What should a modern website be like?

In today's dynamic world, a website is no longer limited to the role of a company's showcase. It has become the central point of contact with both customers and potential business partners. Its importance cannot be overestimated, so it is worth investing in its quality. In this article, we will delve into the main aspects that a modern website should meet.

If, after reading this article, you feel the need to explore the topic further, we have prepared a comprehensive checklist for you that will allow you to assess step by step whether your company's website meets all the criteria discussed in the text.

Regulations regarding the use of cookies on websites have existed for some time. Even though entrepreneurs are aware of the need to comply with them, in practice they do not always do so fully in accordance with the law.

While developing our customer base, we paid particular attention to two key issues:

1. Cookie Consent Dialogs/Panels: The creators of many websites limit themselves only to informing users about the use of cookies. Few offer a real option to choose which specific types of files a user consents to.

A very important aspect is to allow the user to control which cookies he consents to, not only in terms of required and non-required files, but also in terms of sources (e.g. GA4, Hotjar). The user should also be able to modify their preferences at any time. A useful solution is to place an appropriate link in the footer of the page, leading to the dialog panel.

2. Respecting the User's Decision: Unfortunately, many websites place cookies before obtaining the user's consent. We see this especially often on WordPress-based websites. Lack of full programming control over the website may lead to undesirable consequences.

Additionally, it often happens that contact forms are missing a checkbox, ticking which is a condition for sending a message. Although there is a temptation to send marketing content to as many recipients as possible, it is worth considering how we want to be perceived by customers. Is it as a company that clearly communicates its intentions, or rather as one that focuses only on raising funds from customers.

It is worth noting that entities storing personal data (as well as e-mail addresses) are subject to obligations related to the appropriate security of this data. Although there is currently no exact definition of how personal data should be secured, it is worth doing everything you can to avoid potential problems in the future.

Login to the server

Most often, logging in to the server where the website is located is done using SSH (Secure Shell). If it's secure, it would seem that it's already safe. Yes and no.

As standard, you enter your server login and password, and then you can safely manage the machine. It is a simple, intuitive and safe solution.

However, the problem arises elsewhere. Well, every day servers around the world are scanned by bots. According to a study conducted by scientists from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, the times of this type of attacks are as follows:

As you can see, cracking an SSH password takes on average ~455 hours, which translates into approximately 19 days. It is true that you can set long and complicated passwords, but then the login process will no longer be convenient. None of us wants to enter an invocation when logging in.

The simplest solution to this problem is to configure SSH to use public and private key logins. It is worth suggesting this solution to your technical department. Especially since the median password cracking time is only 2 hours. Additionally, by adding a bot that does this while we are sleeping, an explosive mixture is created, which may prove to be very costly for the company.

HSTS and not just HTTPS

HSTS is a more advanced version of security than regular HTTPS for a website. HTTPS provides encryption between the browser and the server, which protects user data from unauthorized access. HSTS goes a step further and instructs browsers visiting your site to always use a secure HTTPS connection, eliminating the risk of unsafe situations.

Thanks to HSTS, the browser "remembers" that the page must always be loaded via HTTPS, not HTTP. This means that regardless of Man-in-the-Middle attack attempts, the browser will not allow the page to load over an insecure connection. Thanks to this, hackers will not be able to impersonate your website to influence the image of your company or intercept your customers' data.

Protection against DDoS attacks

According to a report prepared by Cloudflare, which is one of the leading anti-DDoS services, the number of attacks in 2022 increased by 79%, which is a trend that has been going on for some time. In the context of a website, such an attack causes it to be overloaded, so that customers will not be able to use it.

It is worth making sure that you have such protection. Importantly, when choosing a tool, we should choose solutions hosted close to the customers/target group. We've seen many times that someone significantly degraded their website's performance by opting for solutions hosted in the United States.

In the context of building user experience on a website, great attention is paid only to properly adapted texts and the arrangement of elements encouraging the user to take action on the website, regardless of what it is. This approach was sufficient a few years ago. Nowadays, you should also pay attention to page speed.

