What are the five golden rules of a website?

Five rules that make websites work: 1) fast and mobile-first, 2) clear message and navigation, 3) strong trust signals (proof), 4) consistent design system, 5) obvious conversion path (CTA and contact). Most underperforming sites fail on one of these: they are slow, unclear, untrustworthy, inconsistent, or hard to act on. Nail the basics and you can beat sites that look nice but create friction.