A website is your virtual store. So, creating a website for your business is basic in this digital era. 24/7 access, higher brand awareness, better consumer relationship, non-stop lead generation, and unlimited sales are some benefits of creating a website for your business. In short, a website is no less than a boon for your business.
However, if you are a new business owner, and want to build a website for your new business, it is not a good idea to jump directly into website development. There are several things that you must consider before starting with website development. Ignoring these crucial factors and proceeding to web designing can put your digital marketing strategy off track. Therefore, in this blog post, we are listing out 12 crucial things to consider before beginning with web designing and web development.
1. Know what you want to achieve
The truth is that many business owners build a website for the sake of building. They actually do not know what they want to make out of it. As a result, they fail to utilize their maximum potential. Therefore, it is crucial to set your goals before going for website creation.
In the business world, nothing is done without a purpose. You have a purpose, and to achieve the same you are building a website. Many people say gaining higher sales is their ultimate goal. Although it is the truth, such goals don’t help much. You should be more specific.
2. Research
You are new in your industry. You may not fully understand how the industry functions in the digital world. Doing in-depth research will help you to gather all the important information required to make crucial decisions. Moreover, you will understand what needs to be done and what is not needs to be avoided.
Also, make a list of all your competitors and do research on their website. See what changes they have incorporated into their website and what purpose they are fulfilling. If you find and a good aspect that is relevant to your business, then reflect it into your website without duplicating it. Note that you do not copy the content. Duplication of content is considered a black hat search engine optimization technique. Your web page can be penalized.
3. Know your target audience
You build a website for your potential customers, don’t you? So, it makes sense to know who your potential customers are, what keywords they use, what they like and what they don’t like beforehand so that it makes the whole process easy and confusion-free.
Knowing your target audience will help you to design a website that is more relevant to your potential customers. In short, it makes web design more effective and attractive. In addition to that, it also enhances your search engine optimization (SEO) and helps in converting visitors into customers.
4. Choose your domain name wisely
Your domain name is going to stay for a long period of time, so it makes sense to choose it wisely. Also, keep SEO in mind when selecting a domain name.
In the third point, we asked you to find out the keywords that your potential customers use to search your products or services. Try to use exact match domains. It will be one of the biggest plus points for your SEO campaign.
An exact match domain (EMD) is a website domain that includes keywords that you are trying to rank for. For example, if you are a plumber and “top plumbers” is the main keyword you want to rank for, then “topplumbers.com” is your exact match domain. Choosing EMD gives more power to your overall SEO.
However, with more power comes more responsibility. Just by opting EMD will not rank your website high on search engine results page. You need to go for white hat on-page optimization and off-page optimization. If it is not possible to choose an EMD, go for a partial match domain (PMD).
In the end, content is the deciding factor. If you have high-quality content and proper SEO strategy in work, then your website will rank without EMD and PMD.
5. Set up sitemap
A website is like a building and a sitemap is its blueprint. So you should not build a website without a sitemap. It is a crucial element for your website. Since it is a file consisting of the list of web pages, it helps search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. to understand the structure of your website.
That is the reason why SEO experts suggest adding a sitemap. Note that search engines rank all your web pages, not just whole website. Including a sitemap helps search engines to find all your pages easily and effortlessly.
6. Finalize design and layout
Once you are done with research, you should have a rough idea of the design style you want to have in your site. This is the part where you should not copy your competitors. You should be unique and creative. Your aim should be of creating a website that becomes a part of users’ memory.
Using common or ordinary design and layout will not help you to grab the attention of the visitors. When you do not have the attention, how will you convert them? So, it makes sense to spend sufficient time on finalizing design and layout. Always remember, the design is one of the most important ingredients of a website that helps you to convert the website visitors.
7. Pick colour scheme
Colour schemes are more important than you think. It helps your visitors to remember your brand. Alright, let us take an example. If you think of “Vodafone,” what color comes to your mind? Red and white right? That is because this network uses red and white as their color scheme. And that is how the company is successful in creating a memory in the minds of people.
Pick the color schemes that match your logo. For example, if you have used green and black color in your logo, then use the same colors on your website. Do not use more than three colors. Using less than three colors will visibly integrate the website. A visitor should feel all the web pages and the parts of it are a part of a single entity.
8. Know that it takes time
One needs to undergo preparation before building a website. And preparation takes time. As a new business owner, if you are not aware of this fact, you can easily get frustrated and quit early. So, always keep in mind that these things take time.
How to get through this lengthy process? Organize the whole process. Divide the whole task into many subtasks and create a to-do list. This will give you the idea of how well the progress is going on, and how many other things are yet to done. You can take a break after completing a couple of tasks.
9. Branding
Irrespective of what business size you have, branding is something that you should not ignore. Along with the design, placement of your brand logo contributes to the overall website experience. So, if you don’t have a logo for your business yet, you should get one soon.
Professionally designed logos are always successful in catching the customer’s attention and provide a clear understanding of the brand’s unique voice. Choose a place on your website that is easily visible, for instance, upper left corner. This is the region from where a visitor starts to scan a website.
To improve the overall effect, use the logo on packing, ads, contact page, contact form, etc. Doing so will help you achieve an integrated and memorable brand experience.
10. Create content
Before you begin to build a website, you must create content for various regions of a website such as a homepage, service pages, contact page, about us page, case study page, and others. Content is the main ingredient for a website, SEO, and other digital marketing methods. Other than that, content will help you to convert visitors into customers. So make sure you are ready with high-quality fresh content.
11. Decide navigation
Navigation is an important aspect of a website. Make sure you have a pretty good idea about how the navigation of your website should be. This will save you time. Normally it is the navigation, that turns out to be a headache. When it comes to navigation keep these things in mind.
● Try to keep the navigation simple
● Make sure your navigation is predictable
● Complex navigation usually increase the bounce rate
12. Take professional help
These are the things that you need to do before creating a website. We have listed only some important ones out of many. Doing all these things is going to take a lot of time and energy. As a business owner, you might not have enough time and energy to spend on the things that you know less.
Therefore, It makes sense to take professional help of a web design company. Although it will cost you some money, you will get a highly professional, SEO ready, mobile ready, and a user-friendly website. Moreover, mistakes in web design are more likely to attract a Google penalty. Consequently, you may lose your search engine ranking before gaining.
