By now, you should realize that you need to have a presence online if you hope to have your business found by customers. Practically everyone uses the internet to find what they’re looking for, and if you aren’t on there, you’re missing out.
However, it’s not enough just to have a website. It has to be aesthetically appealing as well as functional. You also have to offer people something of value so that they continue to come back to your site time and time again. Thus, if you are getting ready to design a new website, below are some of the top things you should consider.
1. Who Is Your Audience?
The most important thing you need to think about is your audience. Since your goal is to attract them to your site and keep them there (increasing your chances of making a sale), you need to know exactly what they are looking for. A website that sells clothing to pre-teens will look a lot different than one selling cleaning products to older adults—at least it should. Knowing your audience and what they are looking for will ensure that you incorporate the styles, text and other elements that they find appealing.
2. How Big Will Your Site Be?
After you have narrowed down your audience and figured out what they are looking for in a website, you’ll then need to determine how it will be structured. This is when you will create a site map, and it’s helpful to lay out all the elements you’ll need, from the main page to landing pages to other pages you might need. Things you’ll want to consider adding to your site include:
- An About Us page
- Product pages
- A Checkout
- Contact information
These are some of the most basic pages you can add to your site. What information you want to include will depend on your business and how much you want to share with your audience. You may also decide to add a blog, have a place where people can subscribe to your newsletter or a page that highlights current sales and specials.
3. What Content Will You Be Offering?
This is a biggie. Content is what draws people to your site and gets you ranked on search engine lists, but it has to be done correctly. Too much, and people will feel overwhelmed and move on. Not enough, and they’ll feel like they aren’t getting the full picture. Not only that, but your content has to be presented in the right way. You don’t want your site to look cluttered or dated.
Creating content for your site is a full-time job, and the trends and what people are looking for are constantly changing. Thus, to stay up to date with the latest information and ensure that your information is being presented in a way that is appealing to customers, you might consider working with a professional web design company, such as Connective Web Design. Not only will they be able to make your content look good, but they’ll also be able to structure your site so that it’s user friendly and encourages people to visit more often. This can reduce a lot of your stress and increase your bottom line.
Don’t Forget About Images!
The content on your page goes beyond text and should also include images. In fact, depending on what you offer, you might consider using more images than text. Audiences have a fairly short attention span, so if you can get your message across with an image instead of text, this could work to your advantage.
If you can get your message across with a video, you might consider using these as well. It’s even faster for customers to get their information in this form, and it may encourage them to keep coming to your site to see what you have to offer.
4. Make Your Brand Visible
One of the reasons you are creating a website is so that you can promote your brand. To achieve that goal, you need to make sure it is visible and appears on every page. It’s also a good idea to have a color scheme and make it consistent across your entire site.
Your brand and logo are how people recognize you, and the more they see it, the more they will associate it with what you have to offer. Putting this on your site ensures that people see it often.
5. Your Site Should be Easy to Use
As mentioned, audiences don’t have a long attention span. They expect to get instant results, and they don’t want to click through a lot of pages to find what they are looking for. Thus, when it comes to designing your new website, it’s important that your site is easy to use.
This means that customers should be able to quickly and easily navigate from one page to another, they should be able to use a search feature to find exactly what they are looking for, and the checkout process should be as fast as possible.
Your website should also load quickly on laptops, desktops and mobile devices, and it should be laid out in a way that makes it easy for people to read. Knowing who your audience is and what they are looking for will help with this task and ensure you create a site that is something they want to visit more than once.