When designing and developing a website, there are numerous important things to take into consideration.
Whether you are a web developer or simply the marketing manager for a business, it is important that you pay attention to these essential tips that can help you create a website that is functional, aesthetically pleasing, and provides a positive experience for your visitors. To help you get started, we have outlined 10 things you should consider when designing and developing your website.
Define your goals
What is the purpose of the website? Is it to raise money, inform
visitors about an event, or influence policy? Having clearly defined your goals
will help you make decisions about what content should be included on the site
and what features are necessary for achieving those goals.
Know your audience
Whom are you trying to reach? What kind of message do they respond
to? What is their pain point? Knowing these things will help you create a
compelling website that effectively communicates your values and mission.
Choose the right platform
Many different types of web platforms serve different needs; from content management systems (CMS) like WordPress or Drupal, which allow users with minimal technical knowledge to build their websites, to e-commerce sites like Shopify or Squarespace, which can sell products online. If you're selling products, for example, an e-commerce platform may be more appropriate than a CMS like WordPress because it has more built-in features for managing inventory and payment processing; if you're providing information about an event or cause, a CMS might be better because it allows users to easily update information.
Responsive design
Responsive Design is the ability of a website to adjust the layout
to fit any screen size. It is important for websites because if you do not have
a responsive site, your visitors may not be able to see all of your content, or
perhaps they might not be able to use some of the features that are available
on your website.
Navigation
Navigation is an essential part of any website. It helps users
find what they are looking for, and it is one of the most important elements in
user experience design.
It is important to consider how users will navigate your site when
you are developing it, especially if you want your visitors to stay on your
website for more time.
SEO friendly
Search engines are the main way people find information online today, and there's no escaping the fact that you need to have a good strategy in place if you want to succeed in business. It is important to remember that there are hundreds of millions of websites out there competing for attention, so it is no longer enough to simply create a great-looking website without considering how search engines will use it. You need to ensure that your site is as easy as possible for search engines to crawl and understand what it contains.
User Experience Design and User Interface Design
User experience design focuses on how users interact with your site while user interface design focuses on how users see it. Both are extremely important when designing your site because both affect how people feel about using it. Good UX design makes people feel comfortable using your site while bad UX design makes them feel like they are spending too much time trying to figure out what they need.
Original content
If you have original, relevant and engaging content in place, then
it will be easier for search engines to index your pages and provide them in
search results.
There are two types of original content:
Original text: This includes your product descriptions, articles, blog posts and other content that you create specifically for your site.
Original images: This includes photographs, illustrations and
other visual representations of your products or services that you upload to
your website.
The best way to create original text is by researching what people
want to read about in your niche area.
Security features
When it comes to designing and developing a website, the security features should not be ignored. It is a fact that people look for websites that are secure and have better security features than others.
Security features are categorized into two types:
1. Technical security features
2. Non-technical security features
Technical security features are applied directly to the code of
the website, such as password protection, encryption, SSL and firewalls.
Non-technical security features include things like registration
forms, disclaimers and links to privacy policies.
Contact information
Contact information can be used in many ways like providing
customer support, responding to queries, and so on. The contact details should
be displayed clearly so that visitors know how they can reach out to the
company if needed.
There are different ways in which you can add contact information on your website:
Contact us page
If you have a lot of information on your website and want to keep it organized, then the contact us page is the best option for you. This section of your website can include details about how people can reach out to you through email or phone calls. You can also provide social media links such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn where people can get in touch with you easily.
Social media accounts
If you have social media accounts such as Facebook or Twitter, then it is better to provide them on your site as well so that people know how they can interact with you online as well as offline. You can also use these accounts as an added touch point for your business so that people get additional information about what is happening behind the scenes at your company or organization.
Domain name
The domain name is your brand identity and it should be unique, interesting and memorable. It is what people will remember and use to navigate back to your site, so it must be relevant to your business.
The most popular TLDs (Top-Level Domains) are .com, .net, .org, .info and .biz. These are called generic top-level domains (gTLDs). They represent all types of businesses and organizations around the world.
When choosing a domain name, there are several factors to consider:
Length: Short names are easier to type than long ones and can be
more memorable because they take up less space in the mind.
Memorability: A memorable domain name helps visitors find your
website easily when they search for it online.
Branding: The first thing you should do when designing or developing your website is to figure out what your brand is all about. Your brand is what makes you unique, so you must make it stand out among other companies that are offering the same products or services
Once you've figured out what your brand looks like, you'll want to
make sure that everything on your website reflects that image. If possible, try
looking at other websites in your industry and see how they have done it. This
will give you an idea of what works well and what doesn't work so well with
other sites in the same category as yours.
Web hosting
Web hosting is a service that provides the platform for websites to be viewed on the internet. In simple terms, it is a service that allows users to upload their website files and makes them accessible to everyone over the internet. The web-hosting providers offer different types of packages such as shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated server hosting. You can read more about; Types of web hosting plans.
Final Word
Hopefully, these tips and considerations will bring you closer to your goal of creating a professional and effective website that serves your business effectively.
