone of voice. You can’t fake this stuff.

When a team is emotionally invested in the end product, whatever it is, the outcome is always going to be much more impactful. Work with those who give as damn.