Things To Consider When Designing A Website

Designing a new website is a big decision for any business, regardless of size. After all, your website represents your brand in the digital world—the place where current and potential customers visit to gain a better insight and understanding about your business and your brand.

When done right, your website also acts as a lead-generating machine. It helps ensure web traffic is turned into quantifiable conversions. Unfortunately, if you miss the mark and do not follow web design essentials, you will be dealing with never-ending fixes and tweaks that will require both time and money.

So how do you ensure you don’t end up with an underwhelming website that won’t match the vision you have in mind? Start by making sure you keep the following important factors in mind when designing your website:

Primary Users

While this can seem like a no-brainer, you would be surprised to know that countless websites have been completed without appropriate user profile analysis. If you want to create a website that meets the requirements of your target audience, you first need to identify the people you would like to target.

It is common for a business to have multiple primary user groups. Before working with a web development company, you need to correctly identify and narrow down your user audiences, why they come to your website, and how you can design your site to ensure they will have a seamless experience.

Mobile-First

With a staggering 51% of global web traffic coming from mobile devices, it would be unwise not to make mobile-first a top priority. It is also crucial that you make sure your web design is optimized for how logos, texts, images, and other elements look on small screens.

Nowadays, it’s safe to assume the majority of your visitors will access your website using a mobile phone or tablet. Check with your web developers if they are familiar with sensory, adaptive, and mobile-first designs—each considered a necessity when creating a website for mobile users.

Call to Action (CTA)

Simply put, a call to action is a question or statement designed to motivate your visitors to do something. For instance, you can ask your visitors to follow you on your social media channels or purchase the products or services you are offering. As a rule of thumb, it would be ideal to ensure every page of your website has at least one CTA.

It is also crucial that your website visitors can easily complete your suggested actions by clicking on a button. For example, if your CTA says, “Download our eBook here” they should be instantly taken to the download link. Broken or complicated CTAs can leave your visitors feeling frustrated, resulting in a high web page bounce rate.

Scalability

When creating a website, never make the mistake of creating one designed to only meet your current needs. When designing your website, it would be ideal to factor in the future. Too often, many spend a huge amount of money on a website only to realize later on that they won’t allow new functions and features to be added.

That said, when designing your website, make sure you keep scalability at the top of your priority list. Basics like avoiding single points of failure are crucial if you want a website that will meet your business requirements for years to come. You also need to ensure your website won’t get compromised if one thing goes wrong.

Budget

Before finalizing your website design, there is one important factor you need to consider—your budget. On average, a bespoke website design project can cost you between $10,000 to $15,000. The cost can increase if the project is complex or requires many pages.

Aside from website design and development, you also need to factor in additional services such as SEO or copywriting. Ideally, you need to have a budget in mind before you meet with your chosen web design company so you can negotiate faster.

Final Thoughts

When working on your website design, you must have all the important factors covered. When you plan accordingly, you will have a better chance of achieving your desired outcome. You will also have a website that meets your needs and supports your business objectives.