Designing a website: what you need to consider

More and more businesses are starting up and as they do so they know that the best way to engage with potential clients in today’s market is by getting online. Many though don’t quite know where to start. What do you need to think about? What are the key things to get right straightaway in order to get you noticed over the competition? This month we take a quick look at the key elements to take into account when you are considering a new (or redesigned) business website.

1.Getting your audience’s attention

The key to converting interest to sales is engaging with your audience quickly and keeping their attention. The design of your website should be clear and easy to navigate and its content and approach tailored to match your product or service and the audience you want to target. If your brand is aimed at a young audience using a tone and content that an older audience will relate to is not going to get you very far and vice versa. Defining your brand will be the first step in deciding how to best engage with your audience.

2.Call to action

Giving your potential customers quick and easy access to ways of getting in touch with you is key to converting a lead into an actual sale. If you have a social media presence linking it to your site can also help to keep you at the top of customers’ minds as they browse through your site.

3.Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

This is not just a buzzword. It is a critical element of good website design and content to keep your site at the top of search engine results and therefore one of the first that potential customers will see when they hit ‘search’. Targeted words and phrases related to your business are fundamental to staying at the top of the list of competitors.

4.Mobile friendly

More and more searches are being undertaken on mobile phones or tablets. If your website is not optimised for mobile devices then you could be missing out on a big slice of your target market.

5.Flexibility

Many businesses make the mistake of designing a fantastic website then forgetting about it. For a website to work well and do what you want it to do (i.e. drive sales) you need to regularly update it, bringing fresh ideas and content to it which will not only keep it relevant for search engines to find but will also show your customers that you are keeping on top of the latest ideas and trends related to your business.

6.Get an expert to help

Back in the day when websites were new and not many businesses had them it didn’t matter as much if they were not very sophisticated. That doesn’t cut it any more. Engaging a professional website designer may seem like an upfront cost you don’t need, but it will save you significant amounts of money and time in the long run. Get it right from the beginning and your business is off to a flying start. The added bonus of course is that you don’t have to worry about design, content, SEO, mobile optimisation, and all these other buzzwords which may not mean much to you, and let you concentrate on developing all the other parts of your business.

Feel free to drop us a line at hello@makemelocal.com if you feel like you could do with some help, or just a chat and a bit of advice.