Websites succeed online every day. You can have a super successful website too if you are ready to do what it takes. A great way to a great website is to study some of the most successful websites.
Since its creation back in 1998, Google has become one of the most successful businesses in the world. Google’s market capitalization is $556 billion which is more than Microsoft’s, Amazon’s, and Berkshire Hathaway’s.
Google is many things. Most importantly Google is still the best search engine in the world. Google.com is simple. The website looks simple. It is simple to use.
What can you learn from the Google website?
When you design a website for your business consider this “Do one thing well”. People go to google.com to search for things online. Google has done a great job over the years to keep the interface of their website simple. Resist the temptation to over clutter your website.
YouTube
When you think of online video you think of Youtube. People love to be entertained on youtube.com They love to learn and laugh watching Youtube videos.
The first Youtube video was uploaded in April 2005. 1.3 billion people use the website. 300 hours of video is uploaded every minute.
Video is one of the most consumed content online. There is no better example of a website that does one thing well than youtube.com.
What can you learn from the Youtube website?
Make sure that your website always works. Even today with all the advances in Internet technology, providing video content is difficult. Youtube has figured out video content delivery. Their service is always on. It looks simple. You go to Youtube, you click on a video and it plays. It is that simple. Actually, video content delivery is everything but simple. But, Youtube made it work. Over the years, Youtube outperformed all of their competitors. Yes, they even outperformed the mighty Google. Google bought Youtube for $1.65 billion in November of 2006.
You have a great website if you outcompete your biggest competitor.
It is expected that Facebook will reach 2 billion users this year. We all have an idea what makes Facebook popular. But, what about the website? What makes the Facebook website so effective?
What can you learn from Facebook?
The Facebook website is super reliable. Even with over 1 billion users, facebook.com is still one of the best performing websites out there. No matter what time of day you go to the Facebook website, it loads fast. It simply works. When you are looking for something it is easy to find. When you want to interact with a friend it is easy. If there is one thing that describes the Facebook website experience it is ease of use.
If you want a successful website, make sure that it is easy to use.
Facebook is a great website because of its:
- User-friendly design
- Simple interface
- Reliability
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is one of the oldest and largest user-generated websites in the world. It is often criticized for including less than accurate information, the Wikipedia website continues to succeed.
What can you learn from the Wikipedia website?
One of the reasons Wikipedia had so much success is ease of editing. If you want a website that relies on tons of new, user-generated content, you better make sure that editing is a breeze. Build a website for your business that is easy to edit. Make sure that you use a platform like WordPress. WordPress allows for easy web page editing.
Yahoo!
With all the bad news surrounding the Yahoo brand, it is still one of the most popular websites in the world. Yahoo still has about 1 billion monthly active users. Yahoo is one of the first stars of the Internet and it continues to be a factor.
What can you learn from Yahoo’s website?
Even though many experts will tell you that Yahoo is in a downward spiral it still made $2.83 billion in advertising revenues. The reason Yahoo continues to make billions in advertising is because of their traffic numbers. With over 1 billion active users they are still an advertising powerhouse.
If there is one thing you can learn from Yahoo, it is the importance of traffic. Website traffic solves many problems. Focus on growing website traffic with everything you do.
Amazon
Since it was founded in 1994, Amazon has become the most successful online retailer. Amazon has over 240 million active users, of which 54 million are Amazon Prime customers.
What can you learn from Amazon’s website?
Ask your web designer to help you with conversion optimization. Amazon’s conversion rate is 13% which is extremely high. The conversion rate is 74% among Amazon’s Prime customers. If you know anything about website conversion, you know that 74% is amazing.
Always look at how you can increase the conversion rate of your own website.
Live
Live.com is the search engine behind Microsoft. Live.com is formerly known as Bing.
What can you learn from Live.com?
There are some very successful products behind live.com such as Hotmail. Offering a service visitors want will help you succeed. Even though that as a search engine, live.com is far from being a market leader, services like Hotmail, Skype, Onedrive, and Outlook help it succeed.
In a little over 10 years, Twitter has become one of the most recognized brand names in the world. More than 300 million people use Twitter each month.
What can you learn from the Twitter website?
Twitter created a more efficient way of communication. It is true that a tweet is more superficial than an email, but it is also a lot faster. If your website can simplify a process for its users, it will be successful.
Instagram allows anyone to take a photo and make it look extraordinary. Add the social component and you have a winner. Instagram made photo sharing simple with the added benefit of a social network. The rest is history.
What can you learn from Instagram?
Ask your web designer for a simple website design. Allow website users to do what they need to do in a simple manner. Instagram also makes sharing easy. Give your website users a simple way to share content. Make sure that your posts and pages are easy to share on your website.
With its 234 million users, Reddit is one of the most recognized websites. Reddit has benefited a lot from the demise of Digg.
What can you learn from the Reddit website?
If you are in the game, your website can benefit from the failure of your competitors. Many Digg users migrated over to Reddit. If you are a known alternative to your competition, you can benefit from their bounced users.
photo credit: Nguyen Vu Hung (vuhung) How to run an effective meeting via photopin (license)
