When I sat down to write this blog, I couldn’t help but notice the uncanny similarities between the creation of a good website and a stellar camping experience. The changing of the seasons and my excitement for bonfires, tents, kayaking and breathtaking views may be to blame, but stay with me here . . .

The evolution of website design and development over the past few years has created quite an exciting change for web users. The move to full width responsive websites showcasing large quality images, simple and engaging content and seamless navigation has streamlined the user experience.

That being said, when creating a new website the user should be top of mind. Start out by understanding what it is your visitors are looking for and then deliver that so they have a happy and valuable website experience. Hey, after all, you want them to set-up camp and stay a while, right?

Here are four tips to creating an effective website:

How’s the view? Like any top-notch adventure, visitors want an enjoyable and exciting view. Is your website visually pleasing to the eye of your target audience? Good website design gratifies the audience it caters to. Quality and meaningful images, unique graphics, prominent call-to-actions and buttons of complementary colors should all be considered in the design of your new website.

Adobe has a great tool for creating color combinations for your design: Click here

Are you providing a valuable map? A streamlined sitemap and navigation should be top of mind when creating a new website. Consider yourself the tour guide of their experience. You want to direct them through the site with engaging content, links to additional pages and a call-to-action. How easily visitors find their way around the site and are able to engage with the content greatly benefits your site ranking.

Is your content informative? Like the handy information desk at all tourist stops, information should be easily accessible and informative to your visitors. Each page on the site should have a clear purpose, a well thought out title and should also utilize headings, subheadings and bulleted lists. Content should be created with your user in mind. What topics will excite them? What information are they looking for when they visit your site?

Is the site active and in working order? Or did the maintenance man take the summer off?

• Are there broken links?
• Does the site take a long time to load?
• Are there certain tools that don’t quite work correctly?
• Is the last blog post outdated?

You have seconds to engage or lose your audience. When visitors run into the examples above, they’re quickly lost. Outdated or minimal content shows the site hasn’t been kept up and credibility of the brand diminishes. It’s important once you create a great site to maintain the content and functionality.

Try incorporating these four tips into your website plans to assure you have happy visitors who want to return!