What Makes a Good Website? A Must-Haves Checklist

A good website helps visitors understand what you offer, makes it easy to take the next action, and provides a sense of trust and credibility for what you do. A flashy design and punchy content can set your website apart, but it also needs to be fast and secure, with clear navigation to boot. 

In other words, a good website isn't defined by any one feature. This can be a lot to consider if you’ve never made a website before, but whether you’re building your first website or your twentieth, the same core principles can ensure that your website is built to succeed. 

In a world where anyone can stand up a functional website in no time, these are the elements that will make yours stand out.

1. Clear site navigation

Your site navigation is the menus, lists, and buttons that help a user (or a search engine) find their way through your website. To keep bounce rates low and visitors engaged, organize your content and pages for easy and intuitive browsing. Visitors should be able find what they're looking for within a couple of clicks at most.

Your most important pages should be the easiest to discover. The most visited pages on most websites are contact information and main services pages—these should be accessible from every other page in just one click. 

When it comes to site navigation, the best strategy is to keep things simple: descriptive labels are better than clever marketing copy when site visitors are trying to find an answer. 

For example, a hair salon looking to fill the calendar would be best served having information about their pricing and their stylists front and center, plus a clear way to book an appointment online. Having these links in the main menu of the website makes the user experience easier compared to burying a single “Book an Appointment” button at the bottom of a page.

2. Fast load times

A fast website should load in 2-3 seconds. If your website is slow to populate and leaves visitors waiting around, they might bounce instead, so it’s crucial to keep things running smoothly.

But how exactly do you know if your website is fast or slow? For Google search, this is typically broken down into three metrics known as “Core Web Vitals”:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how long it takes for the largest visual element to fully render, whether it’s a hero image, video, or text block.

• Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measures response times to clicks or taps on links, buttons, and other on-page elements. 

• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures visual stability once elements start loading on the user's screen. 

A reliable website builder like Squarespace handles a lot of page speed considerations for you, from hosting and servers to most of the core design layout. That said, there are still a few common culprits that slow site speeds that you can avoid to keep your website nimble: uncompressed images, in-line videos, excessive page length, and superfluous animations.

To reduce your page load times, start by keeping your pages short and to the point—fewer sections means less content to load. Limiting use of videos, GIFs, and other animated media can also keep things more efficient. 

Images should be compressed below 500 KB with a width of 1500px to 2500px whenever possible, while using .webp images for the quickest results. Third-party image editing and compression software can help with this, or use a free online image resizer. 

3. Mobile-friendly design

A mobile-friendly website means your content is easy to use, read, and navigate on a smartphone or tablet. More than half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, so your website needs to work just as well on your customer’s phone as it does on your laptop. 

Most website builders include a responsive layout for your website, rather than a separate mobile version of all site pages. Responsive layouts adapt to screen size automatically without forcing the user to zoom in or turn their phone sideways for a better view. While you can edit the mobile layout of a page specifically in the editor, you don’t have to worry about maintaining two independent sites. 

Responsive sites handle much of the heavy lifting, including touchscreen navigation and button sizing, but these formatting tips can keep your website mobile friendly:

• Keep your pages shorter for a better mobile experience (often under 5MB).

• Avoid overly small or large font sizes. 

• Double-check the ordering of copy, buttons, and other elements when the site switches to a mobile view. 

For example, your “Book an Appointment" CTA button might look great on desktop, but it won’t drive many clicks if it’s accidentally covered by an image or text on mobile.

4. Clear next steps and direction

Once a visitor lands on your website, the goal is to keep them there. Build your website to create engaged traffic that reads your content and acts on it. 

There’s more at play here than consumer psychology. A flashy animation or a brightly colored button can help attract eyeballs, but it’s not going to be enough to turn a landing into a lead for your business.

Similar to site navigation principles, it’s important to make it as easy as possible for a potential customer to take the action that you want. There should be no confusion about what you do, what you offer, and what you want the user to do with the information when they land on your site.

Say you sell bags of batch-roasted coffee. Make sure the price and the “add to cart” button are clearly visible and prominently displayed toward the top of your page. If you’re a therapist offering intro sessions, you want your calendar availability and booking button to be similarly noticeable.

This means not all links on your site should be displayed equally. If you need a hand crafting your next call to action (CTA), Squarespace compiled more than 30 CTA examples and best practices.

5. Useful content that answers visitors’ questions

A standard website should have a homepage, about us page, contact page, and products or services pages. Many websites may also include a blog, testimonials, or a portfolio. These pages all have unique content needs and serve distinct purposes on your site.

The key is to have your page content match the intent of the page as closely as possible. For example, your Contact Us page shouldn’t include an essay about your business philosophy or how you got started. Visitors want to find out how and when to contact you, or potentially send a message to you directly on the page.

At a minimum, useful site content is accurate, up to date, and at a reading level that’s easy to follow. If your coffee shop no longer offers that exclusive Colombian roast that’s prominently on your homepage, your customers will be disappointed when they arrive at the counter. An accountant’s blog post about 2026 tax code changes needs to be accessible to readers that don’t know the ins and outs of bookkeeping.