According to the Milliseconds make Millions report prepared by Deloitte Digital, website speed can directly translate into money flowing to the company. This report showed that site wait time was the number one reason why mobile customers chose to leave the site. In the areas studied, a reduction in charging time of just 0.1 s resulted in the following increases:

As you can see, the increases were in the range of 8-10%, but it should be remembered that this was a reduction in the page loading time by only 0.1 second. It is true that in the case of smaller companies, a mere acceleration of 0.1 second may not give such drastic results. However, acceleration by more than 3 seconds will definitely make a big difference in conversions and sales

According to data provided by Econsultancy, 1 in 4 visitors will leave a website if it takes longer than 4 seconds to load. What is important is that the user left the website before he started reading the content on it. Therefore, even the best-prepared content leading through a perfectly planned funnel may turn out to be ineffective if a person does not even enter it.

The average website loading time is 8.6 s on mobile devices according to tests conducted among TOP 100 websites. For comparison, the Betterize home page has a loading time of around 2 seconds. If you want to learn more about website speed, please read this article.

WordPress, while once a popular choice, has over time become outdated and cumbersome to manage. That's why today we focus on websites that are intuitive, easy to use, and at the same time guarantee the highest level of performance.

An easy-to-manage website shouldn't just be considered in the context of increasing team productivity. It is true that WordPress harvesters are still very popular. Unfortunately, their popularity is currently due to the fact that they are fashionable, not because they are easy to maintain.

The simplicity of the content management system allows you to save valuable time and avoid unnecessary complications. An easy-to-manage website allows you to quickly add content, update and customize content without the need to engage expensive specialists. This also means that new employees can quickly learn how to use the website, which translates into increased team efficiency and flexibility. And in the case of fields where content must be created by specialists, we save time by relieving them of the burden of learning another tool that, in the end, they do not need.

We often hear the argument: "Mr. Kowalski already has a business card website and doesn't need any more." In fact, it's worth considering whether this approach is best, especially in the context of updating or creating a new website. There are contexts where a business card page is sufficient, for example a one-person hairdressing salon.

However, we wonder if "sufficient" has to be the only option. Let's consider this scenario: the hairdresser in our neighborhood has a business card website, but what would happen if we added a blog to it? This blog could cover the latest hair trends while offering education to customers. This is a simple step that would allow you to reach a wider group of people.

Let's also think about redirecting traffic from social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to our website. This would increase visibility and attract new customers. What does it matter? Of course, the increased number of customers will allow us to increase the price of our services without any major difficulties.

First of all, you should think about a website as a tool that plays a very important role in the customer purchasing process. Creating a channel that provides properly educated customers is definitely an aspect that cannot be ignored. All the more so because all the things collected on the website are useful not only when conducting a marketing campaign.

Responsive Design

A perfectly styled website should be adapted to various devices, which is called the RWD (Responsive Web Design) approach. This means that the website automatically adapts to computer, tablet and smartphone screens. It might seem that RWD has been a standard for a long time, but many websites still do not meet it.

Headless approach

In typical websites created in content management systems such as WordPress, the website is one coherent system both in terms of content and style. This means you have to worry about both. You can limit yourself to a headless approach, in which the website management panel is separated from the appearance.

For the person managing the website, this means that they are only interested in editing the content. All types of elements that can be added to the website are prepared in advance by programmers. Thanks to this, the website will always look perfectly styled. This approach requires more time when creating the page. However, it will be worth it if the website is to stay with us for a longer time.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a key element of every modern website. This is important not only for the website's visibility in search engine results, but also for attracting new customers. SEO optimization means, among others: using appropriate keywords, friendly headings and content, and appropriate meta tags.

However, the magic begins when we have to do the SEO work ourselves or outsource it to someone from our team. Many CMS tools and add-ons provide the ability to analyze content. Unfortunately, it most often does it in a user-unfriendly way.

When choosing a CMS system, it is very important to check how the information related to it is edited. Nobody wants their effort put into preparing content interesting for users to be wasted just because the post will not reach anyone. Below you can see how simple it can be when using Strapi CMS.