Correct Website Construction

How to build a website, the correct way?

The ultimate goal of any successful website is to provide a valuable service to the visitor, while satisfying the need of the webmaster. These needs could be the purchase of a product, sending of an inquiry, contacting the webmaster by phone, etc.
This axiom should be our guide when building a website, and highly prioritize the visitor's ease-of-use and comfort when making considerations about the website.
A correct and logical construction of the website will help in achieving this goal and prevent situations in which the webmaster is “stuck”, not knowing how to go on. This article will review some of the most important things to adhere when building a successful website.

First, define the need

What would be the purpose of the site? Would it be the product? Or maybe the contact form? Perhaps luring advertisers?
The answer to these questions will dictate the correct course of action.
The visitor should be exposed to the goal of the website and be able to understand that he's expected to do a certain action – without overexposing him to this goal. If advertisers are the target, they should be able to find a way of contacting the webmaster in mere moments.
A website must be constructed with maximum consideration of these factors. Studies prove that the attention span of internet users is short – if the visitor hasn't found the thing he was looking for, he'll just skip to the next website.
The goal should be clearly visible – a prominent link to the product, many ways to reach a form are some of the ways to accomplish that.

Put thought in the template

This is a critical part – it will define the way the site looks and feels.
In most cases, the wisest thing to do is to sit down and make a sketch of the layout on a paper. This will be the part in which we'll decide on the measurements, place the different items and make up our mind on how the site should look like. It's much easier to get work done with the desired outcome in front of our eyes!
Many webmasters mistakenly embark on website building quests, and then ponder on what to do next. The right way would be: first do the decision-making, then look for ways to accomplish that. An incorrect question would be “Do I need a news ticker for my website?” while its correct counterpart would be “I've decided that I need a news ticker. How do I actually add it?”.
This is the part when creativity is required and out-of-the-box thinking is rewarded – some actions would be tougher to do, but they would be more rewarding, and you might consider devoting time to learn some advanced and “exotic” features and end up with a more sophisticated website.
At this point, for example, we would decide on whether we would like to have a sole contact form or have one placed in every page, how the details should be displayed, if a recommendations page is necessary and what information we would like to provide on the “About” page.

Make note that the website must be relevant

The search engines (and the Internet in general) are mostly relevance-based. That is the basic premise of SEO.
A website that provides a relevant service to its visitor will be ranked higher than other sites.
An important question one should keep asking oneself should be “why should the occasional user see my site and what will he find to satisfy his need?”.
Many website builders mistakenly place their card on the Internet, hoping it would be enough. In fact, it's rarely enough. Let's make an example: a website for a law office should include not only the contact information, but also valuable articles in the lawyers' fields of expertise, noted cases the office has dealt with, and so on. Valuable and useful contents significantly increase the relevance of the website, together with it's draw of clientele.
Obviously, the home page should “sell” the product to the visitors before they have the chance to look elsewhere: provide information about your product, its benefits, and so on.
This, when looking at your site through the visitor's eyes, is crucial – try to present the idea to your friends and co-workers, have them simulate your potential buyers while you examine factors such as the amount of clicks it takes to reach the goal, the ease of use, how inviting the site is, etc.

Make final experimentations

This is the final stage of critique, in addition to all the information gathered while creating and testing the website.
Here we'll see if everything is clear and accessible. We'll count the number of clicks it takes to reach anywhere (it's called “depth”). We'll examine just how easy the navigation is. Try to determine whether the website design sells.
We must remember that a “good” website is a website that has some additional value to its visitor, while “selling” whatever it has to sell. Search engines are essentially trying to emulate the human way of thinking, so a website that is relevant to a human being would be relevant to the search engine (and respectively, ranked higher).

Good luck!