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Here's something I've thought about a lot in regards to site design:
A good website is one that achieves the goals you've set for it.
A lot of site developers will do all sort of fancy stuff (including making a beautiful website that has clear calls to actions, appropriate funnels, etc), but that doesn't do anything for the site owner's end goals.
A few examples of 'bad' site design that did pretty well nonetheless: POF.com. The original site was a graphic design nightmare, but made the guy that built and maintained it (by himself) high 7-figures of profit annually. Another is a site I can't mention. It looks awful, with weird GIF animations, etc., but nets its owner millions annually in sales. A final site is one for a gas and oil contractor I know. The owner has 6 customers, but yet does $100m+ annually. A better site would do him no good. The site is there just to show that he exists.
This is an excellent summary.
I would add choose the right goal or goals.
If you choose too many goals for the website, the design can be cluttered and lose its effectiveness. Think about the websites you may have seen in the past that have 12 different calls to action on the homepage.
Buy my book, hire me to speak, check out my blog, follow us on Facebook, sign up for our newsletter, call now, listen to my podcast, watch this video, tell your friends, let's chat, have you seen our t-shirts?
If you're selling an HR service, that many calls to action will lead to less action being taken on the site. Keep it simple.
Alternatively, choosing the wrong goal might be something like trying to get your website to close the sale for you. I'm not saying it can't be done, but in the B2B HR space, I imagine people want to talk to someone before they're ready to pull out their credit card. If that's true, a bunch of buy now buttons on your website wouldn't be nearly as helpful as just having your phone number showing up clearly.
Lastly, a good website loads fast. The faster the better. I mentioned this because usually when you add more and more automation or fancy bells and whistles to a Wordpress website you tend to slow it down. Which again means less people will be taking the actions you want them to take on your website.