Choosing to invest in a new website is a big decision for any business, regardless of how big or little. Your website serves as the online face of your business, providing additional information about who you are and what you do to potential customers.
An efficient new website will function as a lead-generating machine, converting online traffic into quantifiable conversions. However, if you miss the mark, it could start a chain reaction that consumes your time and money in a never-ending cycle of corrections and fixes.
Most business owners are aware of the risks associated with website development projects. After all, we’ve all heard horror stories of companies creating websites, only to have them fall short of what was originally intended or fail to live up to expectations.
What steps can you take to avoid having a poor website design? And which website advice is most crucial to the success of your site?
We’ve done the job for you by studying the trends that high-performing websites follow and identifying the components, practices, and strategies that differentiate the top business websites from the bottom-performing ones.
Are you ready to approach website projects in a new way?
The following are the top 5 factors to consider when developing a website:
1. Identifying your primary users
Despite the fact that it would seem obvious, a surprising amount of website projects have been completed without carrying out a comprehensive user profile analysis. To create a website that meets their needs, you must first comprehend who your most important target audiences are and why they visit your site.
It’s common for a business to have multiple primary user groups.
For instance, a website for a medical practice would likely identify its patients as its target audience. However, internal healthcare professionals should also be counted among the website’s key users if they use it to update client information, schedule appointments, respond to inquiries from the public, and post updates.
Before contacting a website development company, it’s essential to identify your target user audiences, comprehend why they visit your website and consider how you may adjust it to better meet their wants.
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2. Creating your brand's aesthetic
Has the logo for your company recently undergone any changes? Is the color scheme of your branding giving off a dated or dreary impression? Even so, do you have a document outlining your visual identity tenets? Before spending money on website creation, all of these should be considered. If your branding is simple, consistent, and current, your website will seem better.
It’s important to remember that the website development team you select probably won’t handle the brand identification of your website. Therefore, it is your responsibility to show up to the table with your branding guiding principles.
If you’re having trouble starting your branding guidelines document, we recommend taking a look at these inspirational brand guide samples from some of the greatest companies in the world.
3. Concentrating on a mobile device
In 2022, no business should invest in a website that is not mobile-first. Neglecting responsiveness is one of the surest ways to impede the success of your website, as 51% of all web traffic worldwide comes from mobile devices. Make sure your design is optimized for how images, text, logos, and other features will appear on smaller displays as many of your users will access your website from a tablet or smartphone.
Your web development company should be knowledgeable about mobile-first design, sensory design, and adaptive design when creating a website with mobile users in mind.
4. Incorporate call-to-actions
Not including a call-to-action (CTA) on every page of a website is the single biggest hindrance to its functionality. What is a CTA? It’s a command or query that asks visitors to a website to perform a specific activity.
At the conclusion of a blog article, include a call to action encouraging readers to follow your business on social media, such as “Follow us on Facebook for more original gardening advice!”
As a general guideline, your website should have a CTA on every page.
Additionally, it’s critical to remember that customers should be able to click the CTA on your website immediately away and take the suggested action.
If your CTA says, “Download Our Brochure Here,” visitors should be able to click on the word “here” and be taken straight to the download page.
Users will become irritated with complicated CTAs or broken links, which will likely increase your website bounce rate (bad!).
5. Making your website's design flexible
Never build a website that is only there to meet your needs right now. When you are rebuilding your website, there is no better time to think about the future. Too often, after investing significant funds in the creation of a website, business owners learn a few months later that additional features have already been added that they cannot use.
As a result, we frequently advise on our website to put scalability at the top of your priority list.
Simple precautions like avoiding single points of failure (SPOF) are essential if you want your website to continue serving your needs for years to come.
Conclusion
By ensuring that their needs are met and the overall design supports their business objectives, business owners across all industries can increase their chances of a successful website project by keeping these 5Â considerations in mind.