Consider this golden rule: identify what the reader wants to know when they land on this page, then target your content to that answer and cut as much fluff as possible. 

6. Effective and consistent design

At the simplest level, visual consistency should be the goal for your website and for your brand. The color palette, fonts, typography, and images should feel uniform and compatible across your pages.

A good website template does a lot of this for you, but several choices you make can matter as much as a good site layout and color scheme. For example, product photos, branded logos, and other images throughout the site should speak the same language. You want every element of your site to feel like a cohesive brand message.

Overall, you want to ensure that your site content is readable and well-spaced. A cluttered layout or an unexpected wall of text can undo the structure of a well-designed website.

7. Clear and transparent trust signals

A good website gives every user a legitimate reason to trust what they see. This starts with accurate contact details and digestible information about who you are and what you do.

Client testimonials, or product ratings and reviews if you're selling physical goods online, add social proof and increase confidence during the consideration phase. If you have industry credentials or credibility indicators, such as a state licensure or advanced degree, these are also important to display and verify.

Learn more about using client testimonials in your marketing strategy to build trust.

8. Optimized to be found everywhere

A good website should be discoverable everywhere, and that starts with search engine optimization (SEO). A reliable website builder handles your sitemap, robots.txt, technical SEO, and some elements of structured data for you automatically, but won’t be enough to cover your entire SEO strategy.

To make sure your website can be found in organic search and AI-generated results, start by including keyword phrases in your page titles, meta tags, and URLs. Tools like Google Search Console or other third-party platforms can assist with finding the right terms to inform your keyword optimization.

If you’re a brick-and-mortar business, a Google Business Profile that links to your website is also a must-have for map placements and local SEO.

Discover more tips to improve your on-page SEO and prepare your website for AI search.

9. Accessibility for every visitor

An accessible website is designed and coded in a way that remains functional for users of all abilities or disabilities. A good website builder covers most of the key fundamentals for you, but there are several choices that you can make to keep your website accessible.

Descriptive alt text for all images on your website helps vision-impaired visitors understand what’s pictured. Alt text is a short written description of an image that tools like screen readers use to describe what an image is about. Good alt text is accurate and clear, not stuffed with keywords for SEO.

Logical heading structure with clear H1, H2, and H3 tags also helps screen readers parse your content correctly, while helping search engine crawlers better understand your content, too.

Choose a color palette with enough contrast between text and background so visitors can read your content easily. This is especially important for text over images or colored backgrounds, where light gray text on a white background, or similar low-contrast combinations, can be hard to read. Check that product photos, logos, and other visual elements stay legible against your site’s background on both desktop and mobile screens.

Don’t treat accessibility like a compliance checkbox. An accessible website is a way to reach more customers and make sure that your business can serve everyone that walks through the door, virtual or otherwise. 

10. Visible security that builds trust

Every professional website needs a baseline of security to keep visitor data safe. While the technical details can be complex, these security standards are often handled automatically for you when you use a reliable website builder.

For starters, people look for the padlock icon in their browser’s address bar and a URL that starts with HTTPS. These trust signals are powered by an SSL certificate, which encrypts the connection between your site and your audience.

Maintaining these elements can help ensure visitors feel confident from the moment they land on your page. Without them, browsers may flag your site with safety alerts, which can quickly drive away potential visitors. 

Build a good website for your business

By following these fundamentals, anyone can build a beautiful website that helps their business succeed online. Treat these fundamentals as a formula instead of a checklist. All the parts work together to make your website genuinely good and worth visiting.

Once you're ready to turn these principles into a reality, Squarespace's design tools are here to help you get started.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good website?

A good website makes it easy for visitors to understand who you are, what you offer, and what to do next. Clear navigation, focused copy, strong visuals, mobile-friendly design, and an obvious call to action all help visitors find what they need and take the next step.

How long should a website take to load?

Your website should load in 3 seconds or less to be considered fast. Keeping your pages short and targeted is a great first step to keeping load times down. Large images, videos, and animations can slow down a page, so optimize media and test your site on both desktop and mobile to catch performance issues before they cost you visitors.

How often should a website be updated?

Update your website whenever information changes, especially pricing, products, services, business hours, and contact details. Beyond those essential updates, review your site regularly to make sure the content still reflects your business and gives visitors accurate information. As a rule of thumb, a monthly audit of your website can help keep content fresh. 

Do I need a professional designer, or can I build a good website myself?

You can build a professional website yourself using a website builder, website templates, or AI tools. Consider hiring a web designer when you have a more complicated site or need more expertise in areas like user experience, branding, accessibility, or SEO.

How much should a website cost?

Website costs depend on how you build it and what features you need, including your website plan, domain, ecommerce tools, and any professional design services. Start with the features your website needs to accomplish its main goal, then add functionality as your business grows.