What Makes a Good Website - Simple Guide for Beginners

Okay, you have your company and brand ready. Now you want to get your website up but what's all this gibberish your website guy is telling you? Is it even English? Let's get a basic understanding of websites.

Domain Name

This is basically the link/URL/name of your website that goes.. www.yourbrand.com
Ideally, it should be as short as possible, easy to say/remember and doesn't sound like another brand name.

Good Website Hosting

Hosting is the space you're renting to place your website or you could say it's like renting a store space in a shopping mall. Make sure your hosting is sufficient, fast and reliable. You wouldn't want users to open your website and be greeted with a big white page with the words 'Bandwidth Exceeded' on it! This would be equivalent to the shopping mall being closed.

There are tonnes of web hosts out there so take your time looking through and comparing them. You can see some of the web hosts that Wordpress recommends or take a look at this list where WHSR recommends the 8 best web hosting companies for Malaysia/Singapore websites.

Fast Loading Speed

With technology advancement, people start getting things they want faster, and they also start getting very impatient.. A popular store should rent a bigger shop space (hosting) to accommodate the number of customers and also products (website content). Web hosting has a significant impact on the page load speed but it is only one of the factors. Removing unnecessary elements and optimising images for web use before uploading them will greatly reduce the loading time.

Mobile-friendly Responsive Design

In this day and age, your website really should be mobile-friendly already as most visitors are using their phones to access your site. Websites that are not mobile-friendly are also penalised by Google and their ranking on the search engine giant becomes lower.

The design on a responsive website 'moves' depending on your screen size which are loosely categorised into: computer, tablet and mobile phone. The aim here is to make your website look good on ALL 3.

Provide Value in Your Content

Many brands make the mistake of only writing what they want to write. Below is part of an actual conversation I had with a client:

"I paid for this website so I should put all the information I can."

Yes, I understand where you're coming from but I call this brand narcissism. Stop talking about yourself. Instead, try telling your audience how your brand/product can improve their lives.

❌ We sell movie tickets and have been awarded with Best Innovation Award.

✅ Buy your tickets online in advance to ensure you get the seats you want!

Call to Action

What do you want a user to do at your website? What is your ultimate goal?

1. Sign up for my course
2. Go to my e-store
3. Provide their contact number

Whatever your goal is, make it easy to access with the least number of clicks possible. This doesn't mean making a flashing pop up appear immediately when visitors open your page though - place it strategically!

Get a Copywriter & Designer

If you want to make your brand look professional, invest a little more to get a good copywriter and design. This potent combination can express your brand message faster and effectively.

Add a Blog Section

What is a blog and why do you need it? No, it is not a space for you to dump event photos and newspaper scans. Read up on the purpose of a blog and how you can use it.