What is the most important feature a website can have?

Question

Ok, I'm planning to build a site.

What single features is going to optimize my chance of success. Where do I put the most effort?

• Nice design.
• Simple design.
• Clear purpose.
• Low response time.

How would your list look like?

Answer 1

1. Content

2. Usability. Can I get where I want to go in a way that doesn't require deciphering?

Answer 2

The first is good content, and then I would suggest a good search. I would consider spidering your site, rather than using a db search.

Answer 3

I have to argue that even if the first two may be the same thing the third one is somewhat different. A lot of my clients are missing that point. They tend to want every feature that youtube, myspace and facebook have on their site without even the slightest idea why someone would want to use it.

Answer 4

Plan your target audience carefully and then make sure to put more emphasis on that audience, but dont alienate non target audiences. I know that is not a feature, but requires important planning for design and content.

EDIT, as requested: The best thing I can think of as an example atm is lets say you have a motorcycle enthusiast website. You want to make it geared to bikers and such, but what you dont want to do is have the links to sections labeled as some jargon that ONLY a biker would know. This prevents someone who may be interested in the subject, or future interest but does not understand the language yet from even really getting use of the site, They will get frustrated and maybe never return. I have seen this happen, like I am sure we all have. Things along those lines is what i mean.

Answer 5

I would say all things that you mtentioned are important.

And i would like to add another one:

uniqueness

Nobody needs a copy(neither a good or bad) of a website that already exists, do something nobody is doing and you will succeed

Answer 6

Cross browser compatibility

Optimum use of asyc calls to feel the site as a desktop like application for great response

Answer 7

1. Content
2. Content
3. Content
4. Usability, simple design

Content is the most important, if you have no good content, it doesn't really matter if your site has low response time, nice design. There won't be much visitors anyway if you have no content that interests them.

Answer 8

1. content

As many others here have mentioned; content <- content is still king on the web. you can have the nicest design, quickest load times, best search tool. but if you got rubbish content, your bounce rate will be really high.

for example; if you sell products online and provide a 1 line description of a product and a 64x64 pixel photograph, people will just go elsewhere.

2. fitness for audience

your site needs to be geared towards the people who are going to be using it. other people would call this usability, but this can be a vague concept to people who havent been doing usability for years. for example, if you expect people to stay on your site reading long articles, then having distracting animations in side-bars isnt going to help your cause.

• LM

Answer 9

You need content, to draw in visitors... and not just any old stuff, something that will engage the visitor, and cause them to re-visit

Regular updates will help with this... if the site stays the same for a year, is it going to cause people to re-visit?

The above obviously doesn't apply to "meme" or "cult" sites... I mean - how many hits does hamster dance get?

Don't forget though, that a good way to get your users visiting is user generated content. If your users feel that they are making a valid contribution to the site, and are being rewarded for it somehow, then they'll come back... (this site is a great example) though... it doesn't mean that it should neccesarily ALL be user generated... that's hard to get off the ground.

Don't clog your users down... If they have to wait > 10 secs on their first visit to actualy be able to determine what the site is, they're going to dissapear... never to be seen again. If they have to wait a long time to be able to use the site, the same.

Make the site accessible... make sure it works on as many browsers as you can, doesn't require Java, Flash, Shockwave etc just to be able to view/use the site, make sure things work with Javascript off, make sure your content is laid out in a way that's not going to put off people with screen readers, and make sure you have a good contrast, so it can be read by colour blind people.

I can probably think of more, but, this should do for now.

Answer 10

The point in building/designing a page for is that you should explicitly NOT focus on only one area of interest.

After my opinion, many pages are built for serving one main purpose. Don't get me wrong, content is incredibly important, even vital for a web page. But average users will not often come back if they experience an inconsistent user interface or the web page is dead ugly.

A good web page combines all of the issues addressed. Being good in one aspect leverages another.

Answer 11

A clear navigation.

Answer 12

A lot of users seem to be talking about content :) . I'd say simple design is probably more important than fancy, nice-looking design. Unless your website is about artwork (including games, paintings, sculpture), you probably don't need to make use of things like Flash. Visitors to your main page should realize what your page is about immediately, if they haven't figured it out before they got there. If for some reason it won't be fully obvious upon arrival, either fix it or make an about page. I find myself annoyed when I encounter a webcomic which doesn't provide me a synopsis, ideally more than a sentence. Fast-loading is more important than pretty graphics, in part because pretty graphics just are not that important. Assuming your website is primarily delivering text content, you should do as little as possible to interfere with its delivery.

Answer 13

Repeating most other people here - content. Compelling design might get you one-off visits, compelling content will bring people back.

Intriguing feeds, ironically, build the brand. Some of the websites I trust the most are one I actually visit the least because I read them via my feedreader. Their content gets to me, while their website is of very definite secondary importance. I'll go to them for more detail or for the followup discussion, but it's what they are saying that is making the impact rather than how they are saying it.

So,

1. make the content interesting, and
2. make it available in ways that people will find useful.

Answer 14

a url, you're not going to get very far without one

Answer 15

In addition to other comments: Mobile phone browser friendly

Answer 16

I thought it was a visits counter :)

Answer 17

To quote the title of a book on web usability, "Don't make me think!". It should be easy for a person to find what they're looking for, and quickly.

Answer 18

• Content - a bad site with good content will still get (some) visitors.
• Usability - make sure when you do get visitors, they can use your site easily and effectively. Don't scare them off!
• Accessibility - Unless you control niche, you are competing for limited trade - don't dismiss a sizeable, potential customer base.

And in last place:

• shiny UI gimmicks - sure if you have a successful site and time to spare, devote some time to adding something shiny, but don't let it get in the way of the three above...

Answer 19

HTTP.

The rest is negotiable :)

Answer 20

Simplicity, nothing else.

Answer 21

There's so many good answers already that I'm opting for the most important feature that hasn't already been mentioned.

• Let your users have easy access too their own and site wide data. Let your users undo your wrongs, let them make your websites experience into what they want without you being forced to cator and consider every little oppinion people have.

This can mean alot of things. Feeds, APIs for retrieving ones own user data. The point is make it easy for people too work for you and scratch their personal itches.

Answer 22

Conditionally included HTML that warns users of IE6 to upgrade to FireFox, Safari, Opera or Chrome. Or at the very minimum IE7... ;)

A good example can be found here; http://ra-ajax.org/the-fair-upgrade-from-ie6-banner.blog