Top 15 Things to Consider While You Set Out to Design a Website

Building a good website can be a great investment for your business regardless of whether its small or large. This is because it acts as a gateway to the online world where potential buyers come to see what you offer and also gain an understanding about your identity. A website, when created in the right procedure, can transform the regular traffic into significant conversions.

When done without proper planning and knowledge of the current web marketing technologies, a website can lead to a recurrent cycle of fixes and modifications which can cost you a good deal of money and also time. To avoid finishing up with a disappointing design for your website, you need to take care of various things other than the coding integrity, navigation, and website appearance and functionality.

The following looks at 15 things to give thought to while starting out to design a successful website.

1. Outlining the Purpose of the Website

This should be the first thing to think about when beginning your journey to design a profitable website. Ensure you know the actual reason for the existence of your site. Ask questions such as What am I designing the site for? What will I gain from the site?

Knowing the answer to these questions can help create tangible goals which can be measured in the long run to know what your website has achieved. It’s pointless to start a website if you don’t understand its main goals.

2. Selecting a Domain

When it comes to choosing a name for your domain, ensure it’s simple to remember (for the likes of Google, Amazon, and Yahoo) and not easy to misspell. Additionally, see to it that it communicates more about your brand. This can be very important for SEO purposes.

Choosing a straightforward domain name and reflecting the voice of your brand through it can increase the chances of being found in the top results of Google, MSN, or other search engines.

3. Identifying Your Branding

Before setting out a website, this is one of the most important things to be given thought to — branding. Your logo should be designed professionally and placed in a position that every visitor can see when on your website. This gives a clear image of the uniqueness of your brand and catches a person’s eye every time they scan your site.

In addition, ensure to place the logos on other items such as advertisements (print), packaging, and etcetera. This creates a memorable and blended experience for your brand to all your consumers.

4. Determining your Color Scheme

A group of colors that you intend to use during web development can have a greater impact on your audience. Colors have different meanings and are thought to kindle responses such as frustration, happiness, love, and etcetera. When you plan to use different colors, therefore, you need to consider your branding, audience, and niche.

Take your time to research online about various colors that would make your website a great place to visit.

5. Adding Call to Action

You need to implement a call to action in your site which should refer visitors to contacting your business. This can be by signing up, login in, or via email or phone. You can also consider adding buttons or links such as “Call Us Today” or “Contact Us Now” for a more friendly relationship with your visitors. This is one of the best ways to determine how interactive customers are with your website.

6. Including a Blog

Reserving a section for an active blog within your website is a great consideration. This keeps your clients always updated about various things such as the events related to the business, new products and services, information on how to buy products, and platform updates. This can improve communication and desire to use your website.

Moreover, consumers will gain trust in your brand due to the engaging, helpful, and fresh content making your business rise above your competitors.

7. Being Compatible with Different Browsers

There exist many different browsers today and the number is increasing steadily with the quick advances in technology. While setting out to build a good website, you need to make sure that your site is accessible on all browsers even the outdated versions. Ignoring this consideration may cause you to lose a great number of customers which can slow the development and growth of your business.

8. Fast Loading Time

Nothing annoys internet users than a website taking ages to load. This can completely turn away all your customers. To prevent this problem, you need to test your site in order to locate any errors leading to slow loading speeds.

Testing is done preliminary to the official day of your website release. Soon after the launch, ensure also to evaluate the speed of your site to improve the user retention and experience. You don’t want your competitors to be ahead of you just because their sites are offering short loading times.

9. Including Testimonials

You should consider including a section within your website to define the most important testimonials from your clients. This is one of the greatest ways to demonstrate your business products, skills, and commitment to consumers.

If you don’t have any testimonials as yet, feel free to ask one of your loyal clients for one and ensure to include them online on your website. This increases the likelihood of having new clients.

10. Security of the Site

This is necessary to prevent the common threats related to security such as data theft, viruses, and malware. Security of high standards is needed particularly when your site is dealing with customer sensitive data including passwords and online transactions.

For the threats based on the internet browsers, ensure to add SSL certification for maximum security. Your site should also be checked regularly for malware, virus, and DOS attacks.

11. Adding Captcha Testing

While developing a website, you can benefit a great deal by adding captcha tests. These are added above the submit button of every form to prevent spamming when sending a form. The use of these tests is to tell the actual difference between machines (robots) and human beings. Adding them ensures that only human beings can utilize the resources in your site This can save you great money and time.

12. Balancing Your Site’s Budget

Before laying a foundation for your web development plans, you need to consider the amount of money available for the entire project. For a common project, an amount above $10K and not exceeding $15K on average is needed.

For complex websites, the amount can be higher If you wish your site to be designed with a template, the prices are lower. The budget is much higher when you need other services such as SEO application, copywriting, and etcetera.

13. Making the Site Mobile Friendly

Your site should be responsive to all devices including tablets and smartphones. This is called mobile first design and should be taken as a matter with great importance. Ensure HTML elements such as videos, images, and logos are rendered correctly in mobile devices. The design should also be adaptive and sensory. Ignoring this consideration contributes to the unsuccessfulness of your website.

14. Connecting with Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites are one of the most significant aspects of marketing through the Internet. Integrating your site with social sites can help promote your business to a greater standing. Through social media, consumers can give product reviews, read the latest news concerning your business, and promote your branding. Videos and pictures about different products are posted on sites such as Linkedln, Twitter, FB, and Pinterest.

15. Implementing the SEO

This is unavoidable based on the current web design technique. You need to ensure that keywords are placed correctly in all your site’s web pages. Also, ensure all links are active. These practices can make your site searchable by the search engines.

Taking care of the above web design tips can help your site stand out among the most feared competitors.