“Good Design is Good Business”
Thomas J Watson, IBM
It goes without saying that you want to stand out from the crowd and create an impression. Your website should target the right market in the right way to get your visitors to take the required action.
No matter how good your product or service, if your website is not up to scratch you can miss out on good orders and clients.
A professional web designer and developer will bring you that and more. Here is what you should be looking for.
1. Credibility
A professional web design gives visitors the right impression of your business. Your website is your global spokesperson, many times the first point of contact for your prospective clients, it needs to be right. A good web designer will research well in order to design for your audience and consider them at all stages.
2. Brand Consistency
The look and feel should be consistent throughout all pages, allowing your brand to communicate in the right way to your target market. The web design should support your brand and tell your story in the right way. Colour and design elements should work together to provide this support.
3. User friendly Design
Your website should be easy to use and navigate, not something that your visitors will leave because they can’t find what they want. Good user interfaces (UI) and user experiences (UX) are vital to the success of your website. Simple to use means simple to buy. A good flow and calls to action in the right place mean success.
5. A Content Strategy
Everybody needs a content strategy. Content should be well written and when it is, it will automatically contain the right keywords. Similar content should be linked together. Content needs to be structured correctly so it is sharable on social media.
Useful read: Google loves good content.
5. Accessibility & Security
Your website should be accessible to all, for example non text items like photos should contain descriptions for partially sighted users, describing the contents for screen readers.
Security breaches are a risk for content management systems. WordPress is one of the safest but measures need to be taken to protect your website. Keeping you safe now and in the future.
6. Compliance
Your website should conform to modern web standards and WordPress themes should pass the theme check standards. Code needs to be carefully constructed with attention to detail. A well constructed site will reflect in the user interface too, helping to convert your visitor to a customer.
7. SEO
Getting ranked well in search engines is important. Search engine optimisation should be built into the code, structure and content of your website from the ground up. This forms the building blocks to stand you in good stead with SEO. The internal linking structure is key and this needs to be set up correctly from the start, encouraging the user to click through your content.
8. Rigorous Testing
Your website needs to render correctly across multiple web browsers, such as Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. Then render across the mobile operating systems including iOS, Android and Windows Phone. It needs to be thoroughly tested before launch to ensure your users get the best experience however and wherever they access your website.
9. Mobile Responsive Design
Your website design should be mobile responsive and adapt to screen size, allowing your visitors the optimum viewing experience on every device from the largest TV screen to the smallest smart phone. Website owners often only focus on the desktop and ask for things that will never work on a mobile, so this needs to be explained and alternatives considered.
10. Your Freedom
This is a key point. You have a business to run. Hiring a professional designer and developer will allow you to use your time to do what you do well. The investment will be worth it in the end.
Conclusion
In summary, there is a lot to consider and it takes years of experience to design and develop a website properly. Anyone can cobble together a website but will it hit the spot, engage your visitors and grow your business?
